Mindfulness Newsletter
May 2018--#mindfulAISD
In This Month's Newsletter...
- Grounding Techniques for Staff & Students
- Test Anxiety Tips from SEL
- Mindful Technology Resources
- Mindfulness for Families
- Starting Your Day with Stretching
- Mindfulness for Coaches & Athletes
- Mindfulness for Graduating Seniors
- SEL Newsletter & Blog
- Mindfulness Retreat Recap
- Mindfulness in BLEND
- Mindful Happenings in AISD
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.
Grounding Techniques for Staff & Students
Shout out to Meagan Butler, Secondary Counseling Coordinator, for sharing this resource.
Test Anxiety Tips from SEL
With the final round of STAAR right around the corner, check out this great resource of tips to deal with test anxiety.
Shout out to Aleza Sitarz, SEL Specialist, for creating and sharing this resource.
Mindful Technology
A new consistent feature in the mindfulness newsletters will be a section dedicated to Mindful Technology. It's no secret that technology is everywhere, and can be quite addicting. This section will feature resources of different types to help us use technology more mindfully.
This month's feature is about an app called Q & U: Questions to Connect. It's available on Apple & Android devices. You can use it in class during circles, community meetings or use it at home with your children and/or partner.
"Q & U is designed for people on-the-go. Everyone has a phone but no one is talking. Q & U will change that! Driving the kids to school? Turn off the car screens and have the kids choose a Q & U question for the entire family to answer. Tucking the kids in bed? Pull up a question to ask. Bed time is the best time to get answers from your kids because they don't really want to go to sleep. Struggling for deeper conversation on a date night with your spouse? Explore dreams, goals, and interests with questions from Q & U."
Shout out to Angela Bailey, SEL Specialist, for sharing this resource.
Mindfulness for Families
This month's feature is our folder of resources which includes a letter explaining mindfulness, No Place For Hate coloring book, activities & recommended resources to use at home. Most of the documents are in English, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi/Dari, Burmese & Kinyarwanda.
Start Your Day with Stretching
Mindfulness for Coaches & Athletes
Shout out to Jacob Anderson, Lanier Athletic Director, for sharing this resource.
Mindfulness for Graduating Seniors
Meditation Bar is offering mindfulness for graduating seniors to foster stress resilience for life after high school. Below is a blurb from the flyer explaining the workshops.
"This short, interactive workshop helps teens explore what mindfulness means, introduces a few short practical mindfulness tools, and discusses how the use of these tools can be integrated with their life after high school. Participants will also receive how to instruction, mindfulness materials for further exploration and one free month of classes at the Meditation Bar."
Unfortunately, we don't have money to offer scholarships for the course ($125), but it could make for an awesome graduation gift or perhaps funds/donations are available on your campus.
SEL Newsletter & Blog
Shout out to Katie Cameroneil, SEL Specialist, for writing the blog and Victoria Birkeland, SEL Communications Coordinator, for crafting the newsletter.
Mindfulness Retreat Recap
The 1st Annual Mindfulness Retreat was a success! We had 53 participants get treated to different self-care classes provided by 18 generous volunteer facilitators from the community. Literacy First AmeriCorps members were instrumental in making the event run smoothly. The feedback from participants and facilitators has been overwhelmingly positive and we're using thoughtful suggestions to make future events even better. We're definitely going to have another one next year, and we might even do a Family Mindfulness Retreat as well. Stay tuned!
Mindfulness in BLEND
Mindfulness in Austin ISD
Inner Explorer at Barbara Jordan
Inner Explorer at Widen
Thank you, H-E-B!
Thank you, Literacy First AmeriCorps!
So much gratitude.
Thank you, Amala Foundation!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Mindful Classrooms: The Educator Guide
#mindfulAISD archives
April 2018 Newsletter (Mindfulness Retreat, Test Anxiety Tips, Mindfulness in BLEND)
March 2018 Newsletter (SEL overview of mindfulness)
February 2018 Newsletter (Inner Explorer Grant, Tips for Sustained Mindfulness in Class)
January 2018 Newsletter (Videos, Mindfulness Room Starter Kit, Types of Awareness)
December 2017 Newsletter (Videos, Research Supporting Mindfulness, Picture Books)
November 2017 Newsletter (Free Retreats, Class Dojo, Teens, Mindful AISD in the News)
October 2017 Newsletter (Videos, Meditation Bar Gift, Mindfulness Challenge)
September 2017 Newsletter (Mindfulness Videos)
August 2017 Newsletter (Starting mindfulness from Day 1)
2016-2017 Newsletters (One link to access all newsletters from last school year.)
Letter to Families
Here's a letter about mindfulness you can share with families. It provides a brief description of mindfulness and a message from Dr. Cruz supporting mindfulness in schools.
The letter is available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi/Dari & Burmese.
Elementary Videos Explaining Mindfulness
Secondary Videos Explaining Mindfulness
#mindfulAISD YouTube Playlist
Calm--FREE for educators!
FREE Calm.com Lifetime Subscription for Teachers (PreK-12)
Multilingual Mindfulness
Want mindfulness activities in Spanish, Arabic, Farsi/Dari, Burmese, Swahili & Kinyarwanda? We've got them for you!
Zen Den YouTube Playlist
The "Zen Den" YouTube playlist offers 18 videos, ranging from 4-8 minutes in length.
Mind Yeti: Connecting Mindfulness w/ Explicit SEL Lessons
Mindyeti.com is a great resource that connects mindfulness with Second Step lessons, and it's FREE!
GoNoodle
GoNoodle is for the body and the mind.
Here is a link to a document that lists all the GoNoodle Mindfulness videos sorted by channel and with the length of each video.
De-Escalation Strategies Poster
This poster can be an addition to your classroom, Peace Area, hallways, Mindfulness Room, etc.
Mindful Life Project
Guided Mindfulness Activities in English & Spanish--Great for Secondary.
They also have a free app titled "Mindful Life Project."