Leveraging breathing and relaxation techniques in schools has been a topic of growing interest lately — evidenced by this KPCC Southern California Public Radio report on mindfulness that references the work of the Orange County Department of Education.
Over the summer, OCDE’s Center for Healthy Kids & Schools hosted a Resilient Mindful Learner Summer Institute. The three-day program was designed to provide stress management and mindfulness training to educators and other school-based professionals, enabling them to be healthy role models for students. It also trained participants to use a toolkit of simple stress management, attention and self-management skills that can be taught to students.
Reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, who covers education for KPCC (89.3 FM), attended the second day of the institute, and he later visited a school in Anaheim to observe mindfulness in action.
You can listen to his story or read a version on the KPCC website. And for more information about OCDE’s work on this topic, visit the department’s Resilient Mindful Learner Project webpage.