Working in the “no judgment zone”.
How one educator used mindfulness as a tool to empower children impacted by trauma.
Working in the “no judgment zone”.
How one educator used mindfulness as a tool to empower children impacted by trauma.
Esther Karin Mngodo
“To see them grow emotionally is just amazing,” she says. “Every year, I have one or two students that just seems to catch on and to do the right thing: grow and become successful members of our society.”
When long-time Florida educator Julie Smith saw a Facebook advertisement for the WE Teachers Award in her feed, she wasn’t sure if it was real. “You never believe these things when you see them on Facebook,” she recalls with a laugh. Especially, she adds, not an award for extraordinary teachers that comes with a $500 Walgreens gift card for classroom supplies.
Still, she decided to try her luck and enter by sharing a little about her accomplishments as an educator. She was announced as a winner not long after, but it wasn’t until she took her gift card to Walgreens and saw it clear at the checkout that she truly accepted the award as the real deal.
The WE Teachers Award came as a relief to Smith—an educator for over 20 years. Every year, the educator spends thousands of dollars from her own pocket buying classroom supplies, ranging from snacks to notebooks for her students. Of the benefits rendered from her prize winnings, she says, “Anything that takes away from the money I would spend from my own pocket, I say ‘thank you,’ for.”
At 50, Smith has built her career on empowering children through alternative education. Currently teaching kindergarten to Grade 3 at Ward-Highlands Elementary School in Reddick, Florida, over the years she’s had to learn how to cope with students who have endured a range of traumas—a skill that, while unfortunate to need in the classroom, she believes is crucial to have and hone.
On her worst days—complete with kicking, screaming and cussing—Smith has never considered changing careers. The payoff of watching students benefit from her presence in their life is something she wouldn’t trade for anything. “To see them grow emotionally is just amazing,” she says. “Every year, I have one or two students that just seems to catch on and to do the right thing: grow and become successful members of our society.”
Asked about a typical day in the classroom, the educator shares the story of a former student who had refused to address her by name, choosing to call her by a cuss word instead. Being the tenacious educator Smith is, she did not let this name game deter her from getting to the root of the child’s behavior and encouraging a positive change. “I kept working with him, and then one day I came to class and he said my name. My jaw fell on the floor,” she says. “Later, he came and said, ‘You know what, you are the first teacher I’ve ever had that didn’t just come in and criticize me all the time. You gave me a chance.’”
“I have a lot of success with it, because they do often feel judged.”
Moments like these, affirms the teacher, are what make her work meaningful. “I’m definitely not in it for the money … it’s these kids.”
Smith’s classrooms are what she calls “no judgment zones.” When students enter her class, they come with a clean slate, and the educator can see the children appreciate it. “I have a lot of success with it, because they do often feel judged.”
Smith explains how resources provided by WE Teachers, specifically the Mental Well-being Module, have helped her create this space and been beneficial to her teaching. Part of the WE Teachers program, the Mental Well-being Module, like all the free resources and training made available to teachers at no cost, helps educators address critical social issues with their class. And based on the results Smith has seen in her classroom, the lesson plans’ success lies in their unique nature.
Through the module’s lessons, students learn to understand what’s going on inside themselves, something Smith is quick to indicate is not examined in your typical school curriculum. “It starts off by talking about the brain,” she explains. “Sometimes kids don’t understand why they do the things that they do. So they are intrigued to know that there are parts in their brain that all work together for fright, flight or fight.”
The mindfulness at the core of the module is something Smith strives to incorporate into every aspect of her students’ classroom life, from mindful listening to mindful playing. As the educator has witnessed, just asking the children simple questions about their behavior gets them thinking about what’s behind their actions. Questions like, what are you feeling? What are you doing? Why do you have this emotion? This, followed by some gentle guidance, has been a game changer in her classroom.
As Smith explains, by not framing certain behaviors as negative, and instead encouraging students to understand the reason for the behavior, the educator has watched children gradually become empowered to the extent that they begin controlling their actions. Smith shares one of her favorite lessons to pass on to students when fostering this growth: “I explain that we have the red brain and the blue brain,” she says. “The red brain is the calm brain and the blue brain is upset, and the two can’t happen at the same time.”
When talking about her students’ development, Smith gushes about how fulfilling it is to see children who have entered her class with zero coping strategies leaving with the ability to pinpoint the trigger behind their actions and understand the feelings attached to them. She shares an example of how her students are taught to code emotions with different color zones that help them recognize the difference between each one and communicate the “zone” they’re in easily. “I am yellow”, a student who is feeling anxious will say.
Smith’s reply to her student exemplifies the extraordinary compassion that earned her the WE Teachers Award, “Yes, yes you are. So we’re going to work to get you up to green.”
Walgreens knows that at the heart of every community are our unsung heroes—teachers. That’s why they’ve partnered with WE to develop a program that provides free tools and resources to teachers nationwide to help them address the changing needs of their classrooms, like funding and addressing critical social issues.
