Education Night
MyIntent Education Resources
As the school year starts, we want to acknowledge that this is an unprecedented time for all of us. We are so grateful for all of our educators working hard to create meaningful lessons while keeping everyone safe. With our Education Program, we hope to help assist teachers who want to bring mindfulness into their classrooms with our MyIntent Activity. According to CASEL, “SEL, social emotional learning, is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”
We hosted an educators workshop with special guest Tina R. - Teacher and SEL/Mindfulness Practitioner to help the educators in our Maker Community find funds to help them bring MyIntent into their classrooms. Here are the key points from our Educators Night:
Create a Vision for how you can incorporate MyIntent into your curriculum:
Educators in our community have shared how they want to use the MyIntent activity as a part of their class' curriculum by incorporating it into an assignment about mindfulness. Then they give each student a tangible takeaway after the lesson. Tina shared how she has utilized the MyIntent activity into she school year in a couple different ways!
In 2017, led by her students, Tina’s class ignited a school-wide mindfulness exercise! Inspired by their teacher's mindfulness practices, they wanted to create their own bracelets! Their passion drove this school wide project! Read the full story here.
Last year, Tina incorporated MyIntent into her Positive Psychology class, and each student created their own bracelet as a result of their lesson!
Bringing the Vision to life - finding funding:
One of the focal points of our conversation with Tina was where to find funding and, she has shared a few different options she's found over the years to bring her vision to life. The best thing about bringing together a group of educators is how willing each person is to share their resources to so that their peers can succeed as well! Here are the top 3 ways to find funding that were discussed!
1. Teachers can write to their federal programs office to receive funding from Special Education, English Language Learning, and Title I programs as long as the activity is tied to your curriculum. This means that if you are an English teacher, the activity must be incorporated into one of your English lessons such as a reflection journal or vocabulary exercise. The MyIntent activity must be incorporated into the education of the students for it to be eligible for funding through your federal programs office.
2. Parent Teacher Association is a wonderful source for additional funding for your MyIntent Project in school. Involving parents will also help reinforce the importance of mindfulness in their child's life. This is a project that can involve the whole family!
3. Donors Choose is an organization committed to helping teachers get the funds they need for their classroom projects, Donors Choose, allows teachers to receive donations from their community and corporations to make their vision come to life.
Pro-Tip: Teacher should get their Donors Choose request in by the end of the 3rd quarter (September) so that corporate entities can donate to the project before the end of the year! These corporations have an annual donation goal in order to receive a tax write off each year. By the end of the 3rd quarter, if the corporate entity has not reached the goal, they look to Donors Choose make it across the finish line. This insight was given by Yamilette "Dr. Yam" Willams, Ed. D., Former Chief Academic Officer and Owner of Synergy Solutions Partners K12 Consulting.
The Vision taking shape - the cost component:
At MyIntent, we strive to be conscious of how teachers purchase in order to bring their vision to life. One teacher may need to purchase supplies for 150 students, and with that in mind, we've created our Education Program where educators have access to a discount code they can use for their classroom! Below is our cost breakdown and recommended number of Maker Kits and bracelets for the amount of students and faculty!
Foundation of Mindfulness in Education
Plus Additional Resources!
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The Importance of Social Emotional Learning curriculum
Different from Math and English, there is no standardized curriculum for SEL. Schools across the country do not need to incorporate it into their system, but for schools that want to take the step of implementing SEL, CASEL (the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning), is a trusted source of knowledge and high quality resources and evidence based SEL. They have created a comprehensive school guide to assist schools who want to bring SEL at the school level.
SEL is a systemic change - it starts with an Educator's personal practice
There are many organizations who provide SEL curriculum. Tina shared the importance of exploring and cultivating personal practices. For some this may be a formal daily mindfulness practice. She also discussed the importance of mindful living, choosing our intention to focus our attention. Tina gave these amazing resources for educators who are looking to find new material to help with their SEL journey and looking to teach at the intersection mindfulness, compassion, and equity.
Dr. Dena Simmons, the Assistant Director of Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, supports schools to use the power of emotions to create a more compassionate and just society. Dena shares the importance of mindfulness with an equity lens in this article.
Rhonda Magee, author of The Inner Work of Racial Justice, shares that when we are paying attention and are more aware of ourselves and our suffering, then we can identify suffering in others. Then we can take action with compassion and empathy.
Meena Srinivasan, thought leader in SEL and mindfulness in education, advocates at the intersection of SEL, Mindfulness, and Social Justice.
Join our Community of Educators!
MyIntent supports leaders in educational roles - such as teachers, educators, and camp counselors - in teaching mindfulness and social-emotional learning through our 'What's Your Word?" activity.
We are actively working with the community to continuously bring new resources and connect leaders with each other to share their journey as well!
We give a 50% discount to anyone working with youth in an educational setting (e.g schools, camps, after-school programs, etc). Learn more on our Education Page!
Don't forget to share this with the educators in your life if they are looking for ideas or funding for their next class project!
