Students gain focus with yoga

When Bigfork Elementary School students come home excitedly talking about lions, heroes and downward-facing dogs, parents may think they are talking about characters from books.

However, what the kids are actually referring to are yoga poses they are learning this year as a way to keep them moving and teach them how to be still.

Yoga is an exercise technique that focuses on physical and mental discipline and the school is using it to increase students' amount of physical activity throughout the week.

"We're exploring ways to add more movement because we don't have the staff or facilities for more P.E. time," said Jackie Boshka, Bigfork Elementary and Middle School principal.

The school is also doing this through dance classes, which the students are rotating through. The idea of using yoga came from a teachers' workshop this fall with former Bigfork student Erica Hadden, who initially taught the sessions for the students. Hadden went back to school this spring and Dana Stoddard took over lessons in January.

"We're hoping it will increase strength, posture, balance and focus and give kids the ability to practice control of their bodies," Boshka said.

Each class gets four 45-minute sessions with a yoga instructor. Stoddard is gradually rotating through the grades.

It may be too early to tell, but Boshka said at least anecdotally it's having some effect. One parent shared that her child wasn't eating dinner and announced that if he would get into child's pose, a yoga position, for a few minutes, he would feel much better.

"The kids learn from it," Boshka said. "They seem to like to be able to have control."

Stoddard said the students have picked up quickly on the concepts and movements – in many cases tackling more advanced positions than she can.

"It's amazing," Stoddard said. "They're like sponges – so receptive."

Partially it's because at their age they are more flexible, she said.

"It's all naturally in them," Stoddard said. "They are more flexible than we are. I teach poses that I can't even do."

The advantages of the movements and breathing exercises that encompass yoga are that they can increase concentration, flexibility and stillness as well as sharpen the brain, Stoddard said. She said it as been astonishing to see the students, especially the younger students, lay on their backs in the corpse pose for at times 20 minutes without moving, just focusing on their breathing.

"They usually say it's the best part," she said. "Nobody has any time for true rest."

Boshka emphasizes that it's just the physical aspects of yoga that are being taught. There have been a few concerns about whether the spiritual or religious aspects of yoga are part of the curriculum, and she insists they are not.

Stoddard hopes to get a certification soon to teach educators how to incorporate yoga into classrooms to help calm their students.

Boshka said she's uncertain whether the school will be able to teach yoga again next year. That will partially be based on its effectiveness and any future costs. Right now Stoddard is just volunteering her time.