Compassionate Classrooms: Mindfulness-Based Skills to Promote Resilience and Connection in the Autism Classroom

Presented by Megan Davis, LISW-S and Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-500)

Sponsored by Monarch Center for Autism, STAR Autism Support, and VizZle

Watch the Recording

Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

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The goal of this edWebinar is to introduce mindfulness skills that educators, therapists and paraprofessionals can integrate into the classroom to build resiliency, distress tolerance and connection in students with autism. At the end of this recorded session, you will have gained insight into how simple mindfulness practices directly impact our body’s ability to downregulate in the face of stress, anxiety and trauma. You will be able to integrate concrete skills into your classroom to support students’, as well as your own, wellness.

Objectives include:

• Define basic understanding of how stress impacts the nervous system and our ability to self-regulate
• Practice breathing techniques to calm and balance an activated nervous system
• Practice mindfulness exercises to regulate emotions and connect to present-moment awareness
• Define skills proven to boost resilience and widen the “window of tolerance” (the optimal space for learning, when we are calm, present and connected to ourselves and others)
• Plan for how and when to integrate skills into a typical school day (virtually or in person)
• Reflect on current self-care practices and how they translate to the culture of classroom wellness

This recorded edWebinar will be of interest to K-12 teachers, librarians, school leaders, therapists, and counselors. 

About the Presenter

Megan Davis has over 15 years of experience working as a clinical social worker in inner-city Cleveland, particularly around trauma and loss. Since completing her first yoga teacher training in 2012, she has integrated yoga and mindfulness into her work with children, teens, families, and women. Megan has extensive training around trauma-informed yoga and facilitates trainings for yoga instructors, counselors and educators on teaching yoga and mindfulness practices through this lens. She has taught trauma-informed yoga in schools, mental health agencies, and drug and alcohol treatment settings. She currently teaches yoga and mindfulness at Applewood Centers and serves as the director of curriculum and instruction for the local non-profit ZENworks Yoga. Her intention in this crazy, beautiful life is to be a conduit of change and believes that each of us has the capacity for resilience and grace, if given the opportunity to uncover it.

Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

Join the Teaching Students with Autism community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.

Monarch Center for Autism, a division of Bellefaire JCB, is located in Cleveland, Ohio. Monarch offers a comprehensive array of programs and services for individuals ages three through adulthood with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Highlights, which incorporate Monarch’s visual language treatment model, include a preschool; day school for children, adolescents & young adults; transition education program; summer & extended school year programs; therapeutic residential treatment program; adult vocational & supported living programs; and community training.

STAR Autism Support (SAS) provides curriculum materials, workshops and training to school and agency staff who work with students with autism. Our mission is to help others successfully implement research-based applied behavior analysis (ABA) techniques. We want every child with autism to receive effective instruction!

VizZle provides a library of more than 14,000 lessons and the tools and media to customize them or create your own from scratch. The lessons can be tailored to any grade level, assigned to any student, and played on iPad or Android tablets, laptop or desktop computers. Data is tracked automatically. This award-winning software is developed collaboratively with educators.