Improve Wellness for Teachers / Admin to increase performance for all through SKY Breathwork and SEL

Presenters

Matt Nink, SKY Schools / International Asoc for Human ValuesFollow
Elan Gepner-Dales, SKY Schools / International Assoc for Human ValuesFollow

First Presenter's Institution

SKY Schools / International Assoc for Human Values

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Matt earned degrees from Boston College and Northern Illinois University. Matt has over 25 years experience in MS and HS education at four schools in Wisconsin and Illinois, as well as 15 years of experience at a non-profit engaged in Social Emotional Learning (SEL) for students and adults. He has devoted his career to leadership and identity work for Middle School and High School Students and teachers. Matt has developed and improved many dynamic place-based programs for students and teachers in the areas of leadership, cross-cultural competency, youth empowerment, and social justice. He has conducted successful student and faculty workshops at k-12 schools and universities throughout the USA, as well as in Costa Rica, Panama, India, and Nigeria, and the Dominican Republic. He lives in suburban Milwaukee with his wife and family.

Second Presenter's Institution

SKY Schools / International Assoc for Human Values

Second Presenter’s Email Address

elan.gepner@iahv.org

Second Presenter's Brief Biography

For the last decade, Elan has overseen the development of one of the world's most comprehensive SEL and wellness programs for youth and school communities, taught in over 127 schools in 29 states across the US. He has also delivered youth leadership programs at Wharton Business School, Harvard, Yale, Stanford and UCLA. Elan has presented on the power of meditation for individual, school, and community transformation at conferences such as Learning and the Brain, NY State Conference for School Superintendents, Mindful Life, the Association for Recovery Schools Conference and the International Bullying Prevention Conference. The intersection of all of Elan’s work is alleviating stress and violence in the lives of youth, leaders and communities in need. Elan graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Art Semiotics from Brown University.

Document Type

Event

Primary Strand

Mindfulness and Wellbeing

Relevance to Primary Strand

The SKY Schools Breathwork and SEL curriculum for Educators, Parents and K-12 students has been taught to more than 130,000 students and 15,000 educators and parents by certified instructors of the International Association of Human Values (IAHV). Our relevance to mindfulness and wellbeing strand is that we have evidence based programs to improve wellness for adults (teachers, admin parents) to improve their own physical and mental health. Our focus on first training and cultivating wellness in adults in school communities allows teachers and staff to develop and model their own personal practice of wellness for students.

SKY Schools session will be highly experiential, engaging and interactive. We empower teachers and school leaders to create a healthy body, a healthy mind, and a healthy lifestyle by offering practical life skills as well as specific techniques to manage stress and emotions. The SKY Schools curriculum includes stretching and movement, targeted SKY breathing techniques documented to calm the stress response and increase focus, regulate emotions, and resolve conflicts. SKY Schools curriculum and facilitators foster respect for human values such as responsibility, respect, friendliness, kindness, collaboration, inclusion, belonging and equity. Each of the exemplary features below is linked to third party research by researchers at UCLA, Yale, and other universities.

Our approach to school-wide SEL and mental health is to begin with adults and leaders first. By learning and adopting evidence-based practices, school leaders can improve their own wellness, be a model for others, and create space for new and better ways of doing the key work of schools.

Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics

Leadership/ Continuous Improvement

Brief Program Description

SKY Schools will help you with your own physical and mental health in a short, fun, interactive session. We will explore what we care most about--our values as a vehicle to access some of our pressure points and causes of stress. You will also lean concrete techniques and tools to regulate your emotions and stress with your own breath. These techniques can transform your school climate to create stronger connections, shared purpose and unleash the human potential of your students and adults.

Summary

SKY Schools session will involve interactive processes that build trust and empathy to set the groundwork for using breath as a tool to reset the mind and body. The steps of our proposed session are: 1. Human values a. How stress blocks our values b. How students say that adults deal with stress c. areas of our lives that stress affects to block our values (sleep, relationships, eating, sleep) 2. Being Button Proof How our emotions can block our relationships and our values How you give your power away when you react to situations 3. Victory Breath a calming breath that can help us live our values and be button proof 4. Science of breath vagus / vagal tonal breathing upward spiral of positive social connections and self identity 5. Guided meditation to deepen relaxation Teaching methods used

1. Direct instruction (5%-10%)

2. Socratic questioning (20%)

3. Interactive discussions (30%)

4. Experiential processes (20%)

5. Guided breathwork (20%)

Evidence

There have been several third party research studies done our practices and techniques. We can provide much more upon request.

The evidence based practices that we will share have been validated by several research studies. Most recently studies from Yale and the University of Arizona found our program to be most effective in improving mental health and well-being using measures of stress, depression, mental health, social connection, positive emotions, self-esteem, anxiety, life satisfaction, and mindfulness. Both studies were randomized control trials that with active controls including programs such as mindfulness based stress reduction (MSBR), Emotional Intelligence, and treatment as usual.

The Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behaviour at University of California, Los Angeles, using a combination of interactive computer simulation, surveys, and neuroimaging have found that our program reduces impulsive behavior, fear and anxiety, and increases empathy, self-motivation, self-efficacy, self-control, learning, and executive functions such as attentional focus (Gharemani et al., 2013). Further research from UCLA has also found that SKY substantially improves students’ ability to emotionally regulate,

Further research from UCLA has also found that SKY substantially improves students’ ability to emotionally regulate, enhances self-awareness, improves interpersonal relationships, and student agency (Gharemani et al., 2013). Through the use of neuroimaging in a study using control groups the SKY breathing practice used in SKY was found to acutely enhance the neural processes that are important for emotional regulation evidenced by increased pre-frontal cortex activation. (Gharemani et al., 2013). This study concluded that the effectiveness of SKY arises from improved integration of emotion regulation strategies when autonomic nervous system balance is restored through the breathing techniques.

The Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development at the School of Psychology at Deakin University in Australia conducted an evaluation of SKY using pre and post psychometric testing combined with analysis of school based data. The study found that there was a statistically significant reduction in bullying with a 7% decrease in the number of students reporting experiences of bullying. The study also found a statistically significant reduction in depressive symptoms and improvement in coping skills, problem solving, and emotional regulation (Toumbourou, 2016).

A second randomized control trial of a 12 week SKY program offered to a group of predominantly Hispanic 13 - 15 year olds in Miami under the ‘Safe Schools, Healthy Students Initiative’ evaluated the impact of SKY on reducing risk factors and increasing protective factors associated with academic failure/academic success, substance use, aggression and well-being. The study found significant improvement in the areas of identity, emotion regulation, planning and concentration, and attitudes toward aggression.

Finally, a PhD dissertation on the impact of our program in schools, using a randomized control trial found that students participating in our program demonstrated greater academic performance, and improved behavior compared to treatment as usual.

Learning Objective 1

Understanding and awareness of the science of breath

Learning Objective 2

Understanding of the breath as key tool to reset the mind and body

Learning Objective 3

Practicing breathing techniques to create calm, energy and focus

Learning Objective 4

Connecting human values to stress reduction through breathwork

Recommended Citation

Nink, Matt and Gepner-Dales, Elan, "Improve Wellness for Teachers / Admin to increase performance for all through SKY Breathwork and SEL" (2023). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 41.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2023/2023/41

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