Growing up on Chicago’s South Side, a neighborhood whose history of gun violence earned it the moniker “Chiraq,” can be traumatic for students. Many students come to school having witnessed violence or abuse in their lives. When they take their seats for the morning bell, learning fractions or the parts of a sentence is often the furthest thing from their minds.
These are the challenges Quinlan O’Grady faces each day as a teacher at Schmid Elementary School. And yet, her students are not only overcoming these challenges, they’re thriving — thanks in no small part to the use of mindfulness videos that give them effective strategies for coping with their emotions.
Related content: 8 ways I embraced mindfulness this year
In fact, O’Grady’s third graders last year performed 10 points higher than the national third-grade average on NWEA’s Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) benchmark exam. She attributes this success to a number of factors, one of which is her use of mindfulness content and other instructional videos from Adventure2Learning.
Promoting active learning
O’Grady began using Adventure2Learning’s instructional videos a few years ago as a way to promote active learning in her classroom.
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