847-853-0600
MINDFUL SCHOOL COMMUNITIES
Our goal is to create healthy and mindful school communities through sustainable programs as we prepare a generation of students to thrive in a compassionate, aware and dynamic world.
We achieve this by not just reaching students alone, but by including parents, staff and administration. Understanding how our mind works and learning how to regulate our emotions are as important a part of education as any other arts and sciences taught in our schools.
BENEFITS TO STUDENTS
Improves Attention Span
Regulates Emotion & Emotional Response
Decreases Stress and Anxiety
Strengthens Compassion
Fosters Resilience
GTM’S 6-Week Mindfulness Program:
Our six-week program includes a 20-minute session once-weekly in each class. We provide evening sessions to parents and we support teachers with at least two trainings. We include a teacher toolkit and daily mindful minutes for schools and weekly Mindfulness Home Connection. We teach an evidence-based, age-appropriate curriculum that includes brain science, a foundation of social skills linked to mindfulness, studies that support our approach and include active kindness-gratitude practice, experiential lessons on empathy and practical skills for the stressors that student’s face at varied developmental stages.
Just as we can learn to play the piano or do other things through practice, we can cultivate well-being and happiness. World-renowned neuroscientist Richard Davidson and his colleagues at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, inform us that the brain keeps changing over its entire lifespan stating: 1) You can train your brain to change, 2) that the change is measurable, and 3) new ways of thinking can change it for the better.
Research supports that benefits to students include self-regulation, anxiety and stress reduction, increased attentiveness, awareness and resilience. It can result in greater focus and academic success.
During the course of our sessions, students will learn tools and skills to support their own well-being:
-
An Introduction to Mindfulness & Mindful Bodies
-
Simple techniques to calm the mind, using visualization and breath
-
Managing emotions and response-ability
-
Mindful listening, softening and heartfulness
-
Mindfulness everyday & the Science of how mindfulness works
-
We are all in this together. Let's Grow Through Engagement
At the end of each week’s session we leave the class with a “Mindfulness Home Connection” (MHC) which can be sent to parents electronically. Our MHC describes what was covered that week in class and how to keep up the work at home. Each class will prepare its own Mindfulness Jar which will serve as a regular reminder of the changing nature of the thoughts and emotions swirling in us.
MINDFUL MINUTE:
Introducing daily Mindfulness to students and supporting the 6-week Grow Through Mindfulness Program in every classroom.
A Mindful Minute is a pause, a minute, a time to rest the mind’s busy-ness into a more relaxing, expansive state. It is a tool that can be integrated into various times of a regular school day. In a very short time, Mindful Minutes can transform the internal climate and thereby shift the external school environment.
GTM’S PARENT and TEACHER Connections
Our program is a community-wide effort. Mindfulness education sessions to parents and teachers. We will share information and handouts on maintaining mindfulness at home and in the classroom. Our curriculum allows for a re-connecting to one’s self and an increased connection to community. Our goal is to create a nurturing school environment that prepares a generation to lead a kind, compassion and aware world.
CUSTOMIZABLE
We are happy to discuss your school’s needs and tailor our programming accordingly. Contact Us.
School Engagements
Changing lives:
3000+
STUDENTS
300+
TEACHERS
500+
FAMILIES
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

-
Bringing Emotional Intelligence into classrooms; giving children an opportunity to get in touch with their feelings and develop a vocabulary to understand and address them in an empowering and appropriate manner.
-
Educating children in the Mind-Body-Breath connection.
-
Teaching ways to self-soothe in case of stress to foster Emotional Responsibility.
-
Making room for Imperfection - building an awareness that while success is the goal, failure is a possibility. Teaching healthy ways to work with failure and defeat.
-
Application of the above in real-life situations.
OUR TEACHING PLAN
Children thrive with our unique "TIP" teaching plan: T- Teach, I- Inspire, P-Practice.
Our unique TIP model (teach-inspire-practice) encourages interactive discussion and participation through movement. TEACH hallmarks include lively and meaningful classroom discussion and plenty of Q & A time. In our INSPIRE approach we share anecdotes and scientific evidence on the efficacy of meditation and mindfulness. PRACTICE includes both movement and participation with the intention of helping students to make mindful-choice a way of life.
REACH BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Embrace a mind and heartfulness education with these opportunities for continued support.
-
Provide small follow-up teaching capsules for classrooms of every grade.
-
Reinforce the teachings in various ways to sustain them over a lifetime.
-
Provide support and coping techniques to children for stressful situations such as preparing for tests, sports events or transitioning to another school.
-
Speak to parents and teachers on occasion to educate them in how mindfulness can change their lives and families.
-
Sessions can be made available throughout the year or for a fixed number of weeks/months.

WHAT KIDS & GROWN UPS SAY
FAQS


Is there a quantifiable link between mindfulness and improved school performance?
Mindfulness programs consistently deliver:
What’s the difference between Mindfulness Training, Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs and Anti-Bullying campaigns?
Our curriculum is not meant to replace existing SEL programs or anti-bullying campaigns; they support one another in a synergistic fashion. Mindfulness programs can increase the effects of SEL programs. Mindfulness helps students to train their attention and regulate their responses to impulses. When students operate from this perspective of self-regulation, they are able to think clearly enough to choose the most effective SEL strategy, in the heat of the moment. Mindfulness is the “missing basic” to the hundreds of programs that ask students to “STOP” in some way before acting.
Does Mindfulness Training have a positive effect on a child’s brain?
Is Mindfulness a religion?
Mindfulness can be as simple as taking a deep breath before an important event, or bringing our full awareness to a moment spent with our children. Cultivating this compassionate and purposeful awareness allows us to be present for the important people in our lives. This attention is a loving gift we can offer. Practicing contemplation is just one way to cultivate mindfulness. While it is true that contemplation is found in many religious traditions, it is also widely found outside the context of religion. Mindfulness holds a prominent place in medicine, mental health and education. At GTM we take our commitment to teach in a secular manner seriously. Everyone at GTM signs a personal commitment to integrate mindfulness in education in a way that neither advances nor inhibits the religious beliefs (or lack of beliefs) of the educators, staff, students, parents, and community with whom we interact.
Can students participate in the program year after year?
Our program is designed to provide age-specific curriculum to meet the changing needs of children throughout the development process. The goal is to provide small capsules of teaching that resonate with each grade level. Through reinforcement, children can develop skills that can sustain them over a lifetime.
What’s the overall program cost?
Costs are based on a price per project basis.
What does a suggested program look like?
Programs are tailored to fit specific needs. We do suggest a seven class package, along with two staff/parent meetings.