Teaching Mindfulness Strategies to Deal with Pandemic

“We give teachers tools and strategies in an engaging way to use for their own self-care. Then we flip that on its side and say, ‘Now this is how you would use them with your students.’”

-Julia Handelman , Co-Founder, Youth Yoga Project

“Attending to the emotional well-being of our school communities is something that’s always on the forefront of our minds,” says Lauren Greenspan, co-founder of Youth Yoga Project (YYP), an organization dedicated to supporting the social, emotional, cognitive, and physical health of both students and educators. With the heightened stresses brought on by Covid-19, this concern has deepened. 

“When the global pandemic hit in March, it changed the way schools looked,” she remarks. After an unprecedented spring, she adds, “We knew that healing and gaining strategies that build resilience were going to be the primary focuses for educators when they returned to school in the fall.”

Ms. Greenspan, and her colleague and YYP co-founder Julia Handelman, have been working with students and educators in grades K-12 in central Ohio for the past five years to impart the mental health benefits that result from using yoga, mindfulness strategies, and movement to cope with daily challenges and the stress that results.

“We achieve our mission by training teachers to take the tools and best practices they know help them stay well, focused, and calm and teach them directly to their students in the classroom,” Ms. Greenspan explains.

“Our idea is to offer professional development through experiential activities,” adds Ms. Handelman.  “We give teachers tools and strategies in an engaging way to use for their own self-care. Then we flip that on its side and say, ‘Now this is how you would use them with your students.’”

Noting the increased strains facing both teachers and learners as the pandemic continued, YYP applied to the Jennings Foundation last spring for a grant to offer a virtual, summer workshop for teachers and administrators. The training would allow participants to learn about and practice mindfulness strategies and then develop tangible plans to help them manage any added stress in their buildings in the fall. As Ms. Greenspan states: “We really wanted to put emotional health at the forefront of back-to-school planning. We knew there would be so many moving pieces and different priorities for educators as they transition the way they do school. We wanted to make our best effort to encourage them and lift them up. If they aren’t taking care of the emotional health of the school community, then nothing else is going to fall in place.”

With grant funding available for scholarships, YYP reached out to their established school partners in the Columbus and South-Western city schools for participants. Due to high demand, they enrolled almost twice the number they expected. Educators came from 10 different schools – elementary to high school – in the two targeted districts.

Creating Structured Time to Plan

The workshop was designed to engage educators as they worked in school leadership teams. Each team was made up of a building’s teachers, administrators, counselors, and other support staff whose role is to focus on the social/emotional health within their school community. The training was divided into four sessions, which were held weekly in July. Topics focused on the following: psychological impact of Covid-19 on staff and students; educator self-care and mindfulness strategies for educator resilience; practical strategies to empower students to stay learner ready in the classroom; and creating structures that support student and staff well-being. In between the live training sessions, the school leadership teams completed extension work and structured planning. The final assignment was to create a thorough and thoughtful back-to-school plan to help students and staff adjust to the “new normal” created by the pandemic. YYP incorporated follow-up sessions and activities into the program, which are taking place during the school year.

Youth Yoga Project empowers students to use their most powerful tool…their breath.

Post Workshop Comments

“This course has been an impactful and eye-opening experience.”

“This training brought us together and, thankfully, forced us to think about SEL needs of our students and staff.” 

“This training gave so many practical, manageable ideas for incorporating mindfulness practices into staff and student routines.”

“This training made me think of myself first. I realized how much stress I was carrying and learned how to do small movements and breathing exercises to help.

YYP continues to offer monthly, on-line, self-care yoga classes on YouTube, not only for the summer workshop participants but for any Ohio teacher who would like to join in. “We know that teachers really enjoy it when we make it as accessible as possible for them to breathe, move, and relax together,” says Ms. Handelman. “It allows them to think outside of the box – they learn how they can take just five minutes to move their bodies, and it refreshes them.  To be an excellent teacher you have to have stamina, and stamina over your Zoom link is totally different than in-person teaching. The way to build that stamina is through movement breaks.”

As a challenging school year continues, both Ms. Greenspan and Ms. Handelman emphasize the importance of teachers prioritizing self-care in order to better meet the needs of their students.  

“We are a school partner that believes in educators, believes in their potential, and believes the school community is creating positive places for young people to thrive in,” Ms. Handelman remarks. “We want them to know that they are doing a great job. But we want them to know they need ‘to put their oxygen mask on first.’

“To do their best work, they have to take care of themselves first.”

For more information about Youth Yoga Project, please visit youthyogaproject.net