BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) — Crescent Elementary School Music teacher Brittany McGuire said everyone in education suffered unprecedented burnout throughout the pandemic.

“Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the teacher burnout across the United States has been higher than it’s ever been,” said McGuire. “There’s been a lot of extra things put on everyone, but especially in education, there’s been a lot more that people have to think about and worry about and just trying to make sure we maintain this high-quality education while all this other stuff is going on has caused a lot of stress and a lot of burnout.”

McGuire believes introducing mindfulness and wellness workshops into daily school life can help change that. She worked to earn her certification in yoga training and social-emotional learning with a 200-hour course which ends in June 2022.

McGuire sees every child in the school from Pre-K to fifth grade. She said students are also dealing with unprecedented anxiety after so much inconsistency during crucial developmental years.

She said she believes mindfulness and music education can help them find consistency and stability.

“I really think the mindfulness and social-emotional learning focus can really help them,” said McGuire. “There’s been a ton of research about mindfulness and how it can help students with their self-esteem, their self-efficacy, self-regulation.”

McGuire’s main goal is to help students navigate their own emotions and social skills during a time where repeated isolation and rapidly changing lifestyles impact everyone.

“I would really like for them to have some skills to be able to identify and help them cope with their emotions, additionally a lot of communication skills come from this,” said McGuire.

McGuire is currently fundraising for yoga kits for her students. Her fundraiser can be found here.