The students I work with are amazing, kind souls who are pulled from diverse backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses. Our school contains many fantastic programs within the building, including a pre-k, a charter high school, and two intensive special needs programs, all of which assist in building our students' empathy, compassion, and character.
All of these kiddos have been through a lot over the last couple of years with the entire world being shaken up and shattered, but they all handled the struggles and big issues like champs and pushed through with school pride and great courage, now it's time to heal the trauma.
With the current state of the world and the hecticness of the past couple of years, I am concerned for my students' mental and emotional health along with their need to heal from the trauma they've experienced. We have great support systems in the building but it can often be hard for anyone to speak up when they are struggling; I am hoping to use what I learn in Breathe 4 Change to support my students' souls and help teach them how to move through/process the tougher points of life as the amazing young people they are!
My Project
Setting boundaries and taking care of oneself is often viewed as a very hard task, especially when you are wired to serve. These ideas have been overwhelmingly difficult for me to comprehend for many years and it's getting to the point where I am struggling to give my students my best because I'm pouring too much of myself into others and not refueling. I see the same struggle around me all the time, whether with co-workers my family, friends, but most concernedly, my students.
This program is dedicated to training educators on how to set appropriate boundaries, practice self-care, grow social-emotional learning in the classroom, and develop/support them to embody and enlighten their students on the skills necessary to live a healthy, full, and complete life.
This is accomplished through mindful movement in the classroom (a method that has been proven to boost student morale and assist positively in academic learning/retention), guided reflection, and open sharing. By the end of this training I will be a certified yoga instructor (allowing me to teach important wellness classes in my school to both staff and students), I will have an important certification in social-emotional learning (allowing me to run important workshops for school districts), and I will have some graduate credits waiting for me. At the end of the day, as wonderful as all of these pros are, the greatest perk to me and what I am most excited about is being able to help my students be better prepared to handle their mental and emotional health. Nothing feels worse than struggling internally and feeling like no one understands or can help, it is my goal to ensure that none of my students ever have to feel that way in my classroom.
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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. Araldi and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
