2019/2020 Lunch & Learn Series
All sessions will be held at 12:10pm-12:50pm in Room12-199 (OISE)
| Tuesday, September 24, 2019 | Download the handout
Nicole Chen: Great Teaching | Tuesday, October 22, 2019 | Download the slide deck | Download the Toolkit | View the videotaped session
Hilary Inwood: Mapping Sustainable Happiness | Thursday, November 28, 2019
Shelley Murphy: Mindfulness and Resilience to Stress | Tuesday, January 14, 2020 | Download the slide deck | View the videotaped session
Elli Weisbaum: Building & Broadening Resiliency: Integrating Mindfulness into Education – An Introduction | Tuesday, February 11, 2020 | View the videotaped session
Jennifer Baradi: iREST Yoga Nidra | Tuesday, March 24, 2020 | Screencast available here: (Part 1) iRest 1 OISE MARCH 2020 | (Part 2) iRest 2 OISE MARCH 2020 | (Part 3) iRest 3 OISE MARCH 2020 | iRest Meditation Handout
Lunch & Learn Session Descriptions
Curious about Mindfulness? | Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Jack will share beginner-friendly mindfulness meditation practices along with his experience in teaching this practice. Jack teaches courses in holistic education and contemplative education at OISE. He is author/editor of 20 books including, The Holistic Curriculum, The Contemplative Practitioner, and Love and Compassion: Exploring their Role in Education. His writing has been translated into 9 languages.
Great Teaching | Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Learn how Nicole Chen, recipient of a 2018 Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence, uses mindfulness to help her students build compassion, gratitude and resilience. In 2017, Nicole co-wrote a mindfulness and social/emotional learning course, which six Toronto Catholic District School Board schools are offering this year. Her dream is to have the course become part of the Ontario curriculum.
Learn more about the work she is doing in a video entitle Great Teaching
She was also featured in the Professionally Speaking article found here
Download the slide deck | Download the Toolkit
Mapping Sustainable Happiness | Thursday, November 28, 2019
What does Health & Wellness have to do with the Environment? Scholars around the world are making the links clear through the concept of Sustainable Happiness. By connecting the dots between our individual need for happiness and the universal need for clean air and water, sustainable food sources, supportive communities and equity, Sustainable Happiness clearly connects physical and mental Health and Wellness to social justice, equity education, and environmental sustainability. Our happiness is integrally related to that of all life forms on earth - what is truly best for people is good for the planet, too.
Dr. Hilary Inwood teaches in the Master of Teaching program at OISE, and has led its Environmental & Sustainability Education Initiative for the past decade. Her teaching centres on art education, environmental education, qualitative research, and teaching methods, while her research focuses on developing teachers' knowledge and skills in environmental literacy and environmental art education. Her work as a teacher educator, researcher, and artist often extends beyond the classroom to include school gardens, outdoor education centres, parks, and galleries. Her publications, research, and artwork are found at www.hilaryinwood.ca
Join Hilary Inwood on November 28, 2019 at 12:10pm to learn more about Sustainable Happiness and begin to map and connect its elements to your own life.
Shelley Murphy: Mindfulness and Resilience to Stress | Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Mindfulness has been shown to strengthen resilience to stress, executive functioning, self-regulation, empathy and perspective taking, and mental health. This interactive workshop is designed for participants interested in learning about trauma informed mindfulness approaches for helping both adults and children calm their bodies and minds to strengthen resilience and support well-being. Shelley Murphy developed and teaches the Mindfulness in Education course at OISE. She has been a mindfulness practitioner and educator for 20 years and has extensive training in the science of mindfulness and mindfulness approaches. Her most recent publication, Fostering Mindfulness, was released in 2019 through Pembroke Publishers.
View the videotaped session
Elli Weisbaum: Building & Broadening Resiliency: Integrating Mindfulness into Education – An Introduction | Tuesday, February 11, 2020
In this session, learn how to increase well-being and combat burn-out, anxiety and stress. You’ll also explore foundations for how to develop your own personal practice, along with building a tool-kit of practical activities you can apply in the classroom and workplace.
