before I start my speech I would like to tell you guys that the way I'm going to start it is very different from what you may be used to is that okay yes all right the first thing I want you guys to do is to sit with your back straight sit with your back straight Place both of your feet firmly on the the ground firmly on the ground and now close your eyes close your eyes yes even you okay take a deep breath and feel how your lungs are being filled with oxygen with each inhale you feel your lungs getting bigger and with each exhale you feel them getting smaller this is a time when you get to be exactly who you are you get to be here and now when you take deep breaths your body get receives more oxygen when your body receives more oxygen it will be able to focus keep focusing on your breathing now the mental training is slowly coming to an end so please feel free to start moving your fingers and your toes and return back to the lesson this my friends it what is what we call mental training in Sweden together with my students I would listen to this audio file on a daily basis as it was written in the schedule not only did we listen to this mental training activity but we also focused on the physical aspect of Education we did this in the form of pedagogical walks today I'm going to share with you what these two activities are how they work in practice and what Swedish students think of them mental training what is mental training well in our high school we would Define it as an activity where we would listen to an audio file about breathing heing with stress and visual visualizing our academic and personal goals this audio file would last somewhere between 5 to 10 minutes but how does this work in practice well in the beginning of the lesson I would ask my students to get prepared for their mental training session then I would ask them to put away all their electronic devices and get comfortably seated after that I would go ahead and switch off all the lights in the classroom and I would go ahead and play the audio file on my computer when the audio file is being played I would participate in this activity together with my students it was a moment for me to feel the calmness in the room once the audio file came to an end I would then switch on the lights in the classroom and ask my students to return back to the lesson but this time something changed in that room as a teacher I felt that there was as a teacher I felt a sense of calmness within me a calmness that I needed in order to be able to continue my hectic workday now this may sound a bit utopian I know but it existed for a couple of minutes at least and what about for my students how did they feel well for me it seemed as if they were more calm as well and their willingness to listen and pay attention increased but these are just my words what do they really say let's have a look Hiday we're going to talk about Mt and what it is so can you tell us about it uh Mt stands for mental training as we call it in Swedish and Mt is uh a time or period where we take approximately 5 or 10 minutes uh where we relax and get to know our inner self uh do you want to speak more about it yeah so we take it and we have it once a day and it's something that we students really look forward to it makes us relax and take a break from our studies and I feel life it's something that we all need especially when we are studying math physics chemistry and hard subjects courses like that that's right so it's a really good thing that we appreciate a lot yeah thank you thank you thank you so in case you do not catch what my students said they said that they felt relaxed when they listened to this mental training audio file they felt relaxed as it was a chance for them to take a break from their studies not only that they felt that they needed this in order to continue with their subjects such as Math and Science and not only that they also felt they they also appreciated this activity and they looked forward to it as it was a chance for them to focus on their inner self now some may some may wonder why is this even important well as a school we believe that students should be able to be ready for the reality that Waits outside of the school we believe that if students are mentally strong then they're able to overcome tough situations such as personal stress work exhaustion and low motivation apart from mental training we would also focus on something called pedagogical walks what is pedagogical walks well we would Define it as an activity where we would take a 10 to 15 minute walk outside of our school and discuss about a certain concept this concept can be anything from democra Ry globalization um climate change and other complex subjects and in practice how would this look like well I would enter the classroom and I would tell the students that it was time for our pedagogical walk but first I would introduce the topic for the lesson I would give them the objectives I would ask them to reflect on a certain concept then I would ask them to St stand up put on their outdoor clothes and perhaps bring an umbrella with them and lead them outside the classroom and outside the school once we were outside the school we would then uh then I would tell them the route of our walk and then we would begin the walk during this walk my students were able to reflect on this concept discuss it with their classmates and come come up with a preliminary answer for their teacher once the walk came to an end we will then go back into the classroom and we would then get seated and the students would feel prepared to give their final answer to me and again I felt a positive change in the environment of our classroom as a teacher I felt that I had a chance to stretch my legs get fresh air and get new energy for my workday also I got the chance to create a more closer connection with my students as I got to see them in an environment that was a bit more free and now some may wonder why is this is this something new is this something that has been practiced before well this pedagogical walk is not concept it has been practiced by ancient Greeks they would go out on walks to discuss various Concepts and create new ideas based on that walk research according to the experts within the field of walking Shane Omare he would say that when we stand up and move around we the activity in our brain increases which then helps us with the Collision of new ideas so now some may say well we don't really have the resources to practice this that is not the case as we all know the internet is full of these kind of videos about breathing dealing with stress visualizing your academic and personal goals so the only thing you need to do as a teacher is just hop on there and look search for the right keywords and now someone say well this is taking a lot of my classroom time yes it may take some time but the impact that it has on you as a teacher and the students is immense so with that being said I would like to say that we should embrace an educ ation where we not only educate the students in terms of intellect but also the body and mind thank [Applause] you