JumpStart the Last Day of February

GREAT NEWS:  My Mindfulness Mondays with Regional Office of Education #40 are still going strong.  Each is worth a PD Hour and you can attend as many as fits your schedule.  Feb 28 and March 14, 21, 28 from 3:30 - 4:30 pm (Central) on GMeets. Registration  All are welcome, and they're free.  If you are from another state and need something else for evidence of completion, please let me know!

IDEA 

"You are your emotions as much as you are the man in the moon." ~Matt Weld
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I've talked some about how we are shaped by our experiences, and our memories of experiences are more emotions than events.  This is the same reason that our students remember how we made them feel rather than the content we taught.  Often, however, people think that we are then owned by our emotions.  We aren't.  We experience them, but any value that we assign to them is of our own construct.

This week, try this:  The next time you feel a strong emotion, sit with it for a moment (even if it's later in the day when the students are gone) and reframe it with the intentional use of language.  Instead of saying, "I am frustrated," think, "I feel frustrated."  Maybe that will lessen some of the subsequent guilt and anger.

SELF-CARE EXERCISE - Introduction to Meditation

This week, we're starting a 5-week mini-course on meditation.  Each video is 5 minutes or less and can be watched throughout the week as you start your meditation practice. 

RESOURCE:

Want more meditation goodies?  Thinking about starting a meditation practice with your students?  Check out this new course on TeachIllinois.  Dr. Bill Meyer is an educator from New York who used meditation with his students for several years as a way to build community and to deepen student insight into their own learning.  You can get 3 PD Hours, too.  Enroll.

JOKE:

Q:  What do an island and the letter T have in common?
A:  They are both in the middle of water.

Have a great week!