Mindful Self-Connection: Changing Reaction Into Check-In
- Feb 6
- 3 min read
Katie Keith
Second Grade Teacher
Illinois, USA
Micro-Credential Graduate
Educating Mindfully Member
Mindfulness-Based Learning Framework Components: Mindful Self-Connection
As I write this I’m reflecting on my afternoon in my second grade classroom. It’s just a few days after coming back from winter break. Students are out of routine and are building up the stamina just to be in school again. After lunch, the students are always a bit more full of energy and getting tired from a long day at school. Cold weather means the children are inside at recess and unable to get their energy out. This afternoon seemed particularly crazy: lots of energy, noises, talking, and wiggles.
You know if the students are feeling this way, the teachers are also. So, I am getting back into the routine, too. There is a dismissal change at the end of the day and my schedule had to change, so my students and I are dealing with change.
Change can be difficult for everyone!
I came home and read about Mindful Self-Connection to prepare for this article, and I thought about how I handled this particular afternoon. I had let my emotions take over. I was annoyed and frustrated.
And what ended up happening?
I ended up being upset with the students and the afternoon continued in the same way it had started or even got worse.
I definitely had not been a model of Mindful Self-Connection that afternoon. I had flipped my lid (as my students and I say in the classroom when we are not using our thinking brain and instead using our animal brain or amygdala)!
I could see now, hours later, what I might have done differently:
Maybe I could have paused, taken a breath, and thought things through.
I could have paused the lesson or whatever my students and I were doing to have them notice how their bodies were feeling, take a breath, and think about what we could do to move forward in a less chaotic way.
Maybe the afternoon would have turned out differently. This is the power of having a strong Mindful Self-Connection, and it is an ongoing practice. It supports us when moments like this come up, we see them as opportunities. Yet, also knowing that we are enough–just as we are–doing the best we can in that moment, and reflect to discover a new, present and connected response next time.
This got me thinking about how if I need practice taking a pause, that my students definitely need teaching, modeling, and practice at this same skill. I have used the book, I am Enough, by Grace Byers in my classroom for a few years now. Last year, as I worked on my Mindfulness-Based Learning Micro-Credential, I worked on creating lessons for this book that met the framework for mindfulness-based learning (Members, see the example lesson below).
Even after the training and work I had done, I still had left out pieces of the mindfulness aspect of social emotional learning. This is a beautiful reminder that we are always learning and growing–and that is enough each moment.
So, I went to work on adding Mindful Self-Connection to my lesson by adding a mindful self check-in at the beginning of the lesson and other check-ins throughout the read aloud. My favorite check-in is near the end of the story when a character does not win. Being able to check-in with ourselves seems to be easier when we are feeling positive, but it seems harder when something is going wrong, like my crazy afternoon in the classroom.
Invitation into reflection to develop a Mindful Self-Connection:
How can we remind ourselves that we are still enough when we are feeling uncertain or other emotions that cause us to feel doubt?
How can this reflection question support all ripples of the framework from ourselves, staff, students, and society?
How can we integrate the pauses with self check-ins?
About the Author
Katie Keith
Katie Keith is a second grade teacher in Collinsville, Illinois, where she also grew up. With 25 years of classroom experience, she believes that children learn best when they feel safe, seen, and valued. Katie is passionate about weaving mindfulness-based social emotional learning into each school day, empowering students to build confidence, self-awareness, and independence both in and out of the classroom.
A graduate of McKendree University, Katie earned her master’s degree in Educational Leadership and continues to grow as a lifelong learner. She completed a mindfulness micro-credential program and earned her certification to teach mindfulness to children in the summer of 2025. Katie aspires to step into a social emotional learning teacher role, where she can support students and partner with educators to cultivate mindful, compassionate school communities.
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