Ms. Beth teaching mindfulness in Ms. Davis’s class
Dear AFIA Community,
My name is Beth Sarver, aka Ms. Beth. I am thrilled to be a member of this school community and to help create a new staff position focused on our collective resilience, mental health and well-being. As the Resilience Coordinator it is my job to proactively work to ensure that our school culture is mindful and responsive to the needs of students, teachers and families.
How will I do that?
Each week I will teach all students and staff lessons about mindfulness; challenging us all to continue to practice being present and paying attention to what is happening in our minds and bodies in the NOW moment. Mindful awareness is so important and provides all of us with an opportunity to learn and grow more deeply. I use the Mindful Schools curriculum and it is built upon an excellent body of research advocating for a more holistic approach to education, attending to the whole child.
Below is an excerpt from Nurturing Mindfulness in Children and Youth: Current State of Research By Mark T. Greenberg and Alexis R. Harris at Pennsylvania State University.
“There is considerable concern that children and youth experience less than optimal physical and mental health and that it affects a wide range of outcomes, including academic performance, substance use, violence, and obesity (Greenberg et al., 2003). There has been a strong call to develop new ideas to nurture children’s health and well-being and increasing interest in how to develop habits of mind and behavior that build resilience in the face of everyday adversity (Shonkoff, Boyce, & McEwen, 2009).”
Beyond mindfulness instruction and practice, a large part of my work is responding to needs as they emerge in the school day and developing intervention strategies for helping students to be ready to learn. I am trained to provide positive adaptive strategies for guiding individuals to regulate their mind and body, process through stress and get reset for learning. This is the nature of resilience. I like to think of resilience as the human super power to bounce back and thrive beyond adversity; and it is my job to help AFIA students, staff and families to grow our individual and collective ability to thrive and shine our bright lights!
Did I mention that I have super powers? More on that soon. If you have any question for me, please feel free to email me at beth.sarver@afiakc.org. Looking forward to meeting you all!
-Ms. Beth
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