ABCs of Mindfulness and WHOOP

 As we move into a season of full virtual learning for all of our students let's take a pause together to mindfully accept this current situation.

Mindfulness helps us be still and process our here and now. Right now we are asking that students learn at home. Right here, in your home, your student will learn. 

As mindfulness teaches us to accept the present it also helps us create our own calm and peace with the here and now. 

Today I wanted to share the ABCs of Mindfulness. I hope that this gives you an overview of mindfulness and some ideas of how to add it to your daily schedule. 

Mindful doesn't have to be "one more thing to add to your daily to-do list." Mindfulness can easily become a natural part of your daily life. For example, I like to start my personal day off with a goal and a gratitude. I also love doing this with my students. It is a great way to set your day with purposeful intention and a positive attitude. One Goal. One Gratitude.

I would also like to introduce you to my goal setting. It is a technique I learned over the summer in a class I took. It is called mental contrasting. It helps you see your goal and what could stand in the way and helps you formulate a plan for success. The process itself is called WOOP.

Below are the two pictures I would like to share of the ABCs of Mindfulness and WHOOP goal setting.

I hope this helps you get started on a positive and productive path to this new journey of learning. We are all in this together. Please feel free to email me, or leave comments on the posts. I want to help and support in any way I can.

Thank you for taking the time to check out the new Fortis Mindfulness at Home Blog. I hope you keep coming back to check in for more helpful tips, ideas, and support.

Pamela McKenzie

Achievement and Behavior Support Specialist

55.pmckenzie@nhaschools.com

How to Support Mindfulness At Home

 Hello and Thanks for taking the time to join me and your student on a journey to becoming more mindful.

Mindfulness is defined as: paying attention, on purpose, without judgement. 

Simply put, using all of your senses to see what is happening all around you at the present moment and being alright with that moment.

At Fortis we utilize mindfulness to help students increase attention, decrease negative behavior, decrease stress, and be present and pay attention.

Hopefully your student is coming home and sharing with you the mindful activities they are learning and engaging in daily. There is a wonderful program we use to help support our mindful journey. This program is called Inner Explorer.

Inner Explorer is an easy to use mindfulness program which the teachers simply have to push play and everyone participates.

Mindfulness using Inner Explorer has been shown to reduce disruptive behaviors by 60% and increase GPA by 15%. Imagine your student feel positive, earning Purples and Greens and going from a 75% to a 90%! Who wouldn't want to see that happen for their student?!

This blog will be a monthly opportunity to take a closer look at how we connect Moral Focus with Mindfulness. This blog will help you explore mindfulness and how to utilize it at home.

Each month when you come to look at the blog it will have some general mindfulness information and then something specific to Kinder-2nd, 3rd-5th, and 6th-8th.

Here is a great link to an introduction to Inner Explorer. Inner Explorer