Austin ISD Mindfulness Newsletter
November 2019--#mindfulAISD
Featured This Month...
- Personal Practice -- Mindful Drawing & Gratitude Journaling
- Professional Learning -- Mindfulness Cohort Co-Teaching Opportunity & HCP
- Staff/Campus Mindfulness -- Self-Care for Educators
- Classroom Implementation -- Stop Breathe & Think Educators Toolkit
- Mindful Happenings in AISD -- Rodriguez, Langford & Baldwin in the news!
- Related Newsletters & Blog -- CP&I and SEL
Reminder: For more regular mindfulness updates, please follow me on Twitter, @mrbutler629. I post regularly, providing tips and highlighting mindfulness happening across the district. Also, feel free to use #mindfulAISD when posting about mindfulness.
Photo: McKinney Falls State Park Homestead Trail (credit: onlyinyourstate.com)
PERSONAL PRACTICE
Mindful Drawing & Gratitude Journaling
Mindfulness isn't just about sitting and breathing. Drawing is a great way to practice mindfulness, even if your art skills are like mine (aka not great). Read about mindful drawing and give it a try using suggestions from the image below. Feel free to try some of these out during your break.
Additionally, here's a reminder about the positive impact of Gratitude Journaling & details for how to do it as we focus on being thankful over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Reminder: Headspace and Stop Breathe Think offer FREE subscription services for educators.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Mindfulness Cohort Co-Teaching Opportunity
The levels will be K-2nd, 3rd-5th, Middle School and High School and the sessions will be in the spring semester. Once co-teachers are chosen and dates are selected, I'll put the sessions into HCP so folks can sign up. If you're interested in helping me co-teach a mindfulness cohort, please fill out this brief application. Deadline is November 15th.
Mindfulness 101/201, 301 & Isolating Race
Register below...
- 101/201 (#93192)--November 21st 8:30-3:30 @ Blanton Museum of Art
- 301 (#93194)--December 4th 8:30-3:30 @ Amala Foundation
Look for more sections & varieties in the Spring and Summer. Isolating Race is currently a prerequisite for Mindfulness 101, 201 & 301.
Spring semester Isolating Race PDs have just been released on HCP. See below/CP&I Newsletter for more...
January 16th session #93557
January 22nd session #93121
January 30th session #93122
February 18th session #93123
Participants use the Courageous Conversations About Race Protocol to racialize their daily lived experiences, gain awareness of personal bias, consider racial disparities within educational structures, and examine Austin ISD data to highlight local racial inequities in education.
STAFF/CAMPUS MINDFULNESS
Self-Care for Teachers from Stop Breathe & Think
From the Stop Breathe & Think Self-Care for Teachers handout:
"With so much to do (students to teach, parents to inform, standards to meet) making time to look after yourself is often the first to go. But taking care of yourself is critical to being able to address the needs of others: students, parents and colleagues alike. As the saying goes, you can’t pour from an empty cup!"
Share the handout with your colleagues for simple mindful self-care practices for all school staff.
CLASSROOM IMPLEMENTATION
Elementary Resource
Check out the Elementary Toolkit for a bunch of awesome resources.
Secondary Resource
Check out the Middle School Toolkit and High School Toolkit for a bunch of awesome resources.
Books of the Month
We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell and Frané Lessac
"There are countless reasons for gratitude in every season of the year. That’s the message of this lovely picture book, which features Cherokee words and the Cherokee alphabet. From celebrating “the ancestors’ sacrifices to preserve our way of life” to a Grandmother revealing what the Cherokee name of a newborn baby will be, the people give thanks. (Cherokee, recommended for ages 3 – 8)
Speaking of gratitude and Native Americans, be aware that the story of Thanksgiving most children learn is fabricated and harmful in many ways. Many Native Americans today do not celebrate Thanksgiving. For a more accurate look at the the harvest meal of English colonists and Wampanoag leaders, I recommend 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving."
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
"Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live."
MINDFUL HAPPENINGS IN AISD & ON THE NEWS!
Rodriguez Elementary on KXAN
Langford Elementary on KVUE
Baldwin Elementary on FOX 7 Austin
Additional Resources
CP&I and SEL Newsletters & Blog
Compilation of Mindfulness Resources for Educators
Mindful AISD Newsletters from 2016-2019
Sign Up for Mindfulness Support
James Butler, M.Ed.
Austin ISD SEL Mindfulness Specialist
2014 Austin ISD Teacher of the Year
Author of Mindful Classrooms: Daily 5-Minute Practices to Support Social-Emotional Learning
Email: james.butler@austinisd.org
Twitter: @mrbutler629