Educalme brings bilingual mindfulness to Manitoba schools

Two young teachers in Manitoba wanted to share mindfulness practices with their French-language students, but they could not find bilingual materials geared to young people. So, they created their own, and Educalme was born.

Western Economic Diversification (WD) supports Educalme through its Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Program. This program helps people with a disability or health condition to start a business. Community Futures Manitoba delivers the program, which includes:

• business information
• training and development
• mentoring and one-on-one coaching

Educalme also got business support and training through Conseil de développement économique des municipalités bilingues du Manitoba (CDEM).  WD funds CDEM as one of four Francophone Economic Development Organizations in western Canada.

Transcript: Educalme brings bilingual mindfulness to Manitoba schools

Video opens on JOSIANNE BARNABÉ and KAILEY LEFKO in an office setting. Video clips of Educalme's website and materials are interspersed into the first part of the interview)

(KAILEY LEFKO) My name is Kailey…

(JOSIANNE BARNABÉ) …and I'm Josiane and our business is Educalme. So, I was fully immersed in French mostly for the first couple years of my life.

(Photos of JOSIANNE and KAILEY as children and with family along with video clips of KAILEY and JOSIANNE working at computers are interspersed into the next part of the interview)

(JOSIANNE BARNABÉ) As I grew older, I started learning English. At home, it was all about keeping the language so that we wouldn't lose it.

(KAILEY LEFKO) My parents chose to send me to immersion school. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that my mom didn't have the chance to go to immersion. My grandma is Francophone and my mom's grandparents only spoke French. I think my mom really wanted to give me the chance that she didn't get to have, which was to learn the second language that was part of our family's heritage, but really kind of got lost. (Nodding)

(KAILEY LEFKO) Because I saw that it was important to them, it felt important to me as well.

(Photo of KAILEY and JOSIANNE sitting on a blanket in the grass reading a book titled La Bible de la Pleine conscience together is seen before the camera focuses back on the interview with JOSIANNE and KAILEY in an office setting.)

(JOSIANNE BARNABÉ) We met at the University of St. Boniface in Education.

(Video clips of students in a classroom sitting at tables and practicing mindfulness activities are interspersed into the next part of the interview)

(KAILEY LEFKO) When we started teaching, we saw really quickly that there was something missing in schools and that was support for students in their social and emotional learning.

(Video of JOSIANNE and KAILEY practicing mindfulness activities at a table with laptops, microphones, and Educalme materials around them, students practicing mindfulness activities, and a dog is interspersed into the next part of the interview)

(KAILEY LEFKO) We both started practicing mindfulness in our own lives and saw that it really helped us to balance our lives and feel calmer and more joyful. So we wanted to share this with our students.

(TEACHER IN CLASSROOM – in French) OK, friends, it's time for Educalme, so put everything away.

(Camera transitions back  to the the interview with JOSIANNE and KAILEY in an office setting)

(KAILEY LEFKO) There was no program that existed and that was made for schools...

(Video clips of students and a teacher in a classroom practicing Educalme mindfulness activities are interspersed into the next part of the interview)

(KAILEY LEFKO) ...and that was bilingual. (JOSIANNE nodding) So, in our search to find the program that didn't exist, we decided that we would make it ourselves. (Laughs)

(Video of KAILEY and JOSIANNE working at computers in an office setting with microphones and images of the Educalme website are interspersed into the next part of the interview)

(KAILEY LEFKO) Educalme is an online program. It's called Educalme classroom – École Educalme. And it's completely bilingual.

(Video clips of students sitting at tables in a classroom setting and the Educalme website with guided meditations are interspersed into the next part of the interview)

(KAILEY LEFKO) So, teachers subscribe and they get access to both the practices in English and in French. (JOSIANNE looking at KAILEY and nods) So, the way that it works is that there are audio guided mindfulness practices that are 5 minutes long. They just have to press play and they get to learn and practice along with their students. (JOSIANNE looks at KAILEY)

(Video of students and a teacher listening to Educalme in French in a classroom)

(EDUCALME RECORDING – in French) Welcome to Educalme. Let's start our practice.

(Video clips of KAILEY and JOSIANNE working on teaching materials for Educalme and students and teachers listening to Educalme in a classroom are interspersed into the next part of the interview)

(KAILEY LEFKO) There just aren't as many resources available to Francophones or French speaking people, so the fact that we can serve that population and serve them well is really important to us.

(JOSIANNE nodding in agreement)

(Video clips of students and a teacher sitting at tables in a classroom listening to Educalme resources and JOSIANNE AND KAILEY working with Educalme materials are interspersed into the next part of the interview)

(JOSIANNE BARNABE) It probably doubles our client base (laughs) just the fact that we can be in French, French immersion, and English schools. One day, it would be great to add other languages to that. We could translate this in Spanish, or Italian, or who knows, you know? (KAILEY nodding in agreement) There are so many options. All over the world maybe, I don't know.

(Camera transitions to a table of students in a classroom resting their heads on their arms)

(Fade to white)

(Text on screen: "Thanks to radio-Canada (Ici Manitoba) for the use of classroom footage" CDEM and Be Leaf Media logos)

(WD wordmark)

(Canada wordmark)