A Glance at our Grants: Yoga at Highland/Pierce Downer (Episode 3)
Channel: dg58 youtube
Date: 2016-01-27

Thanks to an Education Foundation grant, Highland/Pierce Downer social worker Caitlin Choinski, with support from Mallory Wielgolewski (Highland/Indian Trail social worker), Patti Cepeda (District behavior specialist) and Tracy Moriarty (Pierce Downer resource), received 30 yoga mats, two containers for the mats and yoga mat cleaner. Learn how they’re using this grant to help students in fourth and fifth grades succeed in school!

Video story:

Caitlin Choinski is a social worker at Highland and Pierce Downer as well as a yoga instructor. She designed a six-week yoga curriculum for students, and thanks to an Education Foundation grant, she also purchased 30 new yoga mats. Mrs. Choinski now leads successful yoga clubs at Highland and Pierce Downer schools. 

Caitlin Choinski: “Through yoga, students are learning mindfulness and coping skills and also they’re learning about self-regulation. During the adolescence stage, the pre-frontal cortex of the brain is developing and so research shows that during this time it’s really important to be teaching kids these skills because that helps them during their adolescence through adulthood.

 Yoga Club demonstration

Each week we have a theme that focuses on something that impacts them within the school setting and within the home setting. So whether that’s the Warrior poses and we’re focusing on strength, which is strong body and strong mind, or this week was balance, and focusing on understanding our responsibilities and how things can be tricky and what we need to do during those times, we try to tie in ways that our students can reflect on their life and ways that they can come back to their breathing and back to the skills that they’re using during yoga club throughout their day, whether they’re at home or at school.

Mallory Wielgolewski, social worker at Highland/Indian Trail: 
I’ve noticed that a lot of the different students feel like ‘Wow, I’m really good at this!’ and ‘Where can I do this outside of school?’ so it’s been exciting for them to be open to a whole new area of taking care of yourself. They seem to be beaming ear to ear every week that they come. They have really positive things that I’ve noticed that they’re saying in the halls to each other and to us about yoga club.