Elli Weisbaum is a Toronto based mindfulness practitioner and teacher, who attended her first retreat at the age of ten. Since then she has been passionate about the translation of mindfulness practice into daily life.
She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies, focused on bringing mindfulness into education. In 2016 she began pursuing a PhD at the Institute of Medical Science in the Faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto focused on integrating mindfulness into healthcare. She is an instructor at the University of Toronto's Applied Mindfulness Meditation certificate program. She is also a Search Inside Yourself certified teacher, a program based in mindfulness, emotional intelligence and neuroscience developed at Google headquarters.
Elli has worked internationally to integrate mindfulness into key sectors, including education, healthcare and business. Organizing retreats and workshops in Bhutan, India, Germany, Canada, the UK and the USA. She spent a year as the international program coordinator for Wake Up Schools, a global initiative to cultivate mindfulness in education, established by Nobel Peace Prize nominee, scholar and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Her ongoing work with his community, Plum Village, focuses on a holistic approach to education, working simultaneously with teachers, students, parents and administrators to build sustainable inclusive communities.
Elli will be offering a 2-day course on the topic in March at the University of Toronto. You can learn more and register at https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-courses/courses/3256-building-broadening-resiliency-integrating-mindfulness-education
To read more about how Elli integrates mindfulness into her experience as a graduate student visit her blog: Mindfulness for Life http://www.elliweisbaum.com/blog
Learning goals for this session
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Experience foundational mindfulness practices that can be applied in personal and professional settings (including before exams, presentations, job interviews and with students/colleagues)
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Understand the connection between neuroscience and mindfulness
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Build resiliency and self-regulation
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Identify practices to combat burn-out and stress
View the videotaped session
Naraindra Prashad: Too Busy to Be Still? Learn Simple Techniques to Calm Your Distractions | Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Join Naraindra as he explores the culture of "being busy" while sharing some simple transformative techniques for "being still." Comfortable clothing is recommended as participants will engage in some chair yoga, stretching and breathing exercises as a transformative step to quiet the mind and body and help cope with the distractions of everyday life.
Jennifer Baradi: iREST Yoga Nidra | Tuesday, March 24, 2020
This session was cancelled but Jennifer Baradi has generously provided a screencast (Part 1-3) of her session with 2 opportunities to practice. You can download the handout here: iRest Meditation Handout
You can listen to them here:
(Part 1) iRest 1 OISE MARCH 2020
- I’ll share my connection to iRest as a Yogi & Meditator, Student & Educator.
- I’ll offer some information about iRest as well as review some ways to integrate it into our lives.
- There’s a handout to go along with this part of the presentation, & you can print it off or jot / type your responses somewhere.
- I’ll invite you to explore your Sankalpa, which is one of the most significant aspects of iRest.
(Part 2) iRest 2 OISE MARCH 2020
- We’ll have the opportunity to practice together.
(Part 3) iRest 3 OISE MARCH 2020
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And I’ll end with offering a guided iRest Yoga Nidra Meditation Practice
iRest (Integrative Restoration) Yoga Nidra is a research based transformative practice of guided meditation and deep relaxation. Research continues to show that iRest Yoga Nidra effectively reduces: PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, Insomnia, Chronic Pain, & Chemical Dependency.
During the session, participants will be introduced to IRest basic core concepts and have the opportunity to experience a practice to develop Inner Resource and to introduce Body Sensing. Participants are asked to dress comfortably and arrive ready to relax.
Jen Baradi is an educator who works with the TDSB and TCSB. For over 20 years, she has practiced yoga, and is currently completing her certification in Integrative Restoration Yoga Nidra (iRest). She teaches yoga and meditation in schools, non-profit organizations, public, and private settings. Jen aspires to promote greater well-being and be of service in schools and their communities.
Learn more about iRest at https://www.irest.org/
Alysha Bulman (Health & Wellness Centre): 5 Ways to Wellbeing
Thursday, October 10, 2019 | 5:00 – 6:30 pm | Room 5-250 (OISE)
Coping with the competing demands of graduate studies, meeting expectations, and navigating complex university systems can be exhausting! Investing in being happy, healthy and well provides a foundation for achieving balance and sustaining success. This interactive session explores what it means to feel good and function well as a graduate student.
