The SD provided staff members with tools to self-soothe and self-regulate themselves to get them ready to better serve their students. Christopher N. Cerf, NPS Superintendent of Schools said, “The benefits of offering yoga to both administration and staff are many, which is why NPS has worked with NYM since 2009 and is now extending the NYM program to more schools in the district and to the administrative arm of teaching and learning.”
Debbie Kaminsky, founder of Newark Yoga Movement said she is honored to be the recipient of these unique micro grants from NPS to provide yoga to students and administrators. She stated, “Teaching students to breathe and relax as they learn is a great step forward in education and in social and emotional learning.”
The Newark Yoga Movement will be teaching yoga and its related properties and benefits to 9 schools this year. More than 500 students at Sussex Avenue Renew School learned yoga as a way to reduce stress, help them concentrate and remain calm in different situations according to school administrators.
Newark Yoga Movement team has been meeting with school leaders and tailoring yoga programs that fills their school needs. According to Ms. Kaminsky, many of the schools are looking to yoga to help give children dealing with behavioral issues a leg up through gaining additional tools. She said one school has added the important parent component and children with special needs will also be receiving yoga in several schools especially for the self-soothing/self-regulating benefits and beginning in September at one school, Newark Yoga Movement will be teaching yoga to both children who are deaf or blind.
[NEWARK, NJ – June 27, 2017] Nearly 2,000 Newark Public Schools (NPS) 4th and 5th grade students recently performed at NJPAC as part of the Recorder Arts for Musical Pathways Program; a partnership between NPS and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. This participation more than doubled the 739 students who participated last year.
“Thank you to NJPAC and Margaret El for their dedication to this important program that brings the arts to our students and allows them to play in the best concert hall in this country,” noted Superintendent of Newark Public Schools Christopher D. Cerf. “We must continue to grow programs like this because the arts are a vital part of our students’ education.”
The partnership includes 20 schools and teachers, who participated in a two day professional development program. As part of the program, NJPAC’s Recorder Arts master teacher conducted two site visits at each school during the first and second semester of the school year for in class support. In addition, NPS teachers from each of the 20 schools made nominations for the All-Star Recorder Choir, who performed on stage during the concert. The concert was held on June 15 at NJPAC’s Prudential Hall.
“I absolutely got chills looking out over the orchestra and all the way up to the third tier in Prudential Theater, seeing and hearing over 1900 third and fourth graders from Newark Public Schools performing in unison,” Added Margaret El, Director of Arts Education at NPS. “We are so excited about the work NPS music students and teachers have accomplished, and look forward to many students pursuing an instrument of choice in the future.”
Click here to listen to the concert.
Participating schools included:
