ABSTRACT

Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) for Teachers is a professional development program designed to provide teachers with the skills they need to manage the social and emotional demands of teaching. Mindful awareness practices (MAPs) may help teachers build the social and emotional competencies they need to manage stress and the growing demands of teaching. MAPs involve cultivating present moment awareness with an attitude of openness and curiosity. The CARE for Teachers program is grounded in the Prosocial Classroom Model that proposes that teachers’ well-being and social and emotional competencies play a critical role in their ability to build supportive relationships with their students, manage their classrooms effectively, and teach social and emotional competencies to their students through direct instruction, coaching, and modeling. A crucial element of the program is learning how to cultivate empathy and compassion for self and others.