What We Gained by Trying to Lose
As a ten year, Special Education Teacher in Brooklyn New York, I have encountered far too many students carrying an abundance of both physical and emotional weight. While, I can tailor some of my lessons to inspire healthy minds and bodies in my students, five years ago, I felt I lacked specific tools to give students to empower them to live a healthier life. This is when I heard of NaliniKIDS (NaliniKIDS.org) through a NBC news segment. I knew I instantly needed to bring this physical and social-emotional wellness program to my school.
Luckily, the enthusiastic founder, Rupa Mehta, made time in her busy schedule and was sitting in my principal’s office in a few days. I was instantly touched by her genuine desire to give her time and resources to make sure our students received the program. It is fair to say that her generosity is contagious and made me want to give my time and resources to help her to expand NaliniKIDS into more classrooms.
The program involves a series of writing and discussion Common Core aligned activities correlated to the book, Connect to Your Self by Rupa Mehta. These engaging lessons boost confidence while enhancing literacy skills and life skills. The lessons are applicable to people of all ages and cultures.
After the literary component, the students get moving! They participate in a core based total body workout that stresses the importance of building strength, flexibility, endurance, and good posture (all tenets of emotional intelligence as well).
Most importantly, the students apply the emotional and physical lessons beyond the classroom environment. In class, deep breathing and proper posture are reinforced. They utilize the lessons from the book to peacefully solve problems amongst each other and at home. They proudly boast about practicing pushups and stretches at home. They regularly implement the emotional and physical health tips.
The program originally began with Rupa and any volunteers she could enlist, coming to my classroom to teach the workout and guide the students through the mindfulness lessons. The students were astonished that someone with famous clients would come from Manhattan just to teach them these lessons. This reiterated to the students how important it is to care of their minds and bodies.
When other teachers saw the benefits that my students experienced, they too, wanted to see similar effects in their students. Thus, it became time for the program to live beyond Rupa being the sole teacher.
This need prompted me to spearhead a school initiative to train other teachers at my school. I wanted to give back to the organization that had given so much to my students and my colleagues.
Over the past few years, NaliniKIDS has grown at JHS 62, with now over fifteen teachers trained in the NaliniKIDS curriculum! Teachers surveys and reflections all evidence how much both the teachers and students have improved their emotional intelligence and physical stamina because of NaliniKIDS’ generosity. They also feel encompassed in a special community. NaliniKIDS teachers and staff all feel that they have gained so much in their efforts to lose both emotional and physical weight.
This training has been provided to our school free of charge. My school has founds various ways to fund the required materials. I would love to empower NaliniKIDS to train and support even more teachers and students. I hope that #givingtuesday will allow for NaliniKIDS to continue to expand in capacity, thereby empowering more youth to shed emotional and physical weight and see what they can gain by doing so.
Review from #MyGivingStory