ZOOM BUSTERS

This is part one of a four-part series on breathing and stretching exercises (Zoom Busters) teachers and parents can use to help students refocus and stay motivated during virtual learning.

Today, we’re setting the stage and sharing how to set up yourself - and your students – up for success as you use these zoom busters.

WHAT DOES BREATHING WELL REALLY MEAN?

James Nestor’s book, Breath, presents us with a new way to look at the art and power of breathing. His book is very timely because many of us focused on breathing as a result of COVID.

Nestor shares techniques known in ancient cultures and acknowledged by science and medicine. He shares strategies to maximize breath and use it to relax and fuel the body in all of the right ways.

Breath helps people with breathing issues like asthma, COPD, and emphysema. Nestor’s recommendations can help people find immediate relief and long-term hope.

The book advocates nose breathing rather than mouth breathing, which may sound simple, but is super-impactful.

The discussions I had with my friend, Kellye Abernathy, about Breath began our journey to these episodes on breathing and stretching exercises for students. The book reminded us that the mind/body/brain connection is so important.

USE YOUR IMAGINATION

We all must be grounded in the reality of what virtual learning is - for everyone involved, being on a screen for hours on end can be difficult.

The environments students are in are very different than what we see on the little slice of the zoom screen. From living arrangements to siblings present, to parents working at home for their own jobs, it can be easy to picture our students having the same kind of environment and set-up that we do. But that’s not always the case.

It’s important to use our imaginations – and our empathy – and have grace with individuals. For:

Teachers to have grace with families – we don’t always know the configuration of a student's physical environment or how many distractions are present.

Parents to have grace with teachers – they are having to do things differently and may be teaching from home themselves. With many districts offering both virtual and face-to-face options, teachers are essentially being asked to do two jobs

Use your imagination and empathy to set the scene for a positive experience. Ask yourself what it is like to walk in their shoes? Go about working together based on that.

SETTING UP ZOOM BUSTERS FOR SUCCESS

Important things to remember:

Give students time to process verbal cues.

Make sure students learn the set-up for good posture before moving on to the exercises

Monitor students via your zoom screen, and teach them to self-adjust

Suggestions:

Give students the opportunity to name poses.

Have students create stretching/breathing exercises based on their own extracurricular activities (athletics, dance, band, chorus, etc.) and assign them a day to lead their own Zoom Busters. Involving them may help keep the snark to a minimum – when they know they’re going to eventually have their own turn, they might have more grace with the peers who are leading now.

ZOOM BUSTER POSTURE

Posture is SO important. It’s where you’ll start all the exercises.

Sit up straight

(Just like your Mom told you!)

Feet flat on the floor

Adaptations: flexed on stools, or on stool rungs, or even standing up. This is the foundation for sitting up straight.

Shoulders up, roll them back, drop them down

Chin level to the floor

Not lifted or down, and no tech-neck pose with chin & head jutted forward. This allows for full relaxation and lung capacity to be used.

Relaxed hands

ZOOM BUSTER TIP

Come up with a name to use as a verbal cue in the middle of lessons to have students reset to this posture. It can be done instantaneously and it gives them a different level of attention and focus.