UPDATE: 5 Ways Yoga Can Help Educators + School Safety Lessons Learned: From Cleveland to Newtown — Whole Child Education

School Safety Lessons Learned: From Cleveland to Newtown — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

5 Ways Yoga Can Help Educators Create Safe Environments

February 27, 2013 by Lara Veon

Much like that of educating the whole child, how to make our learning environments safe places in which to teach and learn is a rich and complex discussion in our current educational landscape. Our Mindful Practices team teaches in schools throughout Chicago—in the most under-resourced neighborhoods to the most affluent suburbs. While each community might be actively addressing school safety in different ways, we've found incorporating yoga as a social emotional learning tool into the school day increases the sense of internal and external safety for educators and students, thus creating a better learning environment for everyone.

Below are five ways yoga can help educators create safety in their classrooms and schools, including links to activities that anyone can start using today.

1. Awareness of Self and Others
   Using yoga poses and strategies that focus on breathing teaches students how to notice feelings and recognize what happens in their bodies when they are feeling them. They also provide alternatives for the problematic responses that often contribute to unsafe situations. This practice begins with individual self-awareness skills and is easily transferable to activities that focus on an awareness and respect of others.
   Visit this link for an activity using a Feelings Journal to teach self-awareness.
2. Distress Tolerance & Emotional Regulation
   Not only does yoga teach students to identify when they might be feeling distress, it also teaches them 

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

School Safety Lessons Learned: From Cleveland to Newtown

February 27, 2013 by Stephen Sroka

I dealt with school violence before it was fashionable and funded. To me, any child killed anywhere, anytime, is a huge tragedy. But decades ago, when children were killed in the inner city of Cleveland, you probably never heard about them. When the killings moved to suburbs such as Columbine, they became national news. The Newtown shootings shocked the U.S. like no other school violence. Now, school violence prevention is front-page news. Working with school safety for more than 30 years, I have tried to help schools and communities keep our youth safe and healthy so that they can learn more and live better. Here are several lessons that I have learned.

School violence can happen anywhere, but not here. After school shootings, I often heard "I cannot believe that it can happen here." As we have learned, school violence can happen anywhere. But don't be surprised after the next tragedy if someone says, "I cannot believe that it can happen here." Denial is human.

Be prepared, not scared. Schools are not powerless. Awareness, education, and advocacy can help break