# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
MiSP has developed these sessions to support anyone interested in finding out how to bring mindfulness to their school.

All welcome - pupils, teachers, school staff and governors, health care professionals, parents... anyone interested in mindfulness and young people.

The session will last for 2.5 hours and cover:

What is mindfulness?

Why mindfulness is beneficial to both teachers and students

How MiSP can help you to learn mindfulness, teach mindfully and take mindfulness to your school

As a UK charity, we want to make these information sessions as accessible as possible but in order to cover the cost of hiring the venue and providing refreshments we do make a small charge. The charge is £5.00 + VAT and booking fee.

MiSP plans to hold these sessions in all regions of the UK and we are looking to work with local volunteers in each region to help facilitate this. If you would like to learn more about how to support MiSP in this please contact communications@mindfulnessinschools.org

Alternatively, we hope you can come and listen to us at a conference or event near you and find out more about mindfulness and how you can introduce it to your school. Please note some of these events may not be free of charge.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Information Sessions, Conferences and Events - Mindfulness in Schools Project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
MiSP has developed these sessions to support anyone interested in finding out how to bring mindfulness to their school. All welcome - pupils, teachers, school staff and governors, health care professionals, parents... anyone interested in mindfulness and young people. The session will last for 2.5 hours and cover: What is mindfulness?

# data[].attributes.headline
It's time for Social and Emotional Learning for All

# data[].attributes.subject
It's time for Social and Emotional Learning for All

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Over the last decade, increased attention has been paid to the social and emotional learning (SEL) needs of children. This area of learning is necessary and essential to address -- for children and adults. It's time that schools take responsibility for meeting the entire range of learning needs that educators have -- the need to use new technologies, to understand and implement new standards, to use new assessment strategies, and their needs to attend to their own social and emotional learning.

SEL and Adults

SEL for adults isn't that different than what we are starting to offer children. SEL includes recognizing and understanding emotions, strategies for managing emotions, developing the ability to recognize and understand emotions in others, and strategies for responding to the emotions of others. SEL also includes explicitly teaching and practicing strategies to develop emotional resiliency -- the ability to bounce back after adversity. This is an area of professional development, I believe, that deserves more attention and time than workshops on the new standards, the Common Core. Why? SEL is foundational for educators to build the skills to manage the tidal wave of changes and to be effective in their responses to changes.

Why SEL for educators?

I'm sure that those reading this can come up with a dozen reasons why the grown-ups working in schools might benefit from SEL, but I'm going to list the top reasons I use to convince those with power (decision-making, resource-allocation) that spending precious training time on SEL for educators is necessary, perhaps urgent, and incredibly valuable.

1) Feelings exist. Teachers (and principals, assistant principals, coaches, and so on) have feelings. We can try to ignore that they exist or wish that people would deal with them on their own outside of work, but we could also acknowledge them and see how we can address them. Feelings might just be the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about.

2) Change generates more feelings. And we're in a tidal wave of changes in our education system: Common Core, new assessments, new curriculum, new technology, and so on. For the majority of human beings, our primary emotional response to change is anxiety. It's just the way our brains are wired. We can fight with our neurological structures, or we can work with them. There are some simple ways to work with our responses to change so that they don't spiral out into craziness. The wonderful thing about our brains is that they can change, they are moldable, neuroplasticity, the scientists call it. We can work with them so that we can manage the emotions that come up with change. This is what SEL is all about.

3) Feelings have consequences. They can motivate and energize and bring us closer to others, or they can make us sick, angry, "resistant", and a major obstacle to positive change. We deal with them or they're going to continue to take over.

An Ultimatum

For the last ten years I've been an instructional coach and have been thinking about how to help adults improve their practice so that our students get the education they need and deserve. Emotions come up in coaching conversations more than anything else: the need to get support in understanding and processing them, the need to experience empathy, the need to feel that you're not alone. I've wished this wasn't the case, (and that we could just talk about lesson planning or literature circles) but I've learned that unless I address emotions (and essentially offer SEL), we can't get to the rest of it. I spend a great amount of coaching time offering social and emotional learning support. And people can't learn when they are feeling overwhelmed by emotions. One of my maxims as a coach is to meet people where they are. If they're sad, I need to meet them there.

I'm going to make another broad and provocative statement: Unless we (those of us working for school reform and transformation) address feelings and attend to the feelings that adults have and include social and emotional learning into the scope of PD that teachers are expected to engage in, it's all over. The battle is lost.

