
*Please click on each image for a closer look!*
The Full Story
Wellness Team Member: Me
The COVID-19 pandemic has evolved our home to school connection in various ways. I have evolved and increased my connections to families and family events because of the Zoom platform. Zoom has provided accessibility for many families of different living situations and backgrounds to be part of our school community. I have enhanced the home to school connection by voluntarily requesting participation in the District 2/3K Prek- Center Wellness Team led by parent coordinator, Nicole Dorsey. I have worked closely with Nicole Dorsey to make events like this possible and encourage wellness and social emotional development in the lives of many families!

Read For America

Read for America was a special day for our District 2 Pre-K Centers. I took on the opportunity to end off our Read for America day by reading the story Because I Had a Teacher to members of our school community including our educators and families. I worked to ensure that my presence in the school community enhanced our commitment to phonemic awareness, literacy and social emotional development.
Wellness Team Family Workshops

In this Family Wellness Workshop, Wellness Team Chair and parent coordinator, Nicole Dorsey leads us off and as a member of the Wellness Team, I support with adding my experiences with social emotional supports in my classroom. Families are informed that they can carry out and try some strategies to support their children at home and anywhere they are.


A Wellness Workshop for Families
Miracle Morning books were handed out to families as they were enlightened with a moment of mindfulness. I was able to start our families off with a Community Builder and have families share out and using their voice to be heard. Families work non stop and this time for a breather was much needed! Because of my engagement in this I was able to continue to lead community builders with staff and families whenever we lead Wellness Wednesday for Families on Zoom.

A special message for each and every one of our children...

Being part of the Wellness Team allowed me the opportunity to roll out this "heart-full" project at my (Midtown West 57th) site. During the first week of school, parents were invited to share a wish that they had for their child's 3K or Pre-K school year 2022-2023. Parents were caught in awe and shared some of the most sweetest messages and wishes they had for their child. This also allowed for teachers to get to know families right at the start of the school year. I was able to see how my leadership skills in getting teachers to participate made our community a safer and more welcoming and loving space for children and their families.

A Wellness Message for All
Pre-K student, Isai, delivers a Mindful Monday message to our school community
Mindful Mondays was a theme developed by the Wellness Team. As a member, I ensured to lead our children into Wellness by choosing a student on a weekly basis and having them deliver a special affirmation every Monday on our school's loud speaker. Children are aware that they are being heard and when they come back to their classroom, their peers usually await them with excitement! "Was that you talking?" or "We heard you!" "I want to do that."
Children's wellness, self esteem, and sense of community is heightened by engagements like this.

Contributions to Wellness Newsletters for Families

As a member of the Wellness Team, I am able to ensure that Wellness Newsletters are put together and sent to our Wellness Chair, Nicole Dorsey so that it is sent out to families! Nicole and I co write this piece and ensure that our knowledge around Wellness is reflected in this piece of writing. As Wellness Team members come up with their own piece, I merge the information together on the powerpoint to make it look presentable and readable! I also make sure to edit this newsletter to ensure that it is ready to be sent out to families.
Click the "Family Newsletter" button to check out the full newsletter.

Black History Month is celebrated with our families through this presentation! (See left) With pleasure, I assisted with putting this powerpoint together and contributed to pieces of information delivered to families. (Click the "Full Presentation" button to see the full presentation)
Doing this presentation also enlightened me to focus on multiple Black Leaders and teach my students about them in the classroom.

Wellness Team tasks...

The email image on the left was just the beginning of my journey on what was called the Crisis Team. When this team first started, the world was practically at the heart of a global pandemic. We were all navigating remote teaching and learning. As a nation many of us were stuck in our spaces with limited access to other parts of our community and world (due to the quarantine/lockdown). Whether we felt stuck at home or in some kind of emotional battle, I knew that I wanted to be able to change that for myself and others where ever possible. The media/news was all we were watching while some people were living through COVID-19, experiencing it themselves, hearing about it, or watching loved ones be infected with it. Principal Aneesha Jacko, at the time, reached out and asked our whole school about becoming a member of the Crisis Team. I knew I wanted to make a difference and then my co teacher at the time, encouraged me to join. She said, I seem to know how to listen to people well, and so joined. I went ahead and sent a response to Principal, Aneesha Jacko, and became a member of the Crisis Team during my first year of teaching which then turned into the Wellness Team.

The Wellness Team provided me the opportunity to attend professional developments that were exclusive to our growth and position as true supporters of our staff during the pandemic. During this time, I did not know where the Wellness Team was going or whether we would continue on when the lockdown of the pandemic was over, but I knew that what we had to do to support ourselves and our staff was essential to the community of our school that was then a fully remote environment due to COVID-19.

Creating minutes is a big part of my role in the Wellness Team. Whenever the Wellness Team meets, I will volunteer to write up the meetings' discussions so that we can keep track of what team members shared. The image of the email (left) is an email from Wellness Chair, Nicole Dorsey, appreciating my contribution to the team.
Presenting the Mental Health Workshop


A Mental Health Workshop for Educators
A Mental Health Workshop for Educators was a workshop that I had the opportunity to lead for the sites across the District 2 Pre-K Centers. Leading a mindfulness activity to start and getting people connected through the use of Zoom breakout rooms was a way for educators to meet and see each other as some of us don't see each other often (if we work in different sites). Click on the email image on the left for a view at the powerpoint presentation.

Wellness Messages to Staff


Wellness messages for staff are a big part of my role as a member of the Wellness Team. Including a quote in the beginning of each message is a way of providing staff some form of reflection and possibly a positive perspective on wellness. I strive to do this with staff and my students by delivering daily positive affirmations with them.

Wellness Messages are appreciated by staff and seem to have made a difference in the year.

The quote (above and in red) about helpers reminded me of the ways that teachers go above and beyond for students and communities. We are the helpers. A wellness message for staff with this quote in it could serve it's purpose for wellness any day.