“A happy brain can learn, a frenzied brain cannot,” Hollywood legend Goldie Hawn told the teachers and paraprofessionals who gathered for a day of professional learning at UFT headquarters on March 14. Hawn was speaking not in her capacity as an actress but as the founder of MindUP, an evidence-based social-emotional learning program that the UFT has helped to implement in more than 200 New York City schools since 2022. At the five-hour session, members learned the core principles of MindUP, which combines mindfulness and positive psychology activities with a neuroscience curriculum. Diane Jones, a paraprofessional at PS 70 in the Bronx, said she was eager to use MindUP’s 30-second “brain break” with her students. Brain breaks can take the form of guided breathing, listening to a bell or watching bubbles float through the air. “When they transition from one class to another, my students really need to calm down,” said Jones. “If it can make me relax, it can make them relax.”