Educator Voices from This Course
101 Course Calendar
| OCTOBER 101 SESSION . ENROLL NOW . Cost: $195 Registration Deadline: Oct 3 | NOVEMBER 101 SESSION . ENROLL NOW . Cost: $195 Registration Deadline: Oct 31 |
| Course Starts: Oct 5 1-Hour Live Session: Oct 18 1pm PT/4pm ET or 4pm PT/7pm ET Course Ends: Nov 1 | Course Starts: Nov 2 1-Hour Live Session: Nov 15 1pm PT/4pm ET or 4pm PT/7pm ET Course Ends: Nov 29 |
* Three times a year, in July, January, and April, we offer 101R: Mindfulness Foundations + Retreat. In 101R, join a 5-hour Saturday retreat as a part of your course experience. Retreat is a unique and powerful experience to put into practice the strategies and tools you learn in the course.
Why Mindfulness?
Educating and mentoring our youth is a calling that draws some of the most dedicated people on the planet. Educators serve on the frontlines of mitigating our nation’s social challenges, but they are often themselves overwhelmed and lack the support to cope with the acute stress and trauma that plays out in their classrooms. It’s tough, high-stakes work that can result in anxiety, overwhelm, and burnout.
Mindfulness offers strategies that help educators feel more calm, effective, connected, and resilient. Research shows that mindfulness cultivates skills to manage stress and to build attention, focus, and resilience––empowering educators to feel nourished and energized to create safe, supportive spaces for students in the classroom, at home, and beyond.
Start Your Journey
Next 101 Course:
Cost: $195
Next 101+Retreat:
Cost: $225
About This Course
Time to Complete: 4 Weeks. 15 Hours. Expect to dedicate ~3 hours per week.
Live Session: This course includes a 1-hour live call, guided by our faculty.
Respected Credentials: Earn a Certificate of Completion from a recognized training organization. Educators may apply for graduate credits.
Instruction + Resources: Learn via video, guided audio, reading, course activities.
Forum: Build connection with peers and faculty for discussion and feedback.
*Retreat: Included in 101R only. Join a powerful 5-hour Saturday retreat as a part of your course experience.
101: Mindfulness Foundations is at the heart of what Mindful Schools is known for—an educator-centered approach to bring mindfulness to K-12 contexts. In this 4-week course, we provide a grounding in the neuroscience of mindfulness and share simple yet powerful practices and strategies to bring mindfulness into daily life––to manage stress, build resilience, and bring your full presence to interactions with students. With the facilitated online format, you’ll get ongoing support from Mindful Schools faculty and connect with peers in the live session and course forum.
Mindful Schools defines mindfulness as being present in the moment here and now, paying attention to our thoughts, bodily sensations, and external environment with kindness, nonjudgment, and curiosity. Experience the benefits of mindfulness in this essential course for all educators and administrators in all stages of career development.
This is the first course in the path toward building a “mindful school” and fulfills the prerequisite for 201: Mindfulness in the Classroom.
Course Outcomes
- Understand the science of mindfulness and how the adult nervous system is an intervention
- Learn different practices that can resource you during your teaching day and daily life
- Practice strategies to navigate intense emotions and negative thought patterns
- Uncover blindspots and disrupt implicit bias
- Use trauma-sensitive approaches in your own practice
- Bring your full presence to interactions with students and inspire compassion, curiosity, openness, and connection
What You’ll Learn in 101
Module 1: Mindfulness Concepts and Practices
Explore: What is mindfulness?
Learn about the origins of mindfulness and secularity; discover some common misconceptions regarding mindfulness.
Begin to explore how mindfulness practices can be applied to any experience: sensations in the body, emotional experiences, thoughts, sights, sounds, tastes, and smells.
Learn the Mindful Schools approach to mindfulness in education and why we start with teachers practicing mindfulness.
Practice: Anchors, Breath, Sound, Body
Module 2: Mindfulness of the Body
Explore: What is embodiment?
Learn the basic architecture of the nervous system and nervous system states, and how as educators, our own nervous systems can be an intervention when working with young people.
