On the path to self-care and mindfulness.

Thank you for a fabulous presentation!  I was taking notes at warp speed because of all the excellent materials you were presenting.  I especially loved your invitation to seek a balance with the freedom/no-freedom we have with the curriculum and with creating a nourishing environment where learners can feel welcomed. 

How great that you decided to present at MFLA!  We appreciate what you do to enrich the professional development of our members!

Claudia Dugan

(She, her, hers)

MFLA Board Member

MFLA Past President

Thank you again for your sessions as I attended both. You know as a teacher,  we NEVER take time to just breath, rest, and refocus. It felt great to do that. (Teacher)

Thank you! It was a great session. I really enjoyed it! (3rd grade teacher)

I LOVED our Yoga session with you.  

I feel so much more relaxed!!!  This was AWESOME!!!

Thank you so much!!!!

6th grade Mathematics teacher

Williamstown Middle School

Thank you again for the sessions you provided today. They were popular for sure. (Administration)

WORKSHOPS- OVER 200 TEACHERS IN ATTENDANCE:

-Yoga For Everyone (2 sessions)

-Mindfulness and Breathing for Teachers 

My post on FB:  I have had the great joy to provide virtual yoga sessions for the Coastal Learning Center in Howell.  We had a bunch of sessions over the summer and have had a few in December and January due to their school going all-virtual again.  I love working with all of them because the staff and students participate together.  Today the students surprised me with handmade signs that they held up to their cameras at the end of practice.  It was the sweetest thing!  The amount of hearts that were drawn took some time.  While I'm happy that they are all going back to their school building next week, I'll miss our online sessions.

FROM COASTAL LEARNING CENTER:

We absolutely are so grateful to have had you teaching us how to relax and recharge ourselves! The students and staff so looked forward to seeing you and sharing your yoga lessons with us. It has been such a joy!! Coastal can't thank you enough!

"I loved this presentation. Was thrilled to see this content at Autism NJ this year. 

Speaker was phenomenal, very engaging and likable. " 

"Best presentation of the conference. Hands down " 

"I am also a certified yoga instructor, I think the presentation is great for non yoga instructors and those teacher older students. I am interested in looking into the references she posted at the end of her presentation." 

"Glad that you presented on this topic " 

Thank you! I teach in a diverse, low income, inner city community, and many of my students have anxiety and difficult situations at home. I have discovered the importance of mindfulness in lowering the affective filter of my K-5 students, and connecting with them in a meaningful way so that they want to learn. I love the rainbow breath exercise, and also using the Spanish parts of the body in mindfulness exercises. I have a great llama book that I will be sharing with my students that is in English but teaches them yoga poses in a cute way. I have noticed and felt a huge difference in my students and their enthusiasm about learning when we have taken mindfulness moments and worked on calming techniques. Thank you for some great ideas for how I can do more of them in the TL as my goal is to reach that 90% TL use in my classroom! - NY State Teacher (Mindfulness Workshop)

I love the calm place, and gratitude graffiti. I can easily modify them for my FLES students. I also like to use emojis for various projects and activities, and am going to add a check in activity with emojis to my class routine, as many of my students have ACES, and need help with coping skills, and time with our counselors. Thank you. - NY State Teacher (Social Emotional Learning Workshop)

Thank you for the many, many activity ideas! We are so often told to "do SEL" and it's nice to have so many ideas of what that could look like in the TL put together in one place.

This was a very informative session full of many positive ideas and activities to do with our kiddos. Thank you!

a positive uplifting message with some great ideas to easily insert into our classrooms. thank you for sharing.

I loved your ideas about adapting SEL lessons to target language for advanced learners.

This session is not only very relevant right now, but is great to have as a resource for the future too. I love all the info and links, as well as the modeling of some of the mindful activities. Thanks!

Good reminders. The virtual classroom is so much harder for teachers. I sometimes forget that students are having a hard time, too.

WORKSHOPS:

Connecting in the Virtual Classroom - SEL Strategies in the Target Language

Mindfulness for the Virtual Language Classroom

Having practiced yoga and been through counseling before, only some of this information was new, but it was still a really great presentation specifically geared towards teachers who are sitting a lot more than usual and experiencing a lot of stress with the way our jobs are changing. So while the information was "recycled" for me, it was still presented in a unique way so that I apply old skills to new situations in ways that I hadn't thought of before.