Rebel Educator®

Andrew Jordan Nance has been an educator since 1990. He is the author of four published books; The Barefoot King, The Lion in Me, Mindful Arts in the Classroom, and the bestseller, Puppy Mind. He is the founder of Mindful Arts San Francisco; a program of the San Francisco Education Fund that provides volunteer mindfulness educators to teach in SF public schools.  On KTVU’s SF Loves Learning Mr. Nance was the featured Mindfulness Teacher and his adapted five-episode series of Puppy Mind premiered on KTVU and is distributed to school districts around the country. For almost thirty years he taught performing arts to students from diverse backgrounds, and for eighteen years he was the Conservatory Director at San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theatre Center.    Nance is also an award-winning actor and director. He is on the board of directors of several educational nonprofit organizations including Mindful Life Project in Richmond, California and San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theater Center. He is the recipient of the Points of Light Award, a national honor recognizing his volunteer efforts to bring mindfulness to youth.   Mindful Arts San Francisco provides volunteer-facilitated mindfulness instruction to SFUSD students through a partnership with the San Francisco Education Fund.  Using a published trauma-informed curriculum that uses storytelling, theatre games, and arts activities, students learn focusing techniques to cultivate the skill of present moment awareness to improve attention, self-regulation, and social-emotional learning so that all students can have the opportunity to thrive.   Join us for this conversation about the connection between theater arts and mindfulness, how giving students actionable tasks helps them to notice their emotions, and how mindfulness can help student’s thrive.   IN THIS EPISODE, WE COVER: What led Andrew to combining his theater experience with mindfulness practice How mindfulness relates to social emotional skills and awareness   Focus time and actionable tasks to help students notice the sensations of each emotion The importance of taking moments to belly breathe Mindfulness practice and the positive effect on student behaviors in a post-pandemic classroom  How teachers can incorporate mindfulness throughout the school day   RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Connect with Andrew on Facebook and Instagram Visit andrewjnance.com to learn more about Andrew and the work he is doing Check out Andrew’s YouTube channel for mindfulness lessons  Visit mindfulartssf.org for resources, volunteering, and more information about their work to bring mindfulness instruction to classrooms  Learn more about Rebel Educator, explore our professional development opportunities for educators and students, sign up for a webinar and check out our project library Visit us at UP Academy to learn more about our personalized and inclusive learning environment Connect with Tanya and UP Academy on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram and learn more about her journey here   We’d love it if you could take a few minutes to fill out this survey to let us know how we can bring you the best possible content:  https://forms.gle/JcKHf9DHTZnYUmQr6    Enjoying the show? Leave us a rating and review and help more people find us! https://bit.ly/RebelEducatorApplePodcasts    Interested in being on the Rebel Educator podcast? Fill out this form and we'll reach out to you if we think you'd be a great fit for an upcoming episode. https://forms.gle/zXR2KGPK3WEmbrRZ6    Want to learn more about opening your own UP Academy? Check out the Rebel Educator Accelerator: https://www.rebeleducator.com/courses/the-accelerator   MORE ABOUT THE REBEL EDUCATOR PODCAST: In each episode of the Rebel Educator podcast, I deconstruct world-class educators, students, and thought leaders in education to extract the tactics, tools, and routines that you can use as teachers and parents. Join me as we discuss how to shift the classroom, the learning environment, the mindset, and the pedagogy, to resist tradition, reignite wonder, and re-imagine the future of education. This podcast is dedicated to all of the educators who work thankless hours to make our next generation the best it can be.  It was designed to begin conversations on how we can redesign education for the future of work and the success of our students.  It is meant for teachers, students, administrators, homeschoolers and anyone who interacts with and teaches youth.