Let’s hear from Amy Zambrano, a yogi on a mission to bring yoga to all ages and all abilities. Amy is the Jersey Shore’s leading Youth Yoga Expert. She has over 1600 hours of training and has been teaching for 15 years. Amy was the recipient of the 2023 Jersey Shore Girl Scouts, “Phenomenal Women Under 40” Award. Amy has shared her knowledge and expertise as a presenter among educational platforms for the “Coalition of Schools Educating Mindfully”, “Wakelet Community Week”, “NJ Department of Education”, NJAHPERD Annual Convention Speaker, and the Peekapak Summit. She has been featured in “NY Yoga +Life Magazine,” along with being a Guest Blogger for the companies: K-Deer and Plymouth Rock. Amy has turned her passion into a career by becoming the first Wellness Coach for a public school district (Long Branch Public Schools) in the state of New Jersey. Amy has become a “Wakelet Ambassador” and “Book Creator App Ambassador” as she has creatively infused wellness with technology to make it more accessible for her district. For more information on Amy, visit www.amyzambranoyoga.com or follow her on Social Media: @amyzambranoyoga
I’ve been teaching youth yoga, meditation, mindfulness, social emotional learning and holistic wellness practices for 15 years. I have over 1600 hours of training. I’ve pioneered yoga in education, and I am the first Wellness Coach for a public school district in the state of New Jersey. I took the Yoga 4 Classrooms “Yoga and Mindfulness in the Classroom” training over a decade ago. With my extensive knowledge and expertise in integrating yoga into the educational environment, I always enjoyed using the Yoga 4 Classrooms Activity Cards in my practices. They are great visual tools for small groups, large groups, and one-to-one sessions. I purchased the digital Yoga 4 Classrooms Activity Cards during the pandemic, and they were a helpful tool to use during my Zoom classes.
As the Wellness Coach for the Long Branch Public School District, I work with all grade levels and staff, including the babies and toddlers in our employee daycare. This includes neurodiverse learners, athletes, administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, secretaries, and students from pre-school to high school. It’s an incredible opportunity to integrate wellness in the classroom and beyond.
I host a weekly “Wave Wellness Wednesday” Zoom show each week for the district. The primary audience is the three elementary buildings (grades 1st-5th) along with the Special Education classes in the Middle School and High School. All teachers are encouraged to Zoom on for a 15-minute lesson with me. Approximately 100 classes tune in each week and it is an amazing week to create connection and community among our district. I’ve used the Yoga 4 Classroom Activity Cards as part of my teaching tools in my weekly Google Slides. It ranges from sharing a breathing exercise, mindful moment, or movement and integrating it with cross-curricular content. My favorite part of the Yoga 4 Classroom Activity Cards are the “At Your Desk” activities. They are great visuals for teachers to continue to use throughout the day. I’ll teach and model the pose on the Zoom show, but it’s great for teachers to have a tangible reference to print out from the slides.
I’ve integrated technology and wellness for the district. Having the digital “Yoga 4 Classroom” cards has made it easier to include in the different platforms. For example, I’ve added the Activity Cards on a “Nearpod” matching game. Nearpod creates a link so the students can participate live during the Zoom show. It’s a great way to teach the content and have the students actively engage. Students have also recorded the “Imagination Vacations” activities using Mote (an audio recorder). They have mindfully colored to calm digitally with www.thisissand.com (or a traditional coloring page) and then uploaded the image as the background in a Google Slide while recording the Imagination Vacation on Mote. Once they submit them to me, I upload their work to Wakelet. Wakelet is a free website that curates content. It’s a great way to showcase the student’s work, as we have 12 buildings in our district! I’ve also uploaded the digital Activity Cards to the Book Creator App where students can use the audio or video feature to record the “Imagination Vacation” and “Let’s Breathe” activities or their own yoga sequences based on the cards. This empowers the students to have voice and choice in what they create and it makes it easy to share their work with other students district-wide where they essentially become the teachers.
We love to hear about the comprehensive and unique ways Yoga 4 Classrooms is used in schools. Thank you Amy for the impactful work you do with your students and thank you for sharing so many innovative ideas. We would love to hear how you are using Yoga 4 Classrooms at your school, too. Contact us and share your story!
