Inner Explorer | October Mission moment

Mission Moments: October 2020

In the summer of 2018, an article in The Nation Magazine profiled the implications of parental opioid addiction on students at Henry J. Kaiser Elementary School in West Virginia. At the time, the state had the highest rate of death by overdose and of babies born dependent on drugs in the United States. In response to this impactful article, we reached out to Principal Amber Hardman at Henry J. Kaiser Elementary to offer the Inner Explorer mindfulness program. Despite outstanding teachers and access to Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs, the staff at HJK was unsure how to best help students.

Hardman said: “We were struggling, classrooms were taken over by behavior issues. Kids were exposed to so much trauma that they were simply not ready for academics.”

Within one year of implementing Inner Explorer the results were clear – a daily mindfulness practice proved to be making a drastic impact:

77% decrease in school-wide discipline problems
190% increase in # of students reading “At or Above Grade Level”
375% increase in # of students performing “At or Above Grade Level” in math
Increased teacher retention/wellbeing

“I wanted to quit. In my 31 years of teaching, I had never experienced so much disobedience and trauma before in my career,” said Educator Trudy Humphreys. "After practicing Inner Explorer with kids for a year, I saw a transformation in my classroom. Students no longer had outbursts in class, I didn't have to send any kids to detention, and their grades improved significantly.” Teacher retention and well-being has also improved since the adoption of Inner Explorer. Please donate so we can continue to make a lasting impact in the lives of students, educators and families. Together - through mindfulness - we can reduce the stress and hopelessness so many children are facing.

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

Mission Moments: October 2020

success stories

TESTIMONIALS