#mindfulAISD (9/26)

Mindfulness in the Austin Independent School District

#mindfulAISD (9/26)Mindfulness in the Austin Independent School District

Week of September 26th

Welcome to the #mindfulAISD newsletter for the week of September 26th. This will serve as a way to highlight the awesome mindfulness work being done across the entire 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

#mindfulAISD HAPPENINGS

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Rosedale School

See the tweet.


Great turnout at 1st monthly morning mindfulness session for teachers @RosedaleSchool. #mindfulAISD #TeacherSELfcare @AustinISDSEL @AISDSupt


Kudos to Rosedale Principal, Elizabeth Dickey, for arranging this SELf-care opportunity for her staff. There are several schools around AISD doing weekly or monthly mindfulness sessions for their teachers. Way to BE, y'all!

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Russell Lee Elementary

See the tweet.


#6thGradeLeadership practicing being in the present moment @LeeRoadrunners #mindfulAISD #mindfulness


Incredible insight and questions from 6th graders at Russell Lee about mindfulness and how it applies to their lives. Thanks for coordinating the visit, Mr. Hubbard. Modeled intro lessons are available to help kickstart daily mindfulness in the classroom.

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Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders

See the tweet.


#guidedmeditation to prep for #automata presentations #mindfulness to gain confidence & #getbetter #starsmart #SEL


Sharon Roy is also planning on having her Stars research mindfulness, teach their findings and lead activities that they can utilize at school and at home. Awesome stuff, Ms. Roy!

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.

RESOURCES

Replacing Detention with Meditation

An article about an elementary school in Baltimore has gone viral regarding their practice of replacing detention with meditation. There are a couple schools in AISD interested in piloting something similar. Talk about Growth Mindset! It's exciting to have leadership in our district that is interested in trying new approaches to help reach ALL of our students. Photo below from the article on Upworthy.

Guided Mindfulness Tracks (in Spanish & English!)

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 have a SoundCloud site full of free guided mindfulness tracks in Spanish and English. Check it out and see if it's something you'd like to use in class. As always, it's recommended to listen on your own before playing for your class. They also have a free app titled "Mindful Life Project."

Don't Forget About GoNoodle!

A lot of teachers use GoNoodle, but did you know they have awesome mindfulness videos too? Go to the CATEGORIES tab at the top of the page and look for "calming" and "stretching." They have a bunch of great videos to use for daily mindfulness time and/or mindfulness breaks. GoNoodle can be found in the AISD cloud and then you have access to GoNoodle Plus with ALL of the videos.


If you haven't done so yet, share gonoodle.com with your students' families so they can sign up for a FREE account to use at home.

Mindful Classrooms--Week 6

If you're using Mindful Classrooms: The Educator Guide, I recommend using Week 6 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 of the book, please feel out the Google Form at the bottom of this page.

FREE FOR TEACHERS!

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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 here 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 so you can use your subscription on your computer or mobile device!


Check out this 3-minute guided body scan from Calm. It's just one of many that you can have access to.

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Mind Yeti

Connecting Mindfulness w/ Explicit SEL Lessons


Mindfulness is a great tool that supports Social and Emotional Learning happening in your classroom. If interested, please ask your campus SEL Specialist how to intentionally link mindfulness with your SEL (Second Step, School Connect, etc.) 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 can also sign up for a free account. Share with your students' families!

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