Mindfulness Resources
A Celebration of Mindfulness w/ Fireside Book Shop - 9/21/19
Resources & Future Support
I'm thankful for the opportunity to be with y'all at Fireside Book Shop's Celebration of Mindfulness. Below are a bunch of resources that I find useful for educators, and can definitely be applicable for families as well.
If you'd like to sign up for the monthly newsletter, you can do that below as well and my contact information is at the bottom of this page. Please reach out if I can help in any way with your mindfulness efforts.
With gratitude,
James
Mindful Classrooms Published!
Mindfulness In A Jar
SEL Coloring Book
**Available in Spanish too!
Check out Mindful Classrooms for more resources.
Stop Breathe Think--Free Lifetime Subscription
Calm--Free Lifetime Subscription
Headspace--Free Annual Subscription
Headspace recently came out with their own FREE subscription for educators. Click the link to sign up.
Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain
An Edutopia blog written by Elena Aguilar. "Zaretta Hammond's new book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students, fills a huge gap in my bookshelf. Hoping to get it into your hands and onto your shelves, I decided to do a Q & A with the author."
Mindfulness Research
Mindful Schools also has a great page on their site that outlines mindfulness in education research.
Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Article
Mindfulness in Austin ISD Videos
Mindful Brain Free Download
Sustainable Mindfulness
Cultivating Mindfulness for Educators Using Resources From The New York Times
How to Avoid A Poorly Designed School Mindfulness Program -- Mindful Magazine
Making Mindfulness Work in Your School -- Free webinar from Free Spirit by James Butler
Making the Case for Mindfulness in Your School or District -- Free Spirit Publishing blog by James Butler
Mindfulness Book List
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 Austin ISD Superintendent Dr. Cruz supporting mindfulness in schools.
Feel free to edit this to personalize for your school/district.
The letter is available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi/Dari & Burmese.
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."
Videos Explaining Mindfulness
Notes from Activities
Breathing Wand--Put 6 beads onto a pipe cleaner. Make a small circle at each end of the pipe cleaner to keep the beads secure. Put all the beads to one side and move them to the opposite side as you breathe. Move 1 bead as you breathe in. Move another as you breathe out. Continue. Original idea from Mindful Schools.
Glitter Jar--Using a ball jar, put clear glue in the empty jar and fill it about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Add a generous amount of glitter. Fill the rest of the jar with water (warm usually works best, but not necessary). Stir the glue and glitter until there are no clumps. Tighten the lid and shake shake shake. Focus on the glitter as it settles to the bottom of the jar. It's a good metaphor for how our brain feels when we're having strong feelings and how our brain feels when we take time to relax. Here's an awesome video, "Just Breathe" by Julie Bayer Salzman and Josh Salzman to go along with it.
Color/Draw--Coloring has been proven to reduce stress and increase creativity. Read about it here. You can also purchase the sweet SEL Coloring Book that I wrote, illustrated by my friend and fellow Clevelander Becca Borelli. Link at the top of this page. Drawing or doodling is also a great way to reduce stress. Check out this cool video for different drawing/doodling ideas. I especially enjoy it because drawing is a growth area for me. :)
Yoga--Moving the body is awesome and connecting our breath with our body is empowering. Google and YouTube have a ton of resources. I'm obviously partial to my book and poster (links above), but I also love Yoga With Adriene.
Mindful Eating--Slowing down to eat our food can help us have greater appreciation of our food and even help us process our food better. This article from Harvard explains mindful eating further. A simple strategy I used with my students was to start snack time with 30 seconds to 1 minute where we noticed our food with all of our senses starting with sight, touch, smell and then taking a bite and noticing taste and the sound. Chew that bite all the way until the food is completely gone until taking the next bite.
Support from Mindful Classrooms
James Butler, M.Ed.
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