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GCSD Mindfulness Newsletter

Fall Edition 2024

GCSD Mindfulness Newsletter Fall Edition 2024

A note from Val Paine

This newsletter is dedicated to helping you find mindfulness in the midst of the hustle and bustle that occurs each September as students and educators return to the classroom. On Opening Day, Superintendent Graupman challenged us with the theme of “empowerment.” Some ways that you can empower yourself in the new school year include:

  • Set Intentions: Begin the school year with clear intentions and goals.

  • Practice Gratitude: Focus on the positive aspects of your life and work.

  • Manage Stress: Learn effective stress management techniques to maintain your well-being.

  • Connect with Others: Build supportive relationships with colleagues, students and friends

As the leaves change color and the air becomes crisp, it's the perfect time to reflect, rejuvenate, and embrace the new season. Be sure to incorporate regular self-care practices for yourself. Take a walk in the park, collect fallen leaves, or simply sit outside and enjoy the beauty in nature.

I invite you to embrace the new season with mindfulness and intention. This newsletter highlights some upcoming events and professional learning opportunities to support you. Let’s create a more peaceful and fulfilling year together!


In mindfulness,


~Val

Mindfulness Team's Summer Reading

https://www.amazon.com/Unwinding-Anxiety-Science-Shows-Cycles/dp/0593330447

Unwinding Anxiety

We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. We are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone.

What Happened to You?

Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand.

GOOD MORNING, I LOVE YOU: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion

“It is never too late to rewire your brain for positivity―for calm, clarity, and joy,” writes Dr. Shapiro. “I know this is possible because I experienced it. Best of all, you can begin wherever you are.” In short, lively chapters laced with science, wisdom, and story, Shapiro, one of the leading scientists studying the effects of mindfulness on the brain, shows us that acting with kindness and compassion toward ourselves is the key.

Mindful reading for kids

Breathing Makes It Better

Read aloud and breathe along with this sweet story teaching children how to navigate powerful emotions like anger, fear, sadness, confusion, anxiety, and loneliness. With rhythmic writing and engaging illustrations, Breathing Makes It Better guides children to breathe through their feelings and find calm with recurring cues to stop and take a breath. Simple guided practices, like imagining you are a tree blowing in the wind, follow each story to teach children how to apply mindfulness techniques when they need them the most.

Beautiful Oops

Beautiful Oops! from Workman Publishing says "Hooray for mistakes!" This interactive book demonstrates how every mistake is an opportunity to make something beautiful. Unique in every respect, this book is full of pop-ups, lift-the-flaps, tears, holes, overlays, bends, smudges, and more, each demonstrating how blunders can become wonders. Celebrate all life's Beautiful Oops! and teach kids that it's perfectly fine, and sometimes fortuitous, to make a mistake.

Mini Mindful Moments: Gratitude - Teaching Thankfulness

This beautiful book will help you teach the concept of gratitude to your little one. It’s filled with mindful exercises to teach children how to practice and learn how to apply gratitude in their life. It also aims to engage with their developing fine motor skills and heart and mind.

Students learn about and practice three listening skills: body language, focus, and

expressing empathy. In a series of lessons with different conversation starters, they will

practice being active, authentic listeners with a partner– listening to make the speaker

feel heard without reciprocating in the conversation. Speakers will also become more

comfortable sharing about themselves and expressing feelings. https://drive.google.com/file/d/173ULDQrc-XXAW3bQ3Lr9JdVj783xR8ZJ/view?usp=sharing

"It was an extremely powerful articulation that no matter how many billions of dollars we throw at the problems of health in the American population, no amount of money can do the job," says Kabat-Zinn, who at the time was a researcher at University of Massachusetts Medical School and taught yoga and meditation on the side. "We have to ignite passion in people for taking care of themselves." Click on the title to explore the article.

Mindful Coloring at HR summer school program

Mindful Listening activities at HR summer school program

Mindful Movement games at HR summer school program

The Mindfulness Team's Favorite Podcasts

Stretch Break | Stretches at Your Desk | 7 min

Mindful Movement at the ELC

Mindful Story Telling with Mrs. Canale

Mindful Breathing at Longridge

Grieving at Nighttime: Grief Advice from an Expert

New Comers at Olympia work through grief with mindful movement

Email Andrea Antonetty to have a mindfulness coach work with your team

ARHS Basketball Team

Athena Basketball Team

Olympia and Odyssey Flag Football

Upcoming Mindfulness Events

Mindfulness Retreats

*Newsletter Raffle*

Email Michelle.potter@greececsd.org with one thing that you thought was helpful from this newsletter to be entered into a raffle for a mindful prize!

Our Mindfulness Team

Dr. Valerie Paine - Assistant Superintendent for Student Achievement & Community Engagement

Andrea Antonetty - TOSA for Mindfulness

Shanna Calvasina - Inclusive Education at Athena HS

Stephanie Canale - Elementary Teacher - Longridge

Nicole Fabian - Behavior Interventionist - ARHS & ARMS

Julie Parsons - Director of Elementary & Early Childhood Education

Michelle Potter - Math Intervention Teacher

Lori Quinn - TOSA for Equity & SEL

Allison Weise - Assistant Principal at Pine Brook

Twitter: @GCSDMindfulness

Andrea Antonetty TOSA for Mindfulness
Andrea is using Smore to create beautiful newsletters