Yoga to Empower School Teachers
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~ Changing education through the practice of yoga ~
Help our passionate inner city school educators help our children grow up happier, healthier, and stronger by becoming registered children's yoga teacher through Yoga Ed.
We have eager, good-hearted, and smart educators from Rochester City Schools who cannot afford this 2015 Children's Yoga Teacher Training by Yoga Ed to be held at Inspire Yoga in Penfield, NY. They want to share what they learned from their own yoga practice and translate it to much needed children. We want to pay for their tuition. Any leftover money will be used for scholarship for future teachers.
Yoga has demonstrated through research to help with management of issues such as social anxiety, asthma attacks, attention deficity, aggression, post-traumatic stress and low self-esteem.
Yoga Ed has been embodying yoga and empowering individuals to educate with purpose and intellect. Their program vision is:
"We envision a future where schools are seedbeds of health and happiness. Where educators coach and embody lifelong well-being through dynamic teaching. Where students learn life skills to cultivate mind-body fitness in tandem with academic success. At Yoga Ed., we are dedicated to making this vision a reality.
We believe in the power educators have to change the world. We empower the change."
For more info on Yoga Ed, visit www.YogaEd.com
Here are bios on some of our capable and diverse educators who could use your help to become Yoga Ed teachers!
Jessica Passero:
I am a Speech-Language Pathologist at John Williams School #5 in the Rochester City School District. This is my first year with the district, as I have spent the last six years of my career working with the early intervention and preschool population (age birth- 5 years) within the Rochester community. Being part of a school district
is a brand new experience for me this year, and while I do miss all the families and babies I used to work with, I am absolutely thrilled for this new challenge in my life.
Yoga has taught me how to find my inner calm and strength, and has given me tools to use with my students with disabilities. I feel strongly that in being trained as yoga instructor I will be able to touch the lives of my students in many ways. Working with children with disabilities, specifically children with diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, is my passion. I am constantly in search of techniques, activities or therapies that will further my knowledge and give me new ways to reach my students. I believe that yoga can give many of my students another avenue to learn. Yoga teaches body awareness, self- confidence, self-discovery, and strengthens the ability to focus and attend. Many of my students have severe sensory integration needs, and struggle to regulate their bodies. This in turn, makes it difficult for many of my students to focus during school, regulate emotions, attend and even participate appropriately at times. I believe that being well versed in yoga practices will help me provide opportunities for these children and their parents to develop skills in order to help regulate their bodies and emotions. Movement during my speech therapy sessions, is an absolute must! I have found it encourages verbal and non-verbal communication as well as social interaction. Being able to incorporate yoga into my therapy may give me another tool to teach organization, focus, awareness and social interaction.
I hope that I will be able to share this gift with not only my students, but all of the students, family and staff at School #5. I will strive to create a culture at our school that engages in healthy life choices, unity, peace and inner strength.
Julia Brongo
I have a rare form of a genetic heart disease called
Arrythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVD/ARVC). My younger sister passed away from this progressive disease 15 years ago. Her twin sister and myself, both have the disease. I am restricted to do any form of exercise besides golf and walking. Not enough research was done with the effects of yoga, so I decided to give it a try. Since stress only increases the progression of this heart disease, I decided to try yoga to help bring down my stress level, and to possibly lower the palpitations, and PVC’s I was experiencing through my holter monitor testing I received. Since doing yoga, my heart palpitations have ceased, and the PVC’s are at an all time low. Yoga has been an important remedy in my life to keep this heart disease from progressing. My son has the gene and my daughter has yet to be tested. Therefore I have incorporated this into my children’s lives.
I have incorporated bits and pieces of it in my classroom. My students enjoy the poses, feeling a sense of challenge and accomplishment. I have been working on using yoga to further increase their focusing and stress. that my instruction to my students and my own children is correct and more useful. I would also like to offer this yoga practice to my school as a whole. Thank you for considering not only myself, but the group of educators that are wanting this opportunity.
Katie Rich
Hi! My name is Katie Rich. I am the K-2 Reading Teacher at School #5 in the Rochester City School District. This is my second year in this position. Prior to working here, I taught Universal Pre-K through the RCSD and First Grade in both Buffalo City Schools & St. Hope Public Schools (Sacramento, CA). I love my job!
Teaching students to read is the best. I started a Little Free Library at School #5 so that students & families would have access to free books & to inspire a love of reading. I read for pleasure every night and I am part of a book club. I am an animal lover! I have a black lab mix puppy, Lulu, and two cats, Spot & Violet. I foster kittens through Lollypop Farms until they are ready for their forever homes. I spend a lot of time with family and friends. My friends and I have dinner together every Tuesday night. I recently became a vegetarian and have a focus on being more ‘green’.
Yoga is a way of life. It starts on the mat and extends into everything I do. Living with anxiety, I find yoga breaths and gentle practice help me to relax and successfully function in my busy daily life. I look forward to my yoga training as important time dedicated to my wellbeing, as well as a gift to share with others.
Yoga can help children and young adults in many ways mentally, physically, and emotionally. This includes: attention and refocusing for learning, the importance of movement and exercise, and stress reduction during hard times at both school and home. I work with many students at School 5 and I am an important part of the school community. As leader of the School Wide Morning Meetings, I plan to use yoga practices during my time with the entire student body and encourage yoga to be used in all classrooms as an extension of this. I would be interested in inspiring other schools in the district, as well as the Rochester community as a whole, to follow our positive lead.
