On a warm Monday evening, the parent, teacher and student members of each Great Neck school’s Shared Decision Making Committee gathered to share their goals, ideas and successes with colleagues in the district.
North Middle School described a program in which students created personal podcasts to share with others in order to connect with each other. North High School, meanwhile, created a peer-tutoring program thanks to student input.
Many of the schools also emphasized diversity, be it through billboards in hallways, podcasts or heritage festivals.
While each Shared Decision Making Committee report varied in design and was tailored  to its own school, most touched on various forms of student wellness. Mindfulness was particularly emphasized, with many schools creating guides and embracing efforts to help students emotionally.
“As our children continue to learn and grow, I think our secondary folks are going to see that children will come to class, to school, with additional tools in their tool kit, so to speak,” said Teresa Prendergast, superintendent of Great Neck Public Schools.
The focus on mindfulness comes in the wake of a superintendent’s conference day where the idea was brought to the district’s teachers.
Trustee Donna Peirez, a former teacher who also served on an earlier variant of these committees in the 1980s, said it was incredible to see how their composition and focus have transformed.
“To come now to talking about the whole child that we’re educating, from the little ones to the high school children and what we can do to help them become successful humans, not just the top of the business world, is very important and very heartwarming to hear,” Peirez said.
Twelve-term trustee Lawrence Gross, who is set to retire at the end of the month, said he was impressed by the scope of the reports.
“This presentation was unbelievable,” Gross said.
Meditation and Mindfulness are essential life skills that have tremendous benefits for everyone in every area of life. Learning and grades improve as well as critical thinking skills. I teach every one of my university students mindfulness and meditation. We begin every class with a short meditation. It makes a huge difference for the students. Reducing stress and increasing self-awareness through meditation and mindfulness is the best preventive therapy available. But there is also something intangible that can occur when meditating that causes a ‘shift’ in one’s reality to a more positive life experience. I can only recommend getting started and staying with meditation and seeing what the results are. Sometimes it is not possible to attend a class but it is often it is helpful to have some instruction for meditation. I usually suggest they start with these two guided mindfulness training mp3s, Meditation 1 and Meditation 2 by Jon Shore at https://www.meditation-download.com. Shore produces many others as well for different purposes. It takes consistent practice but the results are well worth the small effort required.