Inner Explorer | November Mission moment

Mission Moments: November 2021

Our mission has always been to reduce the chronic stress and anxiety educators, school staff, students, and families experience to succeed in school and beyond. We do this by providing simple, inspiring, and inviting Mindfulness-Based Social Emotional Learning (MBSEL) programs for school communities and centers.

The Director of Social and Emotional Learning at Medfield Public High School discusses the importance of Inner Explorer and developing self-regulating strategies with students.

That mission was put to the test when COVID-19 disrupted our learning environments. After navigating an incredibly difficult 2019-2020 school year, our school communities are now facing educator burn-out, learning loss, and transitioning back to in-person learning as we settle into the new year.

Thanks to our community, we were able to support school communities and centers in facing these challenges and reached many incredible milestones along the way, including:

Hitting a new record of serving over two million students and over 100 school districts.
Welcoming our Educator Advisory Board (EAC), who will help to inform our program and content to best support the communities we serve.
Empowering student leaders who are using mindfulness to advocate and raise awareness about mental health issues. Read more in our Dwight Morrow High School case study or listen to students at John Marshall High School speak about using Inner Explorer to launch their Wellness Advisory in a Virtual Field Trip hosted by LG Electronics and Discovery Education.
The launch of our Educator Well-Being Series and Counselor Series, both designed to support school staff in the unique challenges that they face in their roles.
Helping more schools and districts utilize Inner Explorer as a preventative mental health measure through COVID-19 Education Relief Funding FAQ and funding matrix resources.

Partnering with Discovery Educationto offer our program through their new Social Emotional Learning Center and break the cycle of chronic stress in the classroom.

Celebrating Superhero Educators in collaboration with LG Electronics, who are creating change in their school communities through the Six Sustainable Happiness Skills.

We are deeply grateful to our donors, partners, foundations, employees and board members whose collective efforts have propelled MBSEL forward for educators, students and their families during yet another challenging year.

Thank you for supporting our work – your engagement with Inner Explorer helps us create sustainable, long-term change in the field of education.

Giving Tuesday is November 30 – if you would like to help grow our community, please share this story with friends and family that may wish to support our mission. If you would like to make a one-time or monthly donation, you can visit our donation page here.

Mindfully,
The Inner Explorer team

TESTIMONIALS

Last year we piloted one class with Inner Explorer’s mindfulness program. The one class who used it was the calmest class with the fewest incident reports (0 versus an average of 25 in the other classrooms!) and had the high estacademic gains in reading (initially 10 of 28 students werebelow grade level, at the end of the year 0 of 28 werebelow, including several special needs students!). We are expanding into all the classrooms this year.Principal, Sarasota, FL

Inner Explorer is very user friendly and easy to implement. We have seen a dramatic increase in the positive behaviors of the students in the classrooms where the program is donewith fidelity. The investment of 5-10 minutes daily, comes back to you exponentially! Programs such as this should berequired in all schools! Ileana Mellan, Principal,Mater Academy.

We had just started IE a few months prior to the marathon bombing in Boston. Third grade was particularly traumatizedas that was the grade that lost Martin. By continuing toparticipate in IE each day after the bombing, IE served asgood trauma first-aid for several reasons: Maintaining familiar routines and rituals Ongoing teaching of calm down strategies. A safe space and sense of security. Helped teachers and students with self-care Director of Special Ed and Student Support.

Inner Explorer has empowered our students to handle stress, anxiety, and negative emotions in a constructive manner. The 5-10 minute guided audio practices are long enough toprovide immediate positive effects and short enough as tonot disrupt instructional time. Teachers have said that they themselves have used the mindfulness strategies to reduce their own stress. Inner Explorer is simple to use, empowers students and teachers to self-regulate their emotions, and their team is always readily available to answer questions/address concerns Aida Trujillo, AssistantPrincipal

Mission Moments: November 2021

success stories

TESTIMONIALS