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#mindfulAISD (5/8)

Mindfulness in the Austin Independent School District

#mindfulAISD (5/8)Mindfulness in the Austin Independent School District

Week of May 8th, 2017

Welcome to the #mindfulAISD newsletter for the week of May 8th. This will serve as a way to highlight the awesome mindfulness work being done across the district as well as offer resources. Have suggestions for material you'd like to see on here? Please email the SEL Mindfulness Specialist: james.butler@austinisd.org

Calm for Testing Resources Calm for Testing Resources

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Test Anxiety Tips

Shout out to SEL Specialist, Aleza Berube, for creating a Smore specifically aimed at Test Anxiety Tips for the STAAR.


From Aleza: We know this can be a quite stressful time of year for staff, families, and students alike. The SEL team crafted a flyer with resources to help with test anxiety.


For ALL ages

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Calm website & app

Calm.com & their site provide excellent resources for calming anxiety, concentration and more. There are many free resources on their regular site, but if you sign up at calm.com/schools, teachers get a free lifetime subscription.


For ALL ages

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Mind Yeti

MindYeti has a few free guided mindfulness sessions for calming down and focus.


For PK-5th grade

Want to Showcase Your Mindfulness Work?

Send James Butler an email with a brief story and/or photo (if you have photo releases for your students). Or if you're on Twitter, use the hashtag #mindfulAISD and I'll post a link to your tweet on the newsletter.

NEW THIS WEEK NEW THIS WEEK

A Nice Reminder

Below is a nice reminder courtesy of Destress Monday that is very applicable for STAAR week.

Painting by a Teacher

Kristen Gholson, Bilingual Pre-K Teacher at Pillow Elementary, painted a beautiful piece that she has hanging in her classroom. She said she wanted to share it with y'all in case you wanted to use it as well. Thanks for sharing, Kristen!

RESOURCES RESOURCES

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Mindful Classrooms--Week 34

If you're using Mindful Classrooms: The Educator Guide, I recommend using Week 34 this week. It's a very loose recommendation though. Please do what's best for you and your students. If you'd like the free electronic copy for AISD staff, please feel out the Google Form at the bottom of this page.


Photos/stories of Mindful Classrooms being used in class are always welcome and would be great for the newsletter! Email James Butler.

Previous Newsletters

Links to all the previous newsletters with a highlight or two from each edition.


Week of May 1 (Teacher Appreciation Deals & Self-Compassion exercises from Dr. Neff)

Week of April 24 (Teacher Self-Care Stations & Rewiring the Brain TED Talk)

Week of April 17 (MindYeti Update & Mindfulness in Middle School PE)

Week of April 10 (8 Principles of Teaching Mindfulness to Teens & Rainbow Walk)

Week of April 3 (Teachers Getting Mindfulness Training & One Minute Practice CE Video)

Week of March 27 (Calm Before Testing Resources)

Week of March 20 (April Mindfulness Challenge & Mindfulness Online Course)

Week of March 6 (Free Mindfulness Program--Smiling Mind & Multilingual Mindfulness)

Week of February 27 (Teacher Testimonial & 7 Tips for those who say they can't meditate)

Week of February 20 (Multilingual Mindfulness & Zen Den YouTube Videos)

Week of February 13 (Mindful Brain Poster & CE credit video w/ Jon Kabat-Zinn)

Week of February 6 (GoNoodle Mindfulness Document & Mindfulness Research Newsletter)

Week of January 30 (Rodriguez ES Mindfulness Studio & Mindful Coloring pages)

Week of January 23 (3 Simple Remedies for Stressed-Out Mind & Kindfulness article)

Week of January 17 (Science of mindfulness & Breathing Sticks activity)

Week of January 9 (SEL in Austin Family Magazine & Link to De-Escalation Strategies Poster)

Week of January 3 (List of mindfulness sites & mindfulness is good for teachers article)

Week of December 12 (List of mindfulness apps & Mindfulness Challenge recap)

Week of December 5 (Scientifically proven song for relaxation & Mindfulness Tour recap)

Week of November 28 (#mindfulAISD YouTube Playlist link)

Week of November 14 (GIFs for deep breathing & Breathing script for HS--Palm the Present Moment by Donald Altman from "The Mindfulness Toolbox")

Week of November 7 (AISD e-Wellness spotlight)

Week of October 31 (Mindfulness Challenge update)

Week of October 24 (Progressive Muscle Relaxation script)

Week of October 17 ("Just Breathe" mindfulness video)

Week of October 10 (Stop Breathe Think App/Site & Curious Not Furious article)

Week of October 3 (Pokemon poses & Mindfulness and the Brain article)

Week of September 26 (Replacing Detention w/ Meditation article & Guided Breathing tracks in Spanish & English)

Week of September 19 (Teacher Self-Care & Connecting Mindfulness w/ SEL: Mind Yeti)

Week of September 12 (KEYE News feature & Helping Teens Destress)

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Mindful AISD YouTube Playlist

The official #mindfulAISD YouTube Playlist. If you/your students would like to make a video for this playlist, please contact James Butler.
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Zen Den YouTube Playlist

Click here for the "Zen Den" YouTube playlist, so I wanted to share it with y'all. There are 18 videos on the list, ranging from 4-8 minutes in length.
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Multilingual Mindfulness

Click here for mindfulness activities in Spanish, Arabic, Farsi/Dari, Burmese, Swahili & Kinyarwanda. Huge thank you to the amazing AISD Refugee Family Support Team for the translations.

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Calm

FREE Calm.com Lifetime Subscription for Teachers (PreK-12)


If you haven't done this yet, I HIGHLY recommend it. Click on the above link and fill out the quick form for a FREE lifetime subscription. It's a $300 value and they are giving it away for free to teachers!


Calm also has an app for phones.


**There are free sections on calm.com and the app, so feel free to share with your students' families.

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Mind Yeti

Connecting Mindfulness w/ Explicit SEL Lessons


Mindyeti.com is a great resource that connects mindfulness with Second Step lessons. Visit the site and sign up for a FREE account!


There is also an informational page that explains the connection between Mind Yeti and Second Step.


**Parents/guardians can also sign up for a free account. Share with your students' families!
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GoNoodle

GoNoodle 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.


**Share gonoodle.com with your students' families so they can sign up for a FREE account to use at home.

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De-Escalation Strategies Poster

This document consists of 10 de-escalation stretching poses and 6 de-escalation breathing exercises. They feature students from Becker Elementary. They are being used in their classrooms and in their Mindfulness Room. If you'd like to personalize this document and add photos of students from your class/school, please email me and I'll send you the Word document to edit.


This can be an addition to your classroom, Peace Area, hallways, Mindfulness Room, etc.

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Mindful Life Project

Guided Mindfulness Activities in English & Spanish--Great for Secondary


Mindful Life Project is an incredible organization based out of Richmond, CA. They teach mindfulness, yoga, expressive arts, and hip-hop/performing arts to elementary and middle school students in underserved communities.


They also have a free app titled "Mindful Life Project."

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Stop, Breathe & Think

Stop Breathe & Think is a website and app that provides guided meditations based on how you are feeling at that moment. There are a great number of FREE meditations starting at just a couple minutes long.

Sign Up for Mindfulness Support

If you haven't filled out the #mindfulAISD Google Form (below) and want to highlight your work and/or receive mindfulness support, please check it out. It only takes about 1 minute to complete. Know someone in AISD interested in mindfulness? Send them this newsletter for them to fill out the Google Form.
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Contact

James Butler

SEL Mindfulness Specialist


james.butler@austinisd.org

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