The news site of Verona High School

The Fairviewer

The news site of Verona High School

The Fairviewer

The news site of Verona High School

The Fairviewer

Math Meditation

For the first three minutes of several of Mr. Mark Russo’s math classes, his students appear to be doing nothing.  They are actually meditating.

Seems a bit bizarre, but Mr. Russo is putting to the test his theory of meditation as a means for improving student behavior and attitude.

For almost two months, each of his Pre-Calculus classes has sat for three minutes before every math period in complete silence. After a week of this experiment, Mr. Russo had each class vote to continue or reject the daily mediation. With a vast approval, the meditations were put into the everyday routine of class.

Motivated by constantly seeing his students come into his classroom stressed and distracted, Mr. Russo implemented his meditation concept at the beginning of December. Through a course at Montclair State University, Mr. Russo learned about Contemplative Pedagogy. This is a learning technique that encourages teachers and students to recognize education and learning as holistic, focusing on the mind and body in a school setting.

“I believe education is more than just critical thinking,” said Mr. Russo. Inspired by new ways of thinking, Mr. Russo came up with the possibility to incorporate three minutes of meditation into everyday life to benefit himself in additon to his students.

Mr. Russo noticed that students strongly connected with the meditations early on. Although some classes have been observed to be more responsive than others, Mr. Russo saw a large improvement immediately. After the three minutes became a daily activity, students were calmer, more attentive to the “Do Now”, and more focused on the subject of as a whole.

Although a few students have been opposed to the meditations, Mr. Russo gives everyone the to opportunity to step out of the classroom during those first few minutes of class. However most students find that the three minutes have helped them in the classroom and outside of school as well.

“It makes switching from class to class much easier because it gives me time to reflect on the present subject,” said Junior Sarah Conboy. “I would definitely consider meditating before a race at my track meets.”

“Although I haven’t seen an improvement in my grade just yet, I can confidently say that the meditations have helped me focus, and the rest of my class seemed to be much more concentrated too,” said Sophomore Patrick Cummings.

Mr. Russo believes that the three minutes of time is not enough to take away from the learning during the period, but it is just enough time to make a difference.

“I am a firm believer that you can only implement practices that you are comfortable with,” said Mr. Russo. Although Mr. Russo admits to being “a bit uncomfortable in the beginning”, he suggests that teachers and students give meditation a chance.

Senior Lynn Keating strongly supports the meditations, “I take those three minutes very seriously. Who thought just three minutes could help me in so many ways!”

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