Tag: school

Education, Health / Wellness, Kids, Mental health, Mindfulness, Yoga

How to Effortlessly Schedule Mindfulness into YOUR Day

Cassandra Troughton

Miss T, here!

In my last post, I explained, plain and simply, what mindfulness is.

Essentially, it is a state of being consciously aware of something… really anything! Anything that draws our focus to one particular thing in the present moment. 

This could mean bringing focus to our breath or our surroundings. Using our 5 senses to analyze the things around us. Grounding us here, in the now. 

Once we become better at practicing mindfulness, our subconscious will allow us to automatically become more present throughout our day. Until then, it’s important for us on a daily basis to deliberately schedule mindful moments in.

To train our subconscious mind.

These moments could be big or small, although I recommend beginning anything by starting small. Making it more manageable to do will improve your success and follow through rate. Plus, once you are confident in your first baby step, you can take a few bigger steps until you eventually reach your ultimate goal.

Kaizen is a Japanese word that means
“Change for the better” or “Continuous Improvement.”

It is a term that involves the continual process of manageable and incremental steps in order to see improvement. 

We can use the kaizen philosophy to better ourselves (and the kiddos in our lives) at being mindful. By taking small, intentional steps to reach our fullest potential. We can adjust our steps as needed. This guarantees success!

Now, there are SO many ways and opportunities to schedule mindfulness into our days!

If you want to learn more about ‘Kaizen’, I highly recommend you check out this book!

Whether you are practicing mindfulness for yourself, or for your kiddos, or perhaps, you have an entire classroom of kids, it is EASY (and hopefully I’ve convinced you it’s possible) to find time for mindfulness. 

Tips on HOW to Schedule Mindfulness into your Day:

  1. Schedule specific times on a calendar. When you write things down, you are more likely to make it happen! It doesn’t matter if it means only deep breathing looking out the window for 30 seconds-1 minute each day. It’s still the start of something. The key is to make it INTENTIONAL. Set specific times each day to make time for YOU!

  2. Try having a morning and evening practice. Once again, even if you can only dedicate a minute in the morning and a minute in the evening, that’s okay! Starting the day with mindfulness can set you up for success and ending it off with mindfulness helps you relax for a more peaceful evening or sleep.

  3. Take deep breaths before beginning tasks. An easy way to sneak mindfulness in the day, whether in your personal life or in the classroom, is to begin each transition (of whatever it is you’re doing), with a deep belly breath or 2. Getting in your car to run an errand, before starting work, transitioning from one task to another (in a classroom setting, switching subjects), coming home from work or school are all great times to sneak in a few deep breaths. Deep breaths are powerful because they calm our brains and allow us to reconnect with our body and breath.

  4. Positive affirmations and intentions: Take a quick moment in your morning to set an intention or speak out some positive affirmations for your day ahead. Could be as quick as taking a minute to say things like “I intend to be filled with gratitude today,” “I am happy and healthy,” “I will persevere today!” Really feel the power behind your statement as you make it. This could begin as a quick moment in the morning, and grow to the point where you are stating affirmations randomly throughout your day, maybe even setting intentions at night for how you’d like to feel the next morning! 

  5. Express your gratitude daily! I really do believe that gratitude is the most powerful form of self-medication! You get the most “bang for your buck” with adding in the practice of gratitude. Expressing gratitude on a consistent basis really does make us happier and healthier humans. I could go on and on about the power of gratitude, but there will be more time for that in another post… 😛 

Here are some other quick & easy mindfulness practice ideas:

  • Going for a walk in nature
  • Thinking of 3 things to be grateful for each morning or night
  • Taking a minute to do a quick body scan and listen to your body
  • Mindful eating
  • Practice active listening
  • Pausing for a few deep breaths
  • Focus on your 5 senses at any point in your day
  • Mindful mandala colouring
  • Read a book in a quiet spot
  • Journalling
  • Stretching OR Yoga

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together”

Vincent Van Gogh
Education, Health / Wellness, Kids, Mental health, Mindfulness

But… What is Mindfulness?

Cassandra Troughton

Welcome!

Miss T, here!

If you’ve been following my journey, you can probably already tell that I have a passion for promoting health & wellness through MINDFULNESS!

But… WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?

