Teacher Stories: Stefanie Lachenauer, Seventh and Eighth Grade Teacher at Montgomery Upper Middle School, New Jersey, and 2025 State Teacher of the Year
I teach two classes. One is called Global Leadership, and the other one is Skills for Success. In Skills for Success, I teach seventh graders. It’s one marking period long, so we have 22 classes together. But in those 22 days, I get to teach mindfulness, coping skills, and executive functioning skills. We talk about personality types, our strengths, and our learning styles. We really explore who we are, and then we think about who we are in the context of the greater world and what things we want to do in our lives. They do a little bit of career exploration, and then they connect that back to who they are. And then in Global Leadership, we study the United Nations global goals for sustainability and come up with solutions to real-world problems.
Outside the classroom, I train educators, and sometimes whole school systems, on being trauma-sensitive and trauma-informed. I do a whole training with them on that, so they can get certified if they’d like. I also train teachers how to teach mindfulness.
I teach kids how to practice my lessons that I do in school, some of which I do outside of school, but you’re right, it is all under this broader umbrella. So, I have like two major goals as an educator. One is to help kids love themselves for who they are, and the second is to help kids figure out what’s on their heart that they want to bring out into the world, and to see them be able to do that. So, those are my two big things. I really want to empower kids to do the amazing things that are on their heart.
My first year, I really began teaching mindfulness. I was like, “I’m going to do this every day, because I want them to really have this skill.” At first, I was only doing it before a test or something. But this is an important skill for all the time; we need to always be in the present moment. So, I’m doing it every day, and the kids are not liking it, and it was very clear this is not working. I’m a good enough teacher to know that if it’s not working, we have to try something new. So, I was like, do I give this up now? I was taking extra classes; I was getting certified outside of school to do this, and the kids were like, “You’re torturing us,” and I was like, “All right, I hear you. Maybe I need to stop.”
So, one morning I’m on my way to school, and it’s pouring rain, everything is flooded, and I can’t get to school. It’s also state testing day. It takes me two hours to get to school, which is the perfect amount of time it takes to contemplate all of my life choices. So, I’m driving to school, and I’m like, “I think they need to stop teaching mindfulness; I just need to give it up. We tried it, it didn’t work, teachers are flexible, we pivot, it’s time to move on.” I get to school, I’m wet, I’m dripping, I’m sad, I’m about to give up something I really believe in, and I tiptoe into my classroom, and the kids are like, “Oh God, thank God you’re here. Where were you? There was nobody here to breathe with us. Where were you?” At that moment, I knew, okay, they’re not always going to tell me, ‘we appreciate you teaching us mindfulness,’ right? But I have to wait, because there’s going to be moments where they might realize they do appreciate it, and I love when that happens, because then you get to see it. Teachers are like farmers. We don’t always see those seeds planting and germinating; we don’t always see the growth until sometimes even years later. Sometimes I get emails when they’re in college, or even when they’re in the workplace, and they’re like, “My job is so stressful, and I remember the practices that you taught me, and I’ve been using some of those practices.” And those days when I get messages like that, that is what fuels me.
Stefanie Lachenauer is a veteran educator and New Jersey’s 2025 State Teacher of the Year. She leads her district’s mindfulness, SEL, and trauma-informed practices while training educators locally, nationally, and internationally. Stefanie holds numerous Mindfulness and Trauma-Sensitive certifications to support educators, families, caregivers, and community members and has guided countless workshops worldwide. Her debut book, Let the Glitter Settle: Mindfulness for Teens, shares practical strategies to help young people build resilience and balance. She is passionate about creating compassionate classrooms and empowering both students and educators to thrive. Learn more about Stefanie and her work at: https://stefanielachenauer.com
Interview by Gregory Andrus
