Kelly Bergersen Blog

"Mindfulness is moment-to-moment awareness... It is cultivated by purposefully paying attention to things we ordinarily never give a moment's thought to" (Jon Kabat-Zinn).  Welcome back everyone! This week we will be discussing a critical issue that not only applies to students in schools, but also teachers and people outside of a school setting. Social and emotional mindfulness is a concept of being that people across the globe need to consider. We all know the feeling of being rushed and always on the go-- this module explains much about what it means to slow yourself down and take a breath. Let's dive right in: We had the opportunity to watch a very informative film this week entitled, "Room to Breath." It targeted the school population, both interviewing students and teachers to get a better sense of the dynamic that is held throughout the education field. Teachers expressed their personal struggle with students that have been intentionally more defiant

Poverty can shackle and weigh people and families down in this world. It is important that we have awareness and look to help those that are less fortunate. Everyone deserves opportunity for success. (Poverty Stock Illustrations)  Welcome back everyone! Now, last week I know we covered mental health awareness but this week we will be shifting gears. Our topic of conversation will surround poverty in schools, as well as across the globe. Generalizing this term, poverty is a lack of wealth that could result in scarcity of housing, clothing, food and other goods. It is important that we, as educators are aware that our students and people around us come from all different walks of life. It is not safe to make assumptions of people or judge a book by its cover; we must always carry ourselves with grace and respect towards everyone.   Speaking of books...  When I was younger this was one of my childhood favorites. "Those Shoes," is a benign and compassionate way to speak about pov

This image says it all: We all need to be kinder to our minds, don't be so hard on yourself! Positive self-talk is so important to our mental health-- health comes first! Hello all, and welcome back! This week we will be talking about mental health awareness. What does it mean exactly? How do we treat it? And how do we all become our best, healthiest, and happiest selves?  This week I jumped right into learning about "generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)." As a class we are in the midst of putting together a collaborative and informative slide show about varied disorders. The more we know and can recognize these, the better we will be at guiding and helping along our future students. My findings are as shown:  What is it? GAD is a condition of excessive worry about everyday issues and situations. What are the symptoms? You can experience trouble falling asleep, trembling, twitching, tense muscles, headaches, irritability, sweating, hot flashes, lightheadedness, trouble brea

Above, you can see a cartoon depiction of children and friends uniting no matter what differences in race, sexual orientation, status, disability, etc. Spreading kindness and respect is the fastest and easiest method used to combat against bullying.  Welcome back everyone!  Now I know last week's discussion was quite heavy, however this week we will also be facing another challenging topic. Bullying, and more specifically the bullying that is orchestrated via the internet: cyberbullying. Many kids and students fall victim to this epidemic and we as a society must attempt to learn from these hardships and proceed with more knowledge and awareness on how to combat it.  This week we watched a video entitled, "Dark Cloud: the High Cost of Cyberbullying," that I will include a reference to so you can check it out; it was very sad however, it spoke about positive change that could come from the loss. One story was that of Amanda Todd's; it was one of inexplicable loss and t

Welcome back everyone!  Today's topic is exceptionally hard to address, however it is necessary to dive into these tricky conversations in order to make way for positive change. With that said, if gun violence and concepts pertaining to gun control affect you in a negative way, feel free to join us again for next week's discussion.  Now, as teachers we do our very best to cultivate a safe environment for our students, although much of that safe space is created through the dynamic of the kids. They truly pave the way for their own experiences and we simply guide them. With this freedom to make something for themselves, comes great responsibility. Students are young and impressionable but this time in their lives also are left open for them to make plenty of mistakes. And mistakes are okay, that is how we learn! But what is not okay is if these mistakes negatively impact other peers. School violence can be displayed in a number of ways that are not limited to verbal or physical