Chances are, if you stumbled on this blog, you have some sort of idea what mindfulness entails. But I’m going to simplify it for you! Because there are many interpretations of what mindfulness is and isn’t.

If we look up the definition of Mindfulness it notes:

“Mindfulness is the state of being consciously aware of something”

And quite literally, anything! It is focusing on one particular thing, whether that’s our breath or a part of our surroundings. Focusing on that one thing brings us into the present moment.

Yes, we can schedule certain mindfulness practices into our day, but we can also live each moment with a mindfulness mind set. Completing our daily tasks and going through daily events, mindfully!

We can eat mindfully by eliminating distractions. That means no watching TV or scrolling through our phones while we are trying to eat. Focusing solely on our food and enjoying it with all 5 of our senses. 

We can go for a walk or a drive mindfully! By tuning out any conversations and focusing on the sights and sounds around you! Even the smells, if you are outside in nature.

We can even have mindful conversations. Putting our phones away, turning off music, and focusing solely on our heartfelt conversation. Active listening is a wonderful way to have a mindful conversation.

We can even do our work with mindfulness in mind. By breaking down our day and focusing on one aspect of the day at a time. Being fully present in whatever your task is. 

Are you a Multi-Tasker? 

Multitasking is not a mindful activity. Our minds are constantly flipping between tasks and we are most definitely unable to focus our attention on one item! Not to mention, multi-tasking is not productive (unless you are of course the 1% exception to this rule or a computer), often taking a lot longer to complete all of your to-do’s and getting them done without paying attention to the details.

Multi-tasking tends to lead us to our MONKEY MIND.

“Monkey mind” is a buddhist term that refers to being unsettled, distracted, restless, even confused. It is the OPPOSITE of true mindfulness.

Our goal is to calm and settle our monkey mind in order to live truly mindful lives. 

So yes, mindfulness can be practiced at any time throughout your day. You can practice it anywhere, and with just about any activity (unless you’re combining activities, of course)! 

The key is AWARENESS! Being aware of your thoughts and your monkey mind. Being able to pause and say:

“Okay, I’m thinking about the past or future right now, when I should really be focused on the present.”

Awareness can be challenging, but it can also be TRAINED. You can get better at becoming more self-aware. All it takes is a little bit of practice and some deliberate scheduling of mindfulness into your day.

I highly recommend training your awareness by purposefully adding mindful moments into your day, whether that is with mindful breathing, mindful eating, practicing gratitude, yoga, etc. The important thing is to find what works best for you.

By intently adding it into your day, you are settling your monkey mind, and training your brain to think in the present moment, all the time!

Read my follow up post for more ideas on HOW to schedule mindfulness into your day!

One of my FAVOURITE ways of being mindful is by going on hikes in the mountains! Living in Alberta, Canada, I am grateful to have access to the Rocky Mountains, where I regularity “escape” to.

With love & gratitude,
Miss T.

Education, Health / Wellness, Kids, Mental health, Mindfulness, Technology, Yoga

Oh, the Possibilities of Teaching Mindfulness Online…

Cassandra Troughton

Hello Mindful Minds! 

Miss T, here!

Well, I think we can all agree that the last few years have been anything but easy…

We are living in a world full of fear and uncertainty. Stress and anxiety is on the rise- and was well on the rise before the world even had a glimpse of COVID-19. 

Many of us, myself included, are feeling isolated and alone, struggling to cope with the reality of the world… 

If we are struggling… Our kiddos are struggling… How will our kiddos learn to persevere and thrive in this changing and stressful world?   

I asked myself this very question when I first began my Mindfulness Club at my little Elementary School (if you haven’t read my last post, make sure you do before reading ahead!). Mindfulness was the answer then, and is most definitely the answer now!

In fact, in this COVID-struck world, I believe the practice of Mindfulness is even more important and more detrimental to our kids (and our own) well-being and resilience than ever before!

“In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other
is to listen with our ears and our hearts .”

Fred Rogers

In March 2020, one week before our scheduled Spring Break, our schools in Edmonton, Canada shut down completely. We thought we would see our students bright and early Monday morning, turns out, we would not see them face-to-face for the rest of the school year…

I took a deep breath and reminded myself of the ‘controllables.’ No, I could not control what was happening in the world, but I COULD control and was very capable of finding a way to bring mindfulness to my students.

