In an effort to improve upon mindfulness support for next school year, please fill out this survey about mindfulness in AISD during the 2017-2018 school year.
Once complete, your name will be entered into a raffle for a pair of movie passes from the Alamo Drafthouse. Shout to Alamo Drafthouse for donating 10 pairs of movie passes for our survey for the second consecutive year!
Deadline to complete survey: Monday, May 28th 5:00pm. I realize that's Memorial Day, but I want to make sure I can deliver the passes on Tuesday.
THANKS Y'ALL!!
The Mindful Athlete
"Michael Jordan credits George Mumford with transforming his on-court leadership of the Bulls, helping Jordan lead the team to six NBA championships. Mumford also helped Kobe Bryant and countless other NBA players turn around their games. Mumford is sharing his own story and the strategies that have made these athletes into stars in The Mindful Athlete: The Secret to Pure Performance."
Teach Breathe Learn
The Mindful Brain
"From the author of the internationally-acclaimed best-selling text The Developing Mind, and esteemed leader and educator in the field of mental health, comes the first book ever to integrate neuroscience research with the ancient art of mindfulness."
Shout to Angela Bailey, SEL Specialist, for compiling these resources & creating this toolkit.
Shout to Blanton Elementary Steering Committee for creating the original card. I modified it slightly for the summer.
An interesting article from TED about the importance of spending some quiet time alone every day. Summer can be an opportunity to seek some quiet time.
Shout out to Jen Ross-Velasquez for tweeting this article.
Sunday, June 10 | 1:00 - 4:30pm
Yoga Yoga North - 2167 W Anderson Ln Austin, TX 78757
Join us for this free event featuring Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Medicine Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, Ph.D., author of The Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care.
Participate in a critical conversation exploring the intersection of the population and lifestyle health imperatives and the emerging field of Yoga Therapy.
This newsletter's Mindful Tech features a fascinating research article titled: Having Your Smartphone Nearby Takes a Toll on Your Thinking.
Blurb from the article: “Put your phone away” has become a commonplace phrase that is just as often dismissed. Despite wanting to be in the moment, we often do everything within our power to the contrary. We take out our phones to take pictures in the middle of festive family meals, and send text messages or update our social media profiles in the middle of a date or while watching a movie. At the same time, we are often interrupted passively by notifications of emails or phone calls. Clearly, interacting with our smartphones affects our experiences. But can our smartphones affect us even when we aren’t interacting with them — when they are simply nearby?
Shout out to Sharon Laidlaw, Technology Design Coach, for sharing this resource.
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.
Below is info about a free mindfulness event for teens from Present Company.
Come on out and try it. Your first time is free. Going forward, we'll be hosting this event once a month - and hosting 6-week series for small groups who want to continue more regularly - can be customized for particular areas in life your teen (or you as an educator) are dealing with (recommended!)
Recommended for ages ~13-18."
Mindful Classrooms: The Educator Guide
Thanks to those who used Mindful Classrooms: The Educator Guide this year! It will be published by Free Spirit Publishing soon and I won't be able to give away free copies once that happens. AISD staff, sign up for a free electronic copy of the book while you can in the support form at the bottom of this newsletter.
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."
