A lot of folks seem to think that all kids have trouble shifting from unstructured summertime to the structure of the new academic year. Some do, of course. But when the first day of school rolled around here, my granddaughter Anna jumped out of bed, excited to get...
By Dawn Craig I hadn’t planned on teaching Yoga Calm in a daycare setting. My sister had merely told the owner of my nephews’ daycare center about my experience using it as a counselor. When I presented the sample lesson plans the owner had asked for, it was like I’d...
So you recognize the importance of bringing more movement into your classroom for both academics and health, but just how do you actually do it!? Meet veteran elementary school teacher and Certified Yoga Calm Instructor Laurie Shonkwiler. Laurie has been teaching...
Another year, another testing season…though now with some welcome (if long-overdue) gestures toward “right-sizing” testing, most notably the Every Student Succeeds Act. This legislation, wrote Laura Moser earlier this month on Slate, seriously dialed back the emphasis...
It was like magic. In a room crowded with more than 100 families, music blaring, pizza and popcorn booths scattered throughout, invariably, the kids would find us at the 50th anniversary celebration of Portland’s Head Start program. Our booth was simple, unadorned,...
One concept we talk about quite a bit in our Yoga Calm trainings is the power of modeling behavior – whether it’s the teacher’s modeling for the students or students modeling for each other. It’s one reason why mindfulness is such a critical skill to cultivate...