As schools and teachers frantically made plans to teach online, I thought about how to best serve my school community with the power of Mindfulness..

I decided to create a website for my students to access our mindfulness practices in the comfort of their own homes!

Using the platform, Google Sites… Mindfulness Club ONLINE was born!

Google Sites was easy and simple to use for a ‘non-techy’ person like myself. I am by no means an expert when it comes to web design. I prefer simplicity. Google Sites was the easy answer for me!

I designed it with a similar structure to our Mindfulness Recess Club- keeping our Mindful Monday, Wind-down Wednesday & Flexy Friday themes alive! Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I would post new breathing activities, yoga videos, games and stories (while getting creative and having familiar faces within our school record a read-aloud of a mindfulness book) for kiddos and their families at home.

I added a couple of extra features and resources on this site, including a virtual Gratitude Wall where students could submit notes of gratitude to an online Google Form. At the end of each week, I would add the submitted notes to a page on my google site, named “That Gratitude Attitude!”

This was created after our real-life ‘Gratitude Wall’ bulletin that hung in the hallways at Sherwood Elementary. 

Pre-COVID, students could submit notes of gratitude themselves, though a little drop-off box at the front office.
Welcome to Mindfulness Club ONLINE! Where our ‘Online Gratitude Wall’ came to life! Kids could submit their notes of gratitude through Google Forums.
Our Gratitude Wall Evolved over the years. This is the final version in 2020/2021 upon returning to ‘in-class’ teaching.

Most of the activities I posted were found for free on youtube (Cosmic Kids Yoga, GoNoodle Guided Relaxations), and breathing activities from a book I already owned (Breathe like a Bear- highly recommended for quick breathing activities for young children). 

But… I felt I needed something more… and tailored to these online needs. And that’s where Kids Yoga Stories came into play! 

I am a huge fan of Giselle and her work at kidsyogastories.com! I had previously purchased some of her classroom resources, but she had most recently come out with the ‘Keep Calm’ and ‘Get Connected’ packs and I knew I had to jump on those! These packs came with a ton of digital resources that I was easily able to implement onto my Google Site.

As crazy as this year was (and the years have continued to be), it ended up being a lot of fun and an exciting new venture for me: learning to build this site and share my passion in the online world. And surprisingly… easier than I anticipated!

If you are looking for ways to implement mindfulness online, or find new ways to bring these practices to the kiddos in your life, I would love to connect with you and share any insights or answer any questions. 

You can send me an email:

And check out my Google Site, Mindfulness Club ONLINE, at the link below for more ideas:

Mindfulness Club ONLINE

5 PRACTICAL Tips for Educators who are Shifting to Online:

  1. Find an easy “website” platform to use: 
    Choose a platform that is user friendly. Easy for your students to access, and easy for you to use. You don’t need anything too fancy. The point is getting out info to your students, you don’t want to waste a whole lot of time making it look pretty. I used Google Sites. My students and I are already familiar with google applications (easy to access) AND it is designed simply with no excess distracting features.
  2. Be open to using multimedia to address all learning styles:
    Think about the needs of your students. In the classroom, we differentiate to address different learning styles. Bring that practice with you in your shift online. Record videos or sound clips, add pictures and text. Make it easy and fun for all types of learners. A Lot of my students in Mindfulness Club were younger and weren’t great readers, so for every text I wrote, I also added an audio clip of myself reading the text. 
  3. Record YOURSELF and/or known trusted adults:
    Yes, you could search up videos of ‘professionals’ on youtube who already have videos posted to demonstrate a concept, but students love it more when they see you or someone they know on video! When choosing read-alouds for my Mindfulness Club Online, I recorded myself reading and asked other teachers and office staff in the school to read and record videos of themselves. The kids loved it!
  4. Make it interactive for your students:
    Find a way to make it interactive for your kiddos. A page of some sorts where they can respond or ask questions on their own. Google Forms can easily be inserted on any page to be used for daily check-in’s, questions of the day, etc. I’m sure there are some other awesome programs out there (maybe even Jamboards) that you could link up to your site, but my personal experience is working with Google Forms on my Google Site.
  5. No stress! Just have fun with it:
    This is where you get to see this as an opportunity to learn, make mistakes, and have fun while playing around with your site (Gosh, now I really do sound like Ms. Frizzle). You get to design it to let your personality shine through. If you have fun with Bitmoji, this is the perfect time to plaster your Bitmoji-self all over your website!! Ever heard of Bitmoji classrooms? I bet you have! Well, you can link your interactive Bitmoji classrooms all over your site! I have to warn you though.. This one can become a little time consuming if you’re a particular person, like me… So try not to dedicate a whole lot of time to it. (Unless it’s a fun hobby for you of course!)

