The Metropolitan Museum of Art invited my class to go on a journey with them at the beginning of the school year. They were among a few other students in New York City given the privilege of visiting an exhibit that has since been taken down, entitled: Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet. While they viewed the art, they were given headphones that were attached to a computer. A trained music technician was able to see their brainwaves and connect their “mindfulness” to the affects art was having on the brain.

Mandalas: Mapping Buddhist Art of Tibet, was a strange opportunity. Strange because I had never studied Tibetan art. I knew little to nothing about mandalas. The whole walk down into the art show felt as if I was in a time machine walking slowly into the 70’s. There was color and movement all around me and every adult there was promoting peace and mindfulness.

It was also an unique experience because it gave my students time to engage in social emotional learning (they played a lot of mind games with the museum educator, Drew), time to make art and music (while viewing the art, they wore huge headphones which in turn picked up their brainwaves and those brainwaves made music), and time to talk of science and technology (looking at their brainwaves, they knew when they were calm).

The exploration of the artwork featured in the exhibition exposed me to what some might say is- mindfulness. I always associated mindfulness with my body being still but it’s your mind being still while participating in activities around you.

The artwork featured in the exhibition, the classroom visits from Drew as well as being able to listen to their brainwaves, exposed my students to self-awareness and self-management. I was able to use what I learned with them as a creativity tool and a way to approach self-awareness.

A little after my students ended their partnership with the Met. I went to a Steven Banks concert for my birthday and in the rotunda there was a beautiful mandala. The vibrant mandala was created by students and teachers alike with pictures and tiny square papers attached on the outside. This lead me to research group mandalas which I came across plenty. I took photos and told my students about my weekend. As I guessed they were not interested in my stories about the Kenari Quartet. They stared at the picture of mandala and tried to name all the objects they found.

Before they could even ask, I answered the question that was in their head: yes, we will create our own group mandala.

Research gave me insight on how to incorporate mandalas into my lessons. During homeroom, they created fun and simple mandalas before they started their day. Some were about kindness towards earth while others were about kindness towards themselves.

They also created group mandalas during Social Studies as a history project. They each picked their own topic and wrote a paragraph about why it should be included in a class project. Next, they focused on their historical event and drew it. Afterwards, they created artist statements.

Currently, I am including the brainwave experiment into their lessons for April. Understanding how the brain works is important for children as well as adults. If a child understands his/her brain then he/she can understand how learning happens. Understanding leads to better moments in the schooling process.

A special thank you to my Met family: David, Drew, Kirsten, Lauren, and Jason for your support and patience with my kiddos.

Below are the mandalas they created….along with the numbers of pi which are throughout the hallways in my school!