Brain Yoga: Hosting Virtual Events to Connect with Students


I am hosting virtual events as a way to connect with students. I first heard about Brain Yoga from Alaina (@cuttingedgeschoolcounselor). Alaina shared about Brain Yoga in her Instagram Stories and I was very intrigued. Brain Yoga was created by author, Jason Reynolds. Jason Reynolds hosts Brain Yoga games on Instagram Live. 

How to Play Brain Yoga
To play Brain Yoga, you need the DISRUPTUS game cards. All the DISRUPTUS cards are images of everyday items. Participants are challenged to come up with a new invention using two items on the cards. Participants can use the whole items or parts of the items to make their invention. The goal is to be creative and come up with a new idea. There are no wrong answers. 

When I played Brain Yoga with students, we played multiple rounds. In the future, I will probably limit each round to three responses so we can get through more cards and have a quicker pace to the game.

Advertising to Students
To advertise for our Brain Yoga event I did the following:
  • Wrote a description for the weekly update our principal sends out on our course management system
  • Emailed all fully remote students
  • Sent out a News & Events Slideshow to teachers to project to students
  • Shared the event on my school Twitter account 
  • Made announcements during lunches -- I actually played a round of Brain Yoga in lunches with students so they knew what the game would be like. They really enjoyed it! 
How Student Sign Up
I created a Brain Yoga sign up on google forms. I included the link to this form in all the digital advertisements for students (school update, email, and Twitter). 

How Students Join the Event
All students who signed up for the event received a Zoom link the day of the event. I pre-scheduled emails to send the morning of the event and a half hour before the event started. 

Structure of the Brain Yoga Event
To begin the Brain Yoga event, I explained to students the importance of having their cameras on to connect and share with others during the event. I also said it would be more enjoyable for everyone to see each other and hear about their new inventions! I never make a student turn their camera on if they do not feel comfortable.

At the beginning of each round, we showed two cards and invited participants to share ideas for a new invention. We played multiple rounds and allowed any participant to share their ideas. When I do it next time I am going to limit three participants per round so we can get through more cards and have more rounds. 

During the last five minutes of the game, I did a giveaway for $5 gift cards to a local Independent Bookstore. I used Wheel of Names to pick the winners.

I made a thank you card for all students that participated.

What Makes This Zoom Event Unique
Brain Yoga is a unique Zoom event because there are no right or wrong answers. The purpose of this game is just to be creative and have fun! 

Future Brain Yoga Games
As I mentioned above, for future games I will limit responses to three per round so we can get through more cards. The students really enjoyed the game, so I do not want to change anything other than that! 

What questions do you have? 
I am happy to answer your questions about Brain Yoga. What questions do you have about hosting Brain Yoga? Email me or DM me on Instagram or Twitter! 


I love connecting with other school counselors! Connect with me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

If you have questions, email me or Direct Message me on Instagram or Twitter.  

Upcoming Events:

Andrea Burston and I are hosting an ASCA Webinar - 3 Tech Tools to Enhance Your School Counseling Program on May 26th at 12:00pm EST. We will be sharing about Canva, Smore, and Screencastify! Click here for more details and to register: bit.ly/3techtools4sc!

Andrea and I also host a monthly School Counselor Meet-up on Google Meet. For more details and to see future events visit: http://bit.ly/meetup4sc.

Our next School Counselor Meet-Up is: What I Wish I Learned in Graduate School. We will share what we wish we learned before entering our first school counseling positions and what we learned along the way. Current school counselors and graduate students are encouraged to attend! Everyone is welcome! To sign up visit: http://bit.ly/meetup4sc.

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