P.S. I first wrote about my journey with ‘Mindfulness Club’ at KidsYogaStories.com

You can check out the blog post here!

Education, Health / Wellness, Kids, Mental health, Mindfulness

Introducing… Mindful Miss T!

Cassandra Troughton

My name is Cassandra!

Although, I’m better known as Miss T. to my students and school community!

I am an Educational Assistant located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I’ve been lovingly supporting students as an EA for 7 years now and I owe it all to my inspiring Mom (also an EA with Edmonton Public Schools) for choosing this path in the first place. 

My 2nd year at Sherwood Elementary as an EA for Grades 1 & 2 in an Adaptability (Special Needs) Classroom.
My teaching partner and I ALWAYS got in on the ‘First Day of School’ Photos!

When I first started off as an EA, I loved working with kids. I enjoyed helping them learn and watching them grow. Helping to mould and shape their personalities. But it wasn’t until I began working with some very challenging students, when I realized exactly where I wanted to help these kids see success…

I began my career at a small, intimate school, Sherwood Elementary. It was located in a low-income neighbourhood and our community held some of the most vulnerable of families. Half of the school was dedicated to a special needs/adaptability program- which I spent most of my time working in. The other half was our “regular” K-6 program, but it was anything but “regular”… 

The majority of these kids that attended our little home at Sherwood School had been through some traumatic experiences at such a young age- many kiddos who’d been in and out of foster care, families that didn’t have enough money to pay rent or buy groceries, and many instances of abuse. We had some very dedicated families, but often, because of their home life circumstances, students didn’t often remain at our school for the full 7 years. 

As you can imagine, these kiddos had it rough… and so early on in their lives… There were many things beyond their control. It was the first time I’d seen so many hardships under one roof…

Yes, it was sad to see and sure did pull on the heart strings. However, I knew I had a real OPPORTUNITY to help these kiddos thrive- beyond academics! 

Before I let you in on my plan to help these kiddo’s, I’m going to share a personal story with you…

There was a time in my life when I really struggled. During the natural transition from high school to adulthood… 

Becoming an adult was overwhelming. I wasn’t prepared for it. I felt I just wasn’t worthy of a fulfilling life; It just wasn’t in my cards. I was unhappy. 

Although, one thing that I did have going for myself was my willingness to persevere. I have grit. I am not a quitter. Never have been. If something doesn’t go my way, I figure out why and I learn to find a new way. 

I’d got lost in the rabbit hole of self-development and came across this beautiful, deceivingly-hard concept… “Mindfulness.” The practice of being fully present in the moment… 

I say deceiving-hard because the concept seemed easy enough- being fully present and aware in the now, but practicing it was not. It took a lot of hard work, focus, forgiveness and time.

But the end result was that mindfulness saved my life. Quite literally. It offered me a new perspective and allowed me to understand my thoughts and feelings. And the realization that I am NOT my thoughts. And that I am NOT subjected to my circumstances. 

Mindfulness gave me back my power. 

Now, back to my little elementary school…

One day in my self-development journey (because, you know, it’s a forever thing!), I came across an inspiring mindfulness documentary… this time, about bringing mindfulness to kids and into schools…

This provoked me to think:

“Mindfulness helped me. Why wouldn’t it help my students? Other people are clearly bringing mindfulness into schools… Why can’t I bring it into mine?”

And so, this thought propelled me into action! 

The opportunity I had to help these kiddos was through the practice of mindfulness!

Hate to leave you hanging here… but you’ll have to check out my next blog post to see exactly how I turned this plan into action!!

My 4th year at Sherwood Elementary School, and ironically,
Also the year I switched classrooms to Room 4!


With love & gratitude,
Miss T.