Help our passionate inner city school educators help our children grow up happier, healthier, and stronger by becoming registered children's yoga teacher through Yoga Ed.
We have eager, good-hearted, and smart educators from Rochester City Schools who cannot afford this 2015 Children's Yoga Teacher Training by Yoga Ed to be held at Inspire Yoga in Penfield, NY. They want to share what they learned from their own yoga practice and translate it to much needed children. We want to pay for their tuition. Any leftover money will be used for scholarship for future teachers.
Yoga has demonstrated through research to help with management of issues such as social anxiety, asthma attacks, attention deficity, aggression, post-traumatic stress and low self-esteem.
Yoga Ed has been embodying yoga and empowering individuals to educate with purpose and intellect. Their program vision is:
"We envision a future where schools are seedbeds of health and happiness. Where educators coach and embody lifelong well-being through dynamic teaching. Where students learn life skills to cultivate mind-body fitness in tandem with academic success. At Yoga Ed., we are dedicated to making this vision a reality.
We believe in the power educators have to change the world. We empower the change."
For more info on Yoga Ed, visit www.YogaEd.com
Here are bios on some of our capable and diverse educators who could use your help to become Yoga Ed teachers!
Jessica Passero:
I am a Speech-Language Pathologist at John Williams School #5 in the Rochester City School District. This is my first year with the district, as I have spent the last six years of my career working with the early intervention and preschool population (age birth- 5 years) within the Rochester community. Being part of a school district
is a brand new experience for me this year, and while I do miss all the families and babies I used to work with, I am absolutely thrilled for this new challenge in my life.
Yoga has taught me how to find my inner calm and strength, and has given me tools to use with my students with disabilities. I feel strongly that in being trained as yoga instructor I will be able to touch the lives of my students in many ways. Working with children with disabilities, specifically children with diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, is my passion. I am constantly in search of techniques, activities or therapies that will further my knowledge and give me new ways to reach my students. I believe that yoga can give many of my students another avenue to learn. Yoga teaches body awareness, self- confidence, self-discovery, and strengthens the ability to focus and attend. Many of my students have severe sensory integration needs, and struggle to regulate their bodies. This in turn, makes it difficult for many of my students to focus during school, regulate emotions, attend and even participate appropriately at times. I believe that being well versed in yoga practices will help me provide opportunities for these children and their parents to develop skills in order to help regulate their bodies and emotions. Movement during my speech therapy sessions, is an absolute must! I have found it encourages verbal and non-verbal communication as well as social interaction. Being able to incorporate yoga into my therapy may give me another tool to teach organization, focus, awareness and social interaction.
I hope that I will be able to share this gift with not only my students, but all of the students, family and staff at School #5. I will strive to create a culture at our school that engages in healthy life choices, unity, peace and inner strength.
Julia Brongo
I have a rare form of a genetic heart disease called
Arrythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVD/ARVC). My younger sister passed away from this progressive disease 15 years ago. Her twin sister and myself, both have the disease. I am restricted to do any form of exercise besides golf and walking. Not enough research was done with the effects of yoga, so I decided to give it a try. Since stress only increases the progression of this heart disease, I decided to try yoga to help bring down my stress level, and to possibly lower the palpitations, and PVC’s I was experiencing through my holter monitor testing I received. Since doing yoga, my heart palpitations have ceased, and the PVC’s are at an all time low. Yoga has been an important remedy in my life to keep this heart disease from progressing. My son has the gene and my daughter has yet to be tested. Therefore I have incorporated this into my children’s lives.
I have incorporated bits and pieces of it in my classroom. My students enjoy the poses, feeling a sense of challenge and accomplishment. I have been working on using yoga to further increase their focusing and stress. that my instruction to my students and my own children is correct and more useful. I would also like to offer this yoga practice to my school as a whole. Thank you for considering not only myself, but the group of educators that are wanting this opportunity.
Katie Rich
Hi! My name is Katie Rich. I am the K-2 Reading Teacher at School #5 in the Rochester City School District. This is my second year in this position. Prior to working here, I taught Universal Pre-K through the RCSD and First Grade in both Buffalo City Schools & St. Hope Public Schools (Sacramento, CA). I love my job!
Teaching students to read is the best. I started a Little Free Library at School #5 so that students & families would have access to free books & to inspire a love of reading. I read for pleasure every night and I am part of a book club. I am an animal lover! I have a black lab mix puppy, Lulu, and two cats, Spot & Violet. I foster kittens through Lollypop Farms until they are ready for their forever homes. I spend a lot of time with family and friends. My friends and I have dinner together every Tuesday night. I recently became a vegetarian and have a focus on being more ‘green’.
Yoga is a way of life. It starts on the mat and extends into everything I do. Living with anxiety, I find yoga breaths and gentle practice help me to relax and successfully function in my busy daily life. I look forward to my yoga training as important time dedicated to my wellbeing, as well as a gift to share with others.
Yoga can help children and young adults in many ways mentally, physically, and emotionally. This includes: attention and refocusing for learning, the importance of movement and exercise, and stress reduction during hard times at both school and home. I work with many students at School 5 and I am an important part of the school community. As leader of the School Wide Morning Meetings, I plan to use yoga practices during my time with the entire student body and encourage yoga to be used in all classrooms as an extension of this. I would be interested in inspiring other schools in the district, as well as the Rochester community as a whole, to follow our positive lead.
Organizer
Joanne Wu
Organizer
Rochester, NY
