Teachers at Massena school pushing for classroom yoga

MASSENA — Students at the high school soon might be taking time out of their schedules to stretch, breathe and meditate as two teachers try to bring yoga to the classroom.

The program, still in development, was the brainchild of Martha C. Duchscherer, a special education teacher, and Spanish teacher Kerry A. Perretta.

They have been going to conferences and classes this summer, trying to develop a program for the district. At 6:30 p.m. Monday, they will present their findings at the Board of Education meeting in the high school library. The board has allowed them to work on the program and, they say, has been very supportive of the idea.

"We really want to make it a whole effort," Mrs. Duchscherer said. "The district has been really good about giving us time, but we need to know what the board wants."

Mrs. Duchscherer discovered that meditation and breathing exercises help her students, some of whom have learning disabilities or autism, relax and focus before exams. Teachers at the high school have discovered that those same exercises help students in the International Baccalaureate program relieve stress.

"It seems like kids are under a lot of stress now to perform," Mrs. Perretta said. "The goal is not to take away from classroom time. It's basically like a brain break."

The two teachers received grants from the St. Lawrence County Health Initiative to attend an instructional course and another from the St. Lawrence Valley Teachers Learning Center to go to a conference to investigate the feasibility of creating a classroom yoga program.

They are exploring further grants to buy yoga mats and blocks, and remain hopeful even though they have been turned down in the past. They estimate they will need between $4,000 and $6,000 and admit that's a hefty chunk of change.

"We went to Wal-Mart and they were like, you can have a bake sale outside," Mrs. Duchscherer said. "We've tried Walgreens too."

For now, they are using limited exercises in their own classrooms, until they are able to spread it further. Mrs. Duchscherer has her students go into what she calls "lion's pose," where they growl at each other and bug out their eyes. Though some grumble, she said, most of them enjoy it.

It is not only to lower stress levels in students that the two want to bring yoga into the classroom. They hope to teach other teachers about techniques on a voluntary basis. It will help teachers lower stress and get in shape, as well.

"I'm an out-of-shape teacher and a stressed one," Mrs. Perretta said. "We're both kind of putting our feet in the mud."

Neither of them practices yoga frequently or admits to being very good at it.

Yoga is being used in the classroom mostly on the West Coast. It hasn't permeated the East Coast yet, or the north country.

"We kind of wanted to look at Massena as a leader. We could wait five or 10 years, but we wanted to do it now," Mrs. Duchscherer said. "We think the world of it and we're doing it all on our own time because we think it matters so much."