The numbers I use to argue this case start with the statistics around teacher retention. In the Oakland Unified School District where I work, we lose a third of our teachers every year. After five years, only one in five teachers still remain. The turn over of principals is even higher -- although it's not tracked as carefully as teacher turnover. We're losing professional capital, institutional knowledge, and the ability to sustain change efforts; we also invest a lot of money into all kinds of things that we lose when we have such high turnover.

Next Important Steps

We can't expect teachers to do their best work and to be calm and patient with all kids if they're not getting support for managing their emotions -- and if in addition, they're being yelled at, intimidated, or unappreciated by those supervising them (which sadly is the case in many places).

It's not working for us to wish that they'd deal with their feelings outside of the workplace; it's time that administrators at all levels of educational organizations take some responsibility for helping educators manage the stresses of working in schools. This isn't as complicated or as hard as it might seem.

In my next blog I'll offer some simple suggestions for social and emotional learning for adults working in schools. What are your ideas and thoughts on this topic? Please share in the comments section below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
It's Time for Social and Emotional Learning for All | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Over the last decade, increased attention has been paid to the social and emotional learning (SEL) needs of children. This area of learning is necessary and essential to address -- for children and adults.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Guest Post by Julie DeNeen

Educators and policy makers are starting to realize that the current educational system doesn't necessarily guarantee a well-balanced and healthy adult, even if grades show that a student has learned the concepts. Psychologists especially insist that education models take into account the whole person. Here are 20 reasons why.

1. Emotions impact learning

The brain is a complex organ that cannot be fractured into separate parts and pieces. A student who is feeling confident and healthy will be better able to "hear" a lecture or absorb new material if their emotional state is balanced.

2. Learning is not just about the acquisition of facts

Learning doesn't just mean that a person has memorized a concept. Knowledge must be applied to real world situations where there are other people to connect and converse with.

3. Emotional health is crucial for success

Success in the world means that an individual can interact with his or her environment in a meaningful and helpful way.

When depression or anxiety sets in, this cripples a person's ability to share their learning with others. The knowledge is lost behind a wall of mental illness.

4. Creativity is necessary for innovation

New ideas are birthed from creativity. Creativity cannot be expressed unless the student is engaged and able to commit brainpower to applying the knowledge in an innovative way.

It is like Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Creativity will not be allowed to work if other needs and problems aren't dealt with first.

5. Inspiration drives the desire to find out more

Inspiration is another emotional feeling that propels students to dig deeper. When an online course inspires someone to do his or her own research, it further cements the learning process.

Inspiration is rare in an individual who is emotionally unwell.

6. Positivity promotes productivity

"Feel good feelings" give a student the sensation that helps promote concentration. This, in turn, leads to an increase in productivity.

The more a student can get done, the more opportunity there is for more learning!

7. Depression reduces the ability to finish what you've started

Depression kills all feelings of confidence, inspiration, and creativity.

If educators don't monitor their student's emotional well-being, people may drop out of courses when life events cripple them emotionally.

8. Memories can be altered with lack of sleep and/or trauma

It does not matter how organized a course is if a student is not in good shape emotionally. Memory function is reduced, as the person must use 100% of their brain to just get through the day.

Fatigue is also a side effect of emotional sickness, and this impacts memory too.

9. There are layers of intelligence

The ability to spout off facts is only one type of intelligence. In fact, people with solid emotional health can often function better in the world, even if they are not as intelligent or well educated as others.

Isn't this a form of intelligence, to be able to live in the world in a meaningful way?

10. A person's worldview is colored by their emotional well-being

Individual perception is a crucial component to success. If a student cannot see himself as someone who can offer the world anything, the knowledge acquired throughout their education will not reproduce itself in any tangible goals.

11. Connecting life, knowledge, and emotions makes learning more meaningful

Learning does not happen in a vacuum. A student is more likely to continue his education when he sees the concepts and values affecting his life in a meaningful way.

When boredom, despair, or frustration set in, has a course succeeded in its goal to educate? It cannot always be the fault of the student.

Sometimes it is a sign that a course needs to rethink its curriculum.

12. Holistic teaching can help those with learning disabilities

More attention needs to be paid to those students who don't learn with the same speed or productivity as the average person.

Courses that take into consideration the abilities (or disabilities) of its students, can then help tailor the course in a way that gives everyone the best chance of success.

13. Education is only useful if the student has a well-developed "voice"

Courses should consider how a student will then communicate the knowledge they've learned in a work environment. Helping students develop their own voice will ensure that the concepts learned in the course will impact a person's ability to make a difference. After all, this is the reason for education in the first place.

14. School doesn't always help emotional well-being

Unfortunately, some school environments do the opposite of promoting wellbeing. Online courses don't have to contend with a classroom full of students, but how the course is laid out (its accessibility to an instructor, materials, other students, etc.) will impact a person's experience. You want them to walk away feeling like they "belonged" in the class.

