I've already shared my notes from TCEA, but I want to give you more details about some of the things I learned. Over the next few posts, I'll be sharing my top TCEA takeaways, starting with... Calm is a website and app that "brings clarity, joy and peace to your daily life" (Calm.com). It is a tool widely used to enhance mindfulness, aid in sleep, break bad habits, and create good ones. I've used similar free apps in my personal life, but since Calm is a paid service, I hadn't really used it before. At TCEA, I learned that Calm is committed to education - and they offer free premium subscriptions for all K-12 educators! How cool is that? Why Calm? “If every 8 year old is taught meditation, we will eliminate It's no secret - and probably no surprise - that anxiety is on the rise in the world of education. With high-stakes testing and competition to get into the best undergraduate programs around the country, we're all stressed. And this can absolutely affect the way we perform. The UCLA School Mental Health Project notes that "[t]he overload of activities and demands can cut students off from essential supports, hamper sleep, interfere with learning and development, and affect physical and mental health," and that "[s]chools that do too little to address interpersonal and academic related stressors can expect a great many anxiety-related learning, behavior, and emotional problems" (UCLA School Mental Health Project 2). Calm is something that any educator could use in their classroom in order to equip learners with the tools to decrease anxiety and promote personal and academic success. Since testing season is fast approaching, I can't think of a more perfect time to introduce mindfulness into our classrooms. How does it work? I reached out to Calm to find out more about how educators currently use the Calm Schools Initiative. Educators typically create their own account, and use the website as an entire class exercise, or log into the app on a handful of devices located in a "quiet corner" for individual use. Learners themselves do not create the account. You could even create a campus-wide account because there is no limit to the number of devices logging into the same account at once. Check out their on-boarding resource to get better acquainted with the app: Here is an on-boarding PDF we've created for teachers as well, to help with introducing mindfulness to classrooms. This is also received once an application has been accepted, but it may be helpful in getting a better understanding of the app: To participate in the program, you and the educators that would like to use Calm just need to fill out our form at (if you want to do this for them, you can :). Once you are approved, the email address used on the application will receive a welcome email with further information on how to get started. To use Calm in the classroom, please make sure you have the following URLs whitelisted in order to ensure the teachers receive their follow up emails from their application: To get started with your FREE premium account, click the button below to fill out the form. You will receive an email once you are approved with further information on how to get started. Once your account has been created, I'd love to hear from you to help get this mindfulness initiative started in your classroom!
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