In a quiet auditorium, lit up with galaxy lights, eighth grade students at Roosevelt Middle School, lay down to experience stillness and moments of peace, as gentle, soothing sounds fill the room before carrying on with the rest of their school day.
Tara Zinger, seventh and eighth grade communications teacher at Roosevelt Middle School as well as the advisory teacher, brought moments of relaxation to her eighth graders through the incorporation of sound baths using singing bowls into her curriculum.
A sound bath, according to Zinger, is a full body, deep listening experience where students hear a variety of sounds that help guide them into a meditative state.
This helps them calm down their nervous system and be fully present.
“Our brains tend to future- or past-travel and what the sound bath does is give kids, all people, an anchor to come into this moment and be right here, with whatever experience they are having,” Zinger said.
Eighth graders at Roosevelt have been able to participate in sound baths thanks to a grant by Fund For Teachers that Zinger was awarded back in 2021.
Fund For Teachers aims to “support teachers as they develop skills, knowledge, and confidence to impact student achievement, as stated on their website.”
Since 2001, they have invested more than $35 million in 9,000 teachers and their students.
Zinger said she wanted to learn skills that she could bring back to her students to help with the increase of stress following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“After the pandemic, I really noticed that students were more stressed, more anxious and a little more dysregulated than I had seen in my career and I wanted to learn how to support them,” Zinger said.
Through the grant, Zinger traveled to Bali in 2021, where she studied yoga, sound, and art therapy.
“It was magical and inspiring,” Zinger said. “Really what was wonderful for me was seeing a whole culture that is built around emotional support, built around living in the present moment. Kids meditate in school there every day.”
To experience what is possible at a cultural level when “there is a culture of calming down and tapping in” is what Zinger said she wanted to bring back to her students.
When she returned from Bali, D90 allowed her to craft the curriculum around social emotional support so that students had a designated time everyday where they received that support each day.
During the sound bath experience, which Zinger said can be customized for the individual, the goal is to find a position where they feel comfortable, supported, and relaxed, to be able to let go of the outside world and solely focus on that moment.
Some participants choose to sit, others lay down with their eyes closed as they listen to the varying relaxing sounds and Zinger guides them through the meditation process.
In the three years Zinger has been incorporating this curriculum in her teachings, she has found students are very excited to come to class and have a moment for themselves in a world that is very fast paced.
“Kids get calm and chill and present and then when we go to do public speaking, which is one of people’s greatest fears, they are really more prepared to stand up and do it because they feel centered,” Zinger said.
Students have a 50-minute sound bath once a week and then participate in short meditations, 10 minutes, twice a week.
Even those 10 minutes have shown to help her students, Zinger said.
Maeve Gibbs, eighth grader, said the sound baths and meditations have helped her improve in her studies.
“It starts my morning off right and makes it easier to focus in all my other classes,” Gibbs said.
Doing it during the first class she has in the day sets her up for a better day, she said.
“In the quarter I have communications, my grades turn out better. I focus more on my classes when I have started my day off right. I get better test scores because I focused better in class,” she added.
Zinger has witnessed students of all backgrounds benefit from the curriculum.
“Students who have self-reported having anxiety, I have noticed major differences in them,” Zinger said. “They look forward to it very much.”
Neurodivergent students have also benefited from the curriculum, as well as students with ADHD and those on the Autism spectrum.
However, everyone can benefit from this type of curriculum.
“All people benefit from it. Often, I don’t know what is going on for a student, on the outside people can seem that they are just fine but, on the inside, there is a lot they are dealing with, and it is a support for them,” said Zinger.
Elliott Mayeda, an eighth grader, said he looks forward to sound baths the day before.
“When I do them, I get really calm,” Mayeda said. “I am more energized for the rest of the day and it feels good.”
“Not having to worry about anything for 50 minutes, it’s a good thing,’ he said.
Wanting those benefits to reach staff and the wider D90 community, Zinger helps bring the curriculum to the whole district, including through professional development sessions and hosting a community sound bath once a month for caregivers, students, and anyone in the community.
“Those are special events because they are multigenerational experiences,” Zinger said. “You have a range from 10 [years old] to 70 [years old] in the room and everybody is experiencing the benefits of sound and breath.”
At the last D90 community sound bath event, 36 people were in attendance.
“It starts a new day for you,” said Sophie Wasiolek, an eighth grader. “I like the sounds with it, and I feel it relieves me. With having stress from classes, I can just lay down and be still.”