This is an important part of learning that can't be ignored for online educators.

15. Online learning can be adapted to those with mental disorders

Throughout history, those with mental illness have been isolated and ostracized because of their disability.

Online learning has the ability to reach this population of people, but great care needs to be taken to help reduce frustration and hopelessness for those who join a class. Since mental disorders require a holistic approach to healing, education can be a part of that process.

What a profound opportunity.

16. Emotional health can signal the effectiveness of the learning that is occurring

In some cases, online educators can evaluate the success of their courses based on the emotional health of their students. For example, an online psychology course could also have a practicum that gives the students the opportunity to do some of their own internal work. Not only are the concepts being taught, but also a student's emotional well-being is enhanced.

17. Happiness gives people the perception of success, encouraging them to keep moving

Even if a student is struggling to pass an exam, a happy and balanced mindset will give them an edge over another student who may be excelling grade wise, but miserable emotionally.

The happier person will continue onward, taking more classes and doing his or her best, even if the obstacles seem overwhelming.

18. Evaluating failure with the whole person in mind helps to measure the effectiveness of a course

If a student passes an online course but then struggles to hold down a job, has the course been successful? It brings to light the purpose of education.

Teachers may argue that the course material has nothing to do with job responsibility, but what point is there in educating an individual on advanced mathematics if he can't hold down a job?

Isn't it just as important to teach people responsibility? Educators must evaluate their courses using more than just grades.

19. Emotional well-being as part of the curriculum helps with developing interpersonal skills

Every course should have a component in the curriculum that gives students a chance to try out their concepts and knowledge in an interpersonal setting. Knowledge should have exponential impact, growing with each person that hears and applies it.

20. Education will continue to succeed if it takes a holistic approach

More and more, people are starting to see the gaping holes in the current educational system. Online education has a unique opportunity to take the lead in the world of education by adopting a holistic approach.

Without the restraints of traditional education, the potential is there for online courses to transform the way society handles the educational process.

Julie DeNeen has her bachelor's degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of New Haven. She spent several years working for a local Connecticut school at the district level, implementing new technologies to help students and teachers in the classroom. She also taught workshops to teachers about the importance of digital student management software, designed to keep students, parents, and teachers connected to the learning process.

OTHER TWA POSTS ABOUT HOLISTIC TEACHING:

Defining an Educational App with Jayne Clare of Teachers with Apps

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Holistic Teaching: Why Educators & Student's Emotional Well-Being

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Guest Post by Julie DeNeen Educators and policy makers are starting to realize that the current educational system doesn't necessarily guarantee a well-balanced and healthy adult, even if grades show that a student has learned the concepts. Psychologists especially insist that education models take into account the whole person.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Guest Post by Julie DeNeen

Educators and policy makers are starting to realize that the current educational system doesn't necessarily guarantee a well-balanced and healthy adult, even if grades show that a student has learned the concepts. Psychologists especially insist that education models take into account the whole person. Here are 20 reasons why.

1. Emotions impact learning

The brain is a complex organ that cannot be fractured into separate parts and pieces. A student who is feeling confident and healthy will be better able to "hear" a lecture or absorb new material if their emotional state is balanced.

2. Learning is not just about the acquisition of facts

Learning doesn't just mean that a person has memorized a concept. Knowledge must be applied to real world situations where there are other people to connect and converse with.

3. Emotional health is crucial for success

Success in the world means that an individual can interact with his or her environment in a meaningful and helpful way.

When depression or anxiety sets in, this cripples a person's ability to share their learning with others. The knowledge is lost behind a wall of mental illness.

4. Creativity is necessary for innovation

New ideas are birthed from creativity. Creativity cannot be expressed unless the student is engaged and able to commit brainpower to applying the knowledge in an innovative way.

It is like Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Creativity will not be allowed to work if other needs and problems aren't dealt with first.

5. Inspiration drives the desire to find out more

Inspiration is another emotional feeling that propels students to dig deeper. When an online course inspires someone to do his or her own research, it further cements the learning process.

Inspiration is rare in an individual who is emotionally unwell.

6. Positivity promotes productivity

"Feel good feelings" give a student the sensation that helps promote concentration. This, in turn, leads to an increase in productivity.

The more a student can get done, the more opportunity there is for more learning!

7. Depression reduces the ability to finish what you've started

Depression kills all feelings of confidence, inspiration, and creativity.

If educators don't monitor their student's emotional well-being, people may drop out of courses when life events cripple them emotionally.