Understand why adopting a trauma-sensitive approach to exploring mindfulness is important for everyone as all bodies experience overwhelm in the nervous system due to stress and trauma to differing degrees.
Practice: Body Scan, Mindful Walking
Module 3: Mindfulness of Emotions
Explore: Awareness of your emotions.
Define basic models of emotional regulation, expand your emotional vocabulary, and learn how to apply mindfulness to all kinds of emotional states. Begin to identify when you are dysregulated and start utilizing practices to bring yourself back into equilibrium.
Explore compassion for others and compassion for self.
Practice: Self-Compassion, Heartfulness
Module 4: Mindfulness of Thoughts and Practice in Daily Life
Explore: Implicit bias and negativity bias.
Explore how mindfulness practice supports skillful and compassionate responses to cognitive biases, including implicit bias and the negativity bias. Begin to uncover your blindspots, biases, and cognitive distortions by using mindfulness to notice and disrupt them.
Identify thought patterns and skillful means of working with thought, such as labeling and noting.
Learn about everyday mindfulness and how to keep going and weave mindfulness into your daily life.
Practice: Labeling, Noting
Support From an Online Course Guide
Online Course Guides are experienced Mindful Schools faculty members who support you in all four weeks of the course. Through the live session, emails, and forums, your Online Course Guide will facilitate discussions, synthesize emerging themes and answer questions. Meet our team!
Graduate Credits
Upon completing this training, educators may apply for and receive graduate level credits. Details
Educator Scholarships
Mindful Schools aims to create access for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ educators to reach communities most impacted by systemic inequities and educators who are self-funding their training. Scholarships currently include:
• $50 OFF the 101 or 101R Course
• $250 OFF the 201 Course
Funding is limited ––apply now.
Start Your Journey
Next 101 Course:
Cost: $195
Next 101+Retreat:
Cost: $225
Mindful Schools Training Path
101 is the first course in the path toward building mindful schools and it fulfills the prerequisite for 201: Mindfulness in the Classroom. 101 is designed for educators, mentors, parents, caregivers, and adults supporting school communities. We recommend this course for both beginners and those with significant mindfulness experience.
Explore your personal and professional growth path through Mindful Schools’ core training (101 and 201), elective courses (Self-Compassion and Mindful Communication), interactive workshops, retreats, and ongoing practice support. Together, we can build trauma-sensitive, equitable, and resilient schools where students and educators can thrive.
More Educator Voices from This Course
Nataleigh, ECP Educator in North Carolina
“This course should be offered to educators in all stages of career development––especially our beginning teachers. Teaching is no easy feat. We can, and must, teach ourselves to navigate the stress, judgment, and the rollercoaster of emotions with openness and kindness.”
Stephen, Middle School Science Teacher in Pennsylvania
“This is a truly great course! I love and appreciate that this course is designed to teach educators how to practice mindfulness––so that we can “put the oxygen mask on ourselves” before helping others. We must experience mindfulness to really understand it and share it with our students. Thank you for this truly transformative course!”
Chris, Teacher in Massachusetts
“As someone who has taken mindfulness courses before and have a practice, I found this course refreshing, encouraging and it has rekindled my excitement towards the practice. Hearing again the importance of this work to my personal and teaching life nudge me to continue to practice. The mindfulness practices shared renew my interest and the talks on the importance of gaining awareness of my own implicit bias.”
Start Your Journey
Next 101 Course:
Cost: $195
Next 101+Retreat:
Cost: $225
Vanessa, Student Teacher in California
“I am a teaching credential candidate and because of this course, I feel that I am already at an advantage as a new teacher. By learning how to initiate a mindfulness practice, I now have a new set of tools that will allow me to serve my students with more care and compassion because of what I have learned here. Thank you for such a wonderful and mindful experience.”
Amy, Educator in Pennsylvania
“This course covers the practice of mindfulness in a gentle but thorough way. From reviewing everyday mindfulness exercises to exploring the nervous system and how the body processes experience, it’s a wonderful introduction for anyone interested in living a more mindful lifestyle. It has something for everyone––the beginner and the experienced, and will no doubt be a support to students and children who are co-regulating and learning from the adults around them. Big thanks to the Mindful Schools program!”
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