Mindfulness Newsletter
October 2018 Edition from Mindful Classrooms
Mindfulness Resources Featured in This Newsletter...
- Mindfulness for Staff -- Free Online Mindfulness & Specialty Classes
- For Families -- Focus on Connection
- Books of the Month -- 3 New Books
- Technology -- Stop Breathe Think for Educators (FREE!)
- Athletics -- 4 Reasons Why Every Athlete Should Practice Mindfulness
- Mindful Happenings -- Highlights
Please feel free to email me suggestions for what to include in future newsletters: james@mindfulclassrooms.com
Reminder: For more regular mindfulness updates, please follow me on Twitter, @mindfulclassrms. Feel free to tag me when posting about anything related to Social & Emotional Learning and/or Mindfulness.
Mindfulness For Staff -- Free Online Mindfulness
I'm always stressing how important it is for adults to practice mindfulness if we're going to use it with students, so this is going to be a regular section that highlights opportunities to build your personal practice.
Mind Oasis is offering free weekly online 30-minute mindfulness sessions for teachers every Tuesday at 7:30pm. Click here for more information.
Mindfulness for Families -- Focus on Connection
Here is an article that focuses on connection at home. Small, informal practices of mindfulness such as truly listening can go a long way. Feel free to share this simple, yet powerful article with families.
As a reminder, you can always find family resources on bit.ly/mindfulfams.
Mindfulness Books of the Month
Breath Friends Forever
"From the creators of the hugely successful Master of Mindfulness, this charming children’s book for readers ages 4 to 7 tells the story of Nessa and Leo’s friendship, and how mindfulness helps them deal with strong emotions such as fear, shyness, and anger."
I had the honor of writing the foreword for this book, but do not receive any compensation for book sales. It was a really cool honor though!
Self-Compassion for Teens
An exquisite collection of powerful practices that parents, teachers and therapists can all share with teens in their lives." -- Christopher Willard, PsyD, Author, Growing Up Mindful
Happy Teachers Change the World
Happy Teachers Change the World by Thich Nhat Hanh
"Fantastic book we used for a teacher book study. We need to remember that students and staff are under a lot of stress and pressure. The strategies in the book are practical and easy. The researchers apply their work in classrooms and the teacher practitioners implement...the feedback and reflection provided by the teachers and the researchers are honest and authentic."
Mindful Technology -- FREE Apps for Educators
Stop Breathe Think has released their FREE lifetime subscription for educations deal! I sent an email about it a few weeks ago, but I wanted to highlight it in this month's newsletter. Explore the site and sign up for the free subscriptions to their all ages AND kids app. They also have materials to guide you through use in the classroom.
Mindfulness & Athletics -- Why Athletes Practice
Many famous athletes practice mindfulness to give themselves a mental edge over their competition. This blog post from Headspace provides some insight with their list of 4 reasons every athlete should practice mindfulness.
Mindful Classrooms Happenings
Carrcroft Family Mindfulness
Huge shout to all the dedicated Carrcroft Elementary (DE) teachers and staff who came to help with the Family Mindfulness Night. See tweet for more.
Mindfulness Adventures
Kindergarten Mindfulness
Morning Mindfulness
Mindful AISD on Austin 360 Podcast "I Love You So Much"
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Mindful Classrooms: The Educator Guide
Those of you who are using Mindful Classrooms: The Educator Guide, I recommend following along with your school calendar as it's broken down by week from 1-36.
Newsletter Archives
September 2018 Mindful Classrooms Newsletter
Mindful AISD Newsletter Archives (One link to access all newsletters from Austin ISD from the past 2+ years.)
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.
Inner Explorer
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."
Stop, Breathe & Think
Contact
Teacher, Author, Founder
Mindful Classrooms
Austin ISD SEL Mindfulness Specialist
2014 Austin ISD Teacher of the Year
Email: james@mindfulclassrooms.com
Website: mindfulclassrooms.com
Facebook: facebook.com/mindfulclassrooms
Twitter: @mindfulclassrms