8. Memories can be altered with lack of sleep and/or trauma

It does not matter how organized a course is if a student is not in good shape emotionally. Memory function is reduced, as the person must use 100% of their brain to just get through the day.

Fatigue is also a side effect of emotional sickness, and this impacts memory too.

9. There are layers of intelligence

The ability to spout off facts is only one type of intelligence. In fact, people with solid emotional health can often function better in the world, even if they are not as intelligent or well educated as others.

Isn't this a form of intelligence, to be able to live in the world in a meaningful way?

10. A person's worldview is colored by their emotional well-being

Individual perception is a crucial component to success. If a student cannot see himself as someone who can offer the world anything, the knowledge acquired throughout their education will not reproduce itself in any tangible goals.

11. Connecting life, knowledge, and emotions makes learning more meaningful

Learning does not happen in a vacuum. A student is more likely to continue his education when he sees the concepts and values affecting his life in a meaningful way.

When boredom, despair, or frustration set in, has a course succeeded in its goal to educate? It cannot always be the fault of the student.

Sometimes it is a sign that a course needs to rethink its curriculum.

12. Holistic teaching can help those with learning disabilities

More attention needs to be paid to those students who don't learn with the same speed or productivity as the average person.

Courses that take into consideration the abilities (or disabilities) of its students, can then help tailor the course in a way that gives everyone the best chance of success.

13. Education is only useful if the student has a well-developed "voice"

Courses should consider how a student will then communicate the knowledge they've learned in a work environment. Helping students develop their own voice will ensure that the concepts learned in the course will impact a person's ability to make a difference. After all, this is the reason for education in the first place.

14. School doesn't always help emotional well-being

Unfortunately, some school environments do the opposite of promoting wellbeing. Online courses don't have to contend with a classroom full of students, but how the course is laid out (its accessibility to an instructor, materials, other students, etc.) will impact a person's experience. You want them to walk away feeling like they "belonged" in the class.

This is an important part of learning that can't be ignored for online educators.

15. Online learning can be adapted to those with mental disorders

Throughout history, those with mental illness have been isolated and ostracized because of their disability.

Online learning has the ability to reach this population of people, but great care needs to be taken to help reduce frustration and hopelessness for those who join a class. Since mental disorders require a holistic approach to healing, education can be a part of that process.

What a profound opportunity.

16. Emotional health can signal the effectiveness of the learning that is occurring

In some cases, online educators can evaluate the success of their courses based on the emotional health of their students. For example, an online psychology course could also have a practicum that gives the students the opportunity to do some of their own internal work. Not only are the concepts being taught, but also a student's emotional well-being is enhanced.

17. Happiness gives people the perception of success, encouraging them to keep moving

Even if a student is struggling to pass an exam, a happy and balanced mindset will give them an edge over another student who may be excelling grade wise, but miserable emotionally.

The happier person will continue onward, taking more classes and doing his or her best, even if the obstacles seem overwhelming.

18. Evaluating failure with the whole person in mind helps to measure the effectiveness of a course

If a student passes an online course but then struggles to hold down a job, has the course been successful? It brings to light the purpose of education.

Teachers may argue that the course material has nothing to do with job responsibility, but what point is there in educating an individual on advanced mathematics if he can't hold down a job?

Isn't it just as important to teach people responsibility? Educators must evaluate their courses using more than just grades.

19. Emotional well-being as part of the curriculum helps with developing interpersonal skills

Every course should have a component in the curriculum that gives students a chance to try out their concepts and knowledge in an interpersonal setting. Knowledge should have exponential impact, growing with each person that hears and applies it.

20. Education will continue to succeed if it takes a holistic approach

More and more, people are starting to see the gaping holes in the current educational system. Online education has a unique opportunity to take the lead in the world of education by adopting a holistic approach.

Without the restraints of traditional education, the potential is there for online courses to transform the way society handles the educational process.

Julie DeNeen has her bachelor's degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of New Haven. She spent several years working for a local Connecticut school at the district level, implementing new technologies to help students and teachers in the classroom. She also taught workshops to teachers about the importance of digital student management software, designed to keep students, parents, and teachers connected to the learning process.

OTHER TWA POSTS ABOUT HOLISTIC TEACHING:

Defining an Educational App with Jayne Clare of Teachers with Apps

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Holistic Teaching: Why Educators & Student's Emotional Well-Being

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Guest Post by Julie DeNeen Educators and policy makers are starting to realize that the current educational system doesn't necessarily guarantee a well-balanced and healthy adult, even if grades show that a student has learned the concepts. Psychologists especially insist that education models take into account the whole person.