Hearts and Minds features Pinewood Elementary School in Jenison, MI, a suburb of Grand Rapids, where teachers and staff found themselves dealing with extreme student behaviors that disrupted learning. When Principal Rachael Postle-Brown and her staff adopted a “Whole School” approach to supporting positive student behaviors, a host of benefits followed. The approach has three elements: students learn Mindfulness strategies to self-soothe and invite self-reflection, while a Social Thinking curriculum helps them develop oral language skills for resolving conflict and evaluating problems, and Whole Brain Teaching engages them through physical movement and choral responses that aid students in remembering content and academic processes.
