Gesu students, breathing and balancing

Every Friday morning at Gesu School in North Philadelphia, something quietly remarkable happens. Before the first test of the day is handed out, before pencils scratch paper and anxiety can take hold, students pause. They breathe. And then, grounded in a way that surprises even their teachers, they begin.

This spring, MTM marks 12 years alongside the Gesu community, one of our longest, most enduring school partnerships. It is a relationship that has lasted through countless lesson plans, grown with students, and quietly woven mindfulness into the school's very fabric. Your loyal support makes it all possible. And it continues to matter more than you might know.

12

Years partnering with Gesu School

500

Students building their toolkit of calm



100%

Funded by grants and donors, in partnership with our schools

From the classroom teacher

"Are you being mindful of your actions right now?"

Michael Talvacchia has taught at Gesu for nine years. He has watched MTM arrive on Friday mornings when his students are most wound up — cramming for tests, shoulders tight with anxiety — and turn that energy into something useful.



"The MTM lessons have taught them various ways to cope with stress in real time. Breathing exercises they can do right at their desks, before testing even begins."

— Michael Talvacchia, Gesu School

Michael has noticed something teachers rarely get to see: students reaching for what they've learned, on their own, when no one is watching. One exercise, the Take 5 breath (breathing in and out while focusing on each finger), has become a quiet, private tool several students now use mid-assignment, without prompting. "I have seen students using breathing techniques to calm themselves down so they could communicate when dealing with frustration," he says.

Gesu School students take turns leading their classmates through movement.

Mindfulness has become part of the classroom's shared language. When students get rowdy or off-task, Michael asks: "Are you being mindful of your actions right now?" The room hears it differently than it once would have. The word means something to them now.

"I would want [MTM] supporters to see how students calm themselves during stressful testing. Whether they realize it or not, they are actively focusing on their own breath."

— Michael Talvacchia, Gesu School

And for Michael himself? "Teaching at any level has its stressors," he admits. "In a profession where you are outnumbered sometimes as many as 26-to-1, you are in constant need of at least 'micro-meditations' so you can better serve your students." He uses the breathing techniques, too. MTM isn't just for the kids.

From the MTM teacher

What it means to see a child choose stillness

Janai came to MTM the way many good teachers find their calling, sideways, through a door they didn't expect to open. She started doing yoga because she wanted to be more flexible. What she found went much deeper than that. Then her grandmother led the family through a movement session from memory while they were on vacation. That was the moment she thought: I could do this.

MTM teacher Janai moves alongside her students Two Gesu students in a coordinated balance pose.

every step of the way.

She got her certification and found MTM on a job board, never having imagined that teaching yoga to kids was even a thing. Now, a year into working with Gesu's fifth graders, she says she loves it more than teaching adults. "Kids are just so engaged, and they're easy to read. They'll tell you exactly what they think. And they're so imaginative. They can visualize a meditation more vividly than most grown-ups."

"I told them at the start of the year, you're going to love [our rest pose] by December. Last month, I accidentally ran over time and didn't leave enough space for it, and they were upset. I was so glad to see that."

— Janai, MTM Teacher at Gesu

That moment when students were genuinely disappointed to miss five minutes of stillness tells the whole story. At the beginning of the year, Janai could barely hold the class for one quiet minute. Now they want five. "We use the poses to teach mindfulness and stillness. To see that they enjoy the stillness at the end, I'm honestly most proud of that."

The progress shows up in other ways, too. Students report using the Take 5 breath before exams. Others reach for a Power Breath when they feel anger rising. Janai also reminds her students that staying on their mat is a mental practice, not just a physical one. The result is a class that knows how to focus on itself and leave everyone else to do the same.

As a young Black woman teaching Black children in Philadelphia, Janai carries something extra into that room with her. "I get to be that role model for them, someone who is like them, and who practices all of this meditation stuff. I love being that."

You might think working with kids would leave you drained, not for Janai. She leaves every session full of hope and energy.

The Gesu difference

Built Together. Year After Year.

What makes the Gesu partnership so enduring isn't just time, it's intentionality. From the front office to the classroom, the school treats MTM as part of its culture, not a visitor program. Staff know to expect the teachers. Students know the routine: line up, find your mat, shoes behind the mat, easy pose, say the agreements. The ritual holds.

"Everything I say in class, the teacher is already reinforcing it in the room. When a child hears the same thing from two trusted adults, it affirms it. It becomes real."

— Janai, MTM Teacher at Gesu

That back-and-forth between Janai and Michael, each amplifying what the other plants, is exactly the kind of ecosystem MTM is built to create. Mindfulness doesn't live in one fifty-minute session. It lives in the reminder a teacher gives before a hard test. It lives in a word the students now understand and use as their own.

Partnerships like this one don't sustain themselves. They grow because people like you choose, again and again, to support making room for stillness in the lives of children who need it most. Every gift funds another Friday morning. Another Take 5 breath. Another moment of calm before the pencil hits the page.

104 S. Wayne Ave., #28

Wayne, Pennsylvania 19087

If you could give every child in Philadelphia one tool for handling a hard day, what would it be? 

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