Our school is a therapeutic day school program whose task is to provide emotional support and academic opportunities to children who have been unable to succeed in community school settings due to emotional, learning, and behavioral difficulties.
The majority of our students live at a residential children's home and are wards of the state.
Our school runs as a trauma-informed program, aiming to help our students grow from their pasts and learn how to cope in effective ways. Despite the challenges that our students face, they are incredible children. Their resiliency, love for learning, and curiosity are truly inspiring.
I strive to make my classroom a welcoming and safe community and to help my students explore learning and grow into independent and productive citizens.
My Project
Mindfulness matters! My students are challenged by big emotions due to mental health needs, past traumas, and related disabilities. These needs create so many barriers for them, and I need to develop new skills to help teach them how to become more centered and mindful.
The professional development courses I am requesting will guide me in how to teach chair yoga and breathing techniques to my students.
Just thinking of the growth in me as a teacher after being empowered by these skills makes me so excited!
While I have incorporated stretching, yoga poses, and breathing into my classroom thus far, I have never attended an actual training on HOW to implement these exercises into the classroom. Research states that mindful practices such as these greatly help increase time on task, as well as help with children affected by traumatic events.
I would love the ability to learn from professionals in this area and bring these research-based strategies into my needy classroom.
More than a third of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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 Mrs. Szczecinski and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
