My students need the yoga kit so they will each have their own mat to practice yoga in the classroom. The oil is to promote a calm atmosphere, and the game is to make it fun.
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
My students have mild and moderate intellectual disabilities and emotional disorders. My students are learning in a high generational poverty school where their worlds consist mainly of school and the small community they live in. The teachers at my school work diligently to open doors to worlds the students often don't know exist. I work to emphasize the importance of knowledge and learning to my students while integrating social skills in our everyday lessons.
My students just want to be accepted, and they have hearts of gold, though many of them don't even know it yet.
I wish you could see the joy and the gleam in their eyes when they accomplish a goal, on their own, that opens doors to worlds they never knew existed. Our school thrives on providing students the opportunities to dream and to know there is more out there for them than the small world in which they currently live.
My Project
A growing number of scientific studies suggest that yoga may enhance students’ mind-body awareness, self-regulation, and physical fitness which may, in turn, promote improved behavior, mental state, health, and performance. I have incorporated mindfulness in my classroom for the past three years, as well as taken my student on trips to local yoga studios. It has shown to be truly beneficial for my students, as it calms their busy minds, enabling them to focus and learn. I would really like to start incorporating more yoga during our "personal care" class, as yoga is a way of self care.
School-based yoga cultivates competencies in mind-body awareness, self-regulation, and physical fitness.
With this kit, the oils, and the yoga game, I will be able to teach my students the joy of yoga in a safe space. Not only the students benefit from this though. I (the teacher) would benefit as well. Taken together, these competencies may lead to improvements in students’ behavior, mental state, health, and performance, as well as teacher resilience, effectiveness and overall classroom climate. By teaching my students how to pay attention to the relationship between their mind and body, yoga will help them notice the impact of stress on their well-being. Another great benefit of yoga in the classroom is that yoga helps calm the fight or flight response, and induce the relaxation response, which in turn helps students calm themselves down and be less reactive in difficult situations. I could go on and on about the benefits of yoga in the classroom, but to summarize, I am just really excited that my students have started to show an interest in yoga, and I want to foster that interest and keep the momentum going.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Nunnally and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
