MPCSD parent volunteers teach mindfulness to Hillview sixth graders

Four Menlo Park City School District parents are volunteering each week to teach mindfulness to all Hillview School 6th graders. The mindfulness team — “Calm Along With Me” — partners with each English Language classroom monthly to do an interactive mindfulness lesson for 300 students.

“Teenagers live in a fast paced, instantly gratified, dopamine addicted world,” emails Nicole Pollock, one of the parent volunteers. “We are all on the verge of burnout. However mindfulness can help one harness the skills to appreciate the simple joys and handle the difficult lows that life presents us with.

“Here are some examples of the kind of lessons we are doing. Together we made ‘our minds in a jar.’ The goal of this lesson is to provide students with a visual experience of when our minds are cloudy and when they’re clear and to supply a calming tool for students to use when feeling distracted or worried.

“Recently we did a lesson by turning to our inner voices and recognizing negative self-talk. Guiding students through exercises to identify negative thoughts and practice transforming them into positive, constructive statements was remarkable. By fostering this awareness, students had the opportunity to learn, accept and normalize their thoughts, ultimately helping them quiet their noisy minds.”

All  “Calm Along with Me” lessons are interactive, allowing kids to be off screens and apply real life lessons to understand the power of our minds. Dana Goldstein created “Calm Along With Me” and Julie Brody and Rebecca Emery volunteer along with Nicole.

“It continues to be a beautiful thing to see how much these teachings are impacting our middle schoolers (and teachers), and the different practical ways they are using them in and out of the classroom,” says Nicole. “We would love to encourage everyone to take a mindful moment each day, slow down a little, connect a little better.”