This past Wednesday morning, I had the pleasure of presenting a "Smartifier" to the the staff at The REAL School, an innovative alternative learning program set on the picturesque Mackworth Island, located just north of Portland. Staff here work intensively to help students find their strengths and build on them through service and adventure learning.
I greatly appreciated the feedback some participants offered afterwards: one staff member reported it was the best one they'd had yet! Thanks to Rod for the specific feedback below!
“I came away from the workshop feeling more mindful and relaxed! The information was interesting and relevant to my work. Erica has integrated her work experience with her reading of current research to find a great balance in her presentation. Overall, a fun, informative, and useful presentation!”
“I really enjoyed learning a few techniques to incorporate mindfulness and meditation into my every day life. It was encouraging to hear that practicing mindfulness is a cycle of trying and failing, and that becoming aware of your mind wandering and pulling it back to focus on something simple like breath or sound is in fact the exercise for your brain! I look forward to putting what I learned from this workshop to use and realizing how mindfulness can benefit my work and sense of self.
”
“Erica’s workshop on mindfulness is highly informative and engaging! Erica incorporates great use of mindfulness practices into her presentation which makes it easy to see how one can easily implement mindfulness into one’s personal daily practice/and or classroom with students. I found the parts of her presentation about the connection between neuroscience and mindfulness to be particularly captivating. I left her workshop wanting to know more and thinking of ways that I could immediately incorporate more mindfulness into my work with students.
”
We are now working to secure grant funding so that I can return and do some work with the students!