Basic Yoga Helps Students and Facilitators
As teachers know, stress is an everyday factor for their students. This is especially true for low income areas, where mental health can be one of the biggest obstacles in a student’s ability to learn. Whether that’s problems with housing, substance abuse or financial burdens, finding ways for students to destress is paramount to their success.
That’s where Yoga Foster comes in. They’re a national nonprofit to enable school teachers to integrate yoga into their classrooms. Teachers can sign up for a 15-hour online course that will teach them the basics of yoga, with a focus on basic poses, breathing exercises and more that be incorporated into a classroom setting. Started in New York with just a handful of teachers, there’s now over 2,500 educators nationwide.
The founder, Nicole Cardoza, wasn’t part of the education world. Five years ago, at 29, she had a promising career in tech, but in her spare time trained as a yoga instructor. She was teaching classes to students in New York City public schools and the idea came to her. “Yoga is a way to help people feel at home in their body, which is something schools and students desperately need,” Cardoza says. “It helps teach kids to pause and choose how they respond in scenarios and cultivate this sense of inner calm.” When she’d talk to teachers at the schools she volunteered at, she heard them express a wish to be able to have yoga in their classrooms more regularly.
Yoga Foster offers two pricing for either an individual teacher or for access to the entire site (for an entire school). Teachers looking to add ‘Basic Yoga’ to their resume would have access to 15 hours of self-paced, online training, a digital library of over 100 poses, meditations, mindful videos, 45 lesson plans for classes, brain breaks, mindful reflection, and take-home material. They also provide yoga mats for the classroom and free subscriptions to meditations and yoga programs beyond their material.
Learn more about Yoga Foster and their work in schools here.
CITE is the Center for Integrated Training and Education. For over 25 years, CITE has and continues to train TEACHERS (Early Childhood, Professional Certification, Special Ed,Grad Courses, Bilingual courses, DASA); COUNSELORS (School, Mental Health Masters, Advanced Certificate); and ADMINISTRATORS (SBL, SDL, Public Admin, Doctorate) in all five boroughs of NYC, Yonkers, Westchester, and Long Island.
CITE PD offers CTLE-approved in-school professional development tailored to your school’s needs and your vision. Info: citepd.com
