A Piece of Goldie Hawn's Mind at Newark's Oliver Street School

It's not every day you get a lesson from Goldie Hawn.

The Academy Award-winning actress was in Newark Monday morning to meet with students at Oliver Street School, one of 17 Newark schools that has implemented the MindUP program, co-founded by the nonprofit The Hawn Foundation two years ago.

The educational initiative cultivates children's learning through a 15-lesson program focused on mindful thinking. MindUP, which exists in schools in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, with more than 1,000 trained educators, also teaches students self-awareness, how to savor happiness and about the brain's functions through various activities.

"I thought (Newark) was a good city to penetrate because it is a city of need," said Hawn of launching MindUP in Brick City two years ago. "There are some symptoms here that maybe we can help."

MindUP will expand to six more Newark schools within the next six months, according to Holly McCormack, executive director of The Hawn Foundation. Oliver Street School has entered its second year of the MindUP program.

While ABC cameras trailed the "Overboard" star during her visit Monday for an upcoming "Nightline" segment, Hawn dropped by two classes to hear firsthand how MindUP has been used to improve students' grades - and lives.

Clad in an all-black outfit, the actress sat on the carpeted floor in Arlete da Costa's fifth grade class as she and nearly 20 students enjoyed a relaxing "brain break" together.

"When my mom comes home from work, she's stressed out," said Gustavo Borges, 10, who told Hawn he showed his mother how to do "brain breaks" to help relax her.

Students then showed off their "perspective-taking" skills - another component of MindUP - by analyzing characters in the short storybook "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig" before Hawn zipped off to visit a second-grade class.

"Once it goes in the brain, it's there. It's a tool for them forever," said Hawn of the exercises MindUP teaches students. "That's what I love about it. Starting young gives them a foot up to put this tool in their toolbox of life."

Da Costa has seen improvements in students' attitude and behavior toward each other thanks to the program.

"I've seen a growth in not just the way they treat each other as far as resolving conflicts in groups or in class, but also I've seen them grow as a person," said da Costa, who has now taught Borges and the rest of his class for two consecutive years.

Da Costa has also seen her students' test scores improve, which she credited to MindUP. Oliver Street School's fourth grade class saw a 100 percent passing rate in the mathematics section of the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJASK) test administered in spring 2011. Over 54 percent of students passed with advanced proficiency.

Principal Havier Nazario said MindUP is just one of many factors that contributed to the students' success on NJASK, but that it will take about three more years to accurately measure the program's impact at Oliver Street School.

"Right now, this is year two of implementation, so we can't necessarily credit it to MindUP but it's definitely a best practice," said Nazario.

He mentioned the goal is to use MindUP in every classroom (pre-k through grade 8) at the school. The program is currently taught in kindergarten through grade 5 classes.

"Goldie Hawn's visit to the school contextualized everything because (the teachers) see where it comes from," said Nazario. "They see that even someone like her is so involved with the program. She's not only the creator but she's a living example of it."