Social and Emotional Learning

Hello from guest blogger, Lisa Robinson!  This week is my second one in the program presented in “Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World” by Mark Williams and Danny Penman.  I’m repeating the first week in the 8-week program because I lost my momentum during the July 4th holiday weekend.  I want to spend more time with the week one content and really incorporate it into my everyday experience. I want to share with you a wonderful meditation from the program that I’m doing twice each day, the Mindfulness of the Body and Breath meditation.  It’s a great start and end to my day, and helps me stay focused on the present.  Here’s a link so you can experience it, too: Mindfulness Meditation  What about Social and Emotional Learning? Mindfulness takes us back to social and emotional learning, or SEL.  In her work through The Hawn Foundation, Goldie Hawn (yes, the famous actor and celebrity) has collaborated with Scholastic to offer the MindUP curriculum for children. In the book, “The MindUp Curriculum: Brain-Focused Strategies for Learning – and Living (Grades 6 – 8), one of the lessons has to do with mindful awareness.  Other curriculum guides are available for Grades Pre-K – 2 and for Grades 3 - 5.  Students learn how to use the concept of what is mindful and unmindful to understand their own thoughts and take appropriate actions.  They find out about the