PRESS RELEASE:
A talk of special interest to teachers and those interested in education will be offered by Patricia Jennings at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 23, at UNC Asheville’s Sherrill Center, in the Mission Health Mountain View Conference Room. The lecture, Mastering Classroom Social and Emotional Dynamics to Promote Learning: A Mindfulness-Based Approach, is free and open to the public.
Jennings, with 22 years of experience as a classroom teacher, is now associate professor of education at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. She is the author of Mindfulness for Teachers: Simple Skills for Peace and Productivity in the Classroom (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015), part of the Norton Series on Social Neuroscience of Education.
Jennings also is leading the Compassionate Schools Project, a partnership between the University of Virginia and Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky to implement and evaluate a curriculum that integrates mindfulness for stress management and self-control; contemplative movements, postures and breathing for physical awareness and agility; nutritional knowledge for healthy eating; and social and emotional skills for effective interpersonal relationships.
Jennings’ lecture is part of Creating a Mindful Campus 2016, the fifth annual faculty-led conference at UNC Asheville exploring how mindful and contemplative practices can contribute to awareness, teaching and learning. The 2016 conference takes place May 23-24 and, with the exception of Jennings’ free public talk, is open only to registered participants. For more information, contact Richard Chess, UNC Asheville’s Roy Carroll Distinguished Professor, at rchess@unca.edu.
This presentation will be well worth attending. Patricia is a brilliant communicator with a vast range of experience in the consciousness development and human potential fields while living in the normal world and is able to convey her understanding to both adults and children with extreme skill from a very advanced perspective.