March 13, 2017
MPA alumna and PreK teaching assistant shares her passion for yoga with her young charges
by Annie Stewart ’11, teaching assistant
Many yoga practitioners remember their first yoga class as the day their life changed. My first class was at the Heartworks Yoga studio in Northfield, Minn. when I was a sophomore at St. Olaf. I was living in the dorms and going through a challenging time. My friends suggested that I try a yoga class—a hot yoga class. I don’t know how I survived the 100-degree heat, the high humidity, and the crazy moves, but I was hooked.
Today I am sharing my love of yoga with the Lower School students at Mounds Park Academy. I think it’s vitally important for young children to experience yoga. They are experiencing a lot of emotions—and expending even more energy—during the course of the day. As teachers, we often expect them to sit still and listen, not move or chat with their neighbors. Few adults have that control!
I asked some of my students what they like about Yoga Calm. One said, “It calms me, and I just love time to be still.” Another shared, “If I am having a bad day, remembering these techniques really helps me calm down.” A young boy said, “I can get nervous before tests and this really helps relax me.” Another student said, ““I showed my mom how to do the yoga flow. She was really stressed about her annual meeting at work.”
By teaching yoga in school, we are giving them tools to help them self-regulate, to better understand how they’re feeling and to use breathing to help calm themselves down. I know when I’m anxious, particularly before taking tests, I can take deep belly breaths to calm myself. Through Yoga Calm, we’re teaching these life skills to MPA Lower School students.
About Yoga Calm
A husband and wife team of yoga practitioners developed Yoga Calm based on more than 30 years of experience in education, counseling, and yoga practice. Yoga Calm helps children develop emotional resilience, leadership, communication skills, trust, empathy, focus, and self-control. It focuses on the development of the whole child. Through Yoga Calm, students experience an innovative fusion of physical yoga and mindfulness practices to help them grow into happy, healthy youth. Research shows that it is important to teach young children mindfulness strategies to reduce stress.
Yoga Calm at the MPA Lower School
Students in PreK through grade four participate in 25-minute Yoga Calm classes once a week. Classes this year will reinforce Yoga Calm strategies introduced last year. For the past two years, the MPA Parent Association has provided funding for these Yoga Calm classes. Everyone is so deeply appreciative for the support because of the benefit that it provides all Lower School students.
In addition to the classes I teach, Molly Fischer, MPA’s licensed school counselor, also integrates it into the support she provides students. She shared, “I’m a huge proponent of Yoga Calm! It is so beneficial for our students to practice of mindfulness techniques to help them with relaxation, stress reduction, focus, body awareness, and so much more.”
As an MPA alumna, I am not surprised by the school’s embrace of yoga instruction. MPA fosters a spirit of innovation, helping students develop the tools they need to thrive in school and in life; yoga is just one of many examples. I am so happy to have the opportunity to share my passion for yoga with the Lower School students.
My MPA Experience
I didn’t attend MPA as a Lower School student; instead I transferred in sixth grade from a Montessori school. MPA really fit with the learning style I was used to at the Montessori. Even way back then, I knew that I wanted to return to MPA when I was an adult, though I didn’t know it would be so soon!
Some people ask if it is strange to be back. I tell them it feels like home. I discovered my passion for theater at MPA when I started being a stage manager in seventh grade. I continued my involvement in the theater throughout middle school and high school. I was even a theater major at St. Olaf, expanding my experience to include playwriting, performing, and directing. Today, I am working toward my K–12 teaching license with a focus in theater and dance.
In addition to teaching yoga at MPA, I am a PreK teaching assistant so many of my former teachers are now my colleagues! All of them have been so warm, welcoming, and supportive, which I appreciate. I just struggle with calling them by their first names! Thankfully, I have belly breaths to help.
Annie Stewart is a Mounds Park Academy alumna, PreK teaching assistant and certified Yoga Calm instructor who is pursuing a graduate degree at Hamline in K–12 education with a focus on theater and dance, a passion she discovered as a seventh-grade student at MPA.
