This culturally-relevant text set offer different perspectives for students to see as well aswonderful conversation starters. Students learn of different careers within the IndigenousWorld. Some of those careers being: Traditional Seed Keepers, Gardeners, KnowledgeKeepers, Storytellers, and More!Dig your bare feet into the soil and feel those connections to your ancestors, the land, theplants, animals, and all things. We are all connected. Let’s work together and connect our pastto the present, for the future... of learning!

Teaching can be a beautiful, playful, and life-giving profession—but it also can be very, very stressful. You are in charge of so much, and so many people depend on you, but a lot of factors are out of your control. And often, in the face of stress, you power through and be the best you can for your students because they are so important. But guess what? YOU’RE IMPORTANT, and we know it’s sometimes easy to neglect taking care of your own needs in favor of others.

Discover what Matt Hirshberg, a former middle school educator and current postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Healthy Minds has to share about this topic in a short video and companion essay on the aka Teacher blog.

Hosted by PBS Wisconsin Education, and created with and for Wisconsin educators, the aka Teacher blog offers a space for exploring the many hats educators today wear, and the topics that aren’t covered in teacher preparation programs. Blog posts include videos featuring educators around the state, and resources you can share with learners and use to continue your own learning.

Kindness in the Classroom is a multi-part video series designed to give educators insight into the positive impacts of teaching mindfulness. The series focuses on implementing the Kindness Curriculum; a free 24-lesson mindfulness guide designed for early learning classrooms, researched and developed by the Center for Healthy Minds at UW-Madison.

The Kindness Curriculum introduces techniques to help students self-regulate and improve peer relationships. Participation in the curriculum has been linked to academic achievement and increased performance in areas that predict future success.

The Kindness in the Classroom series provides insights from educators and a guided mindfulness exercise. On the project website, you can watch the series, download the Kindness Curriculum, view the learning standards met and explore research behind the curriculum.

These primary level mindfulness lessons are based upon self awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making. The intent of these lessons is to provide a brief, beginning of the day warm-up activity/skill.