Hey all,
So, I found an article from edutopia and I really liked what the author, Lori Desautels had to say. Most of the article was directed to middle school students, so I am sharing the points from the original article that we need right now.
Helping Students Reacclimate to Being With Others All Day
Many students are still a little overwhelmed at being around their peers, though they’re also excited. Some simple strategies can help them adjust to being back in school.
The start of the 2021–22 school year has been rough. Students across the world are experiencing “broken belongings”—a detachment from others—as the pandemic created conditions of relative isolation and a significant amount of chronic unpredictability within communities and home environments during the past 20 months.
We can observe this detachment in student behaviors, which are signals of a nervous system dysregulated by often toxic levels of stress. Our schools are being challenged to return to some type of normalcy even as we move through the third academic year of a global pandemic. The social loss our students are carrying is palpable.
[I] feel the tension in the air. As a staff, we are wondering how to reclaim feelings of safety and connection so that sustainable learning can occur. The nervous system is social, and has plasticity, but we require safety and a sense of belonging to access the frontal regions of the brain that hold our abilities to problem-solve, pay attention, emotionally regulate, and thoughtfully respond, which we all need to feel competent, autonomous, and motivated.The destructive TikTok challenges that have gone viral in many of our secondary schools, accompanied by defiance and destruction of school property, are behaviors that demonstrate how distorted belonging feels better to students than the isolation of the recent past—these highly irrational challenges are often driven by the developmental need for attachment to others. We need to harness students’ energy and attachment to each other, and follow the nature of the child. [How can we] cultivate ways we can begin to rebuild trust and connection through our procedures with the increase of predictability, safety, and relational conditions.
FOCUSED ATTENTION PRACTICES
Focused attention practices require connection with others as they help prepare our nervous systems for a state of calm alertness. We integrate these practices throughout our procedures, providing practices that deepen collaboration and empathy.
Dedicate This One: In this focused attention practice, students create an image or write a few words that they want to share about someone they appreciate. As they think of this person, they breathe deeply for one minute, sharing their love and hopes through images or words of gratitude and comfort. They then have the option of sharing their dedication with a partner.
Dual Drawing and Journaling: In this coregulatory practice, partners share a sheet of paper for one to two minutes. When the time starts, one partner draws a line or shape and then passes it to the other person so they can add a line or a shape; they continue to do this for the set time period without talking to one another. When the time is up, they can talk about what they drew together, giving it a title and any description that feels appropriate to both of them.
Compassion for others draws upon brain networks for empathy, and when these networks are activated, we develop the nervous system states that cultivate kindness—and kindness is the most.is the most therapeutic practice for transformational change.
My take:
Times such as these are forcing us to step back and reevaluate our practices. We simply cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results. But, there is good news, students, when treated with dignity and respect, will do whatever you ask of them. Your classroom can be anything you want it to be, high expectations don’t disappear, we simply stay three steps ahead of kids, being proactive to their reactions to what we are saying. Because what we say and how we say it matters.
Here some other strategies that could be helpful:
HCA Home Court Advantage - create feelings of safety to take cognitive risk, a sense of support and a feeling of belonging - start at the door with a warm smile
Clear Directions - being clear in what we say and how we say it will allow us to gain clarity and actually allow us to obtain our learning goals more quickly.
Acknowledgments - acknowledge effort! Reward the kids often… celebrate their learning - big kids still love stickers, stamps and candy
Anchor Charts - reinforce and recap concepts often, refer to anchor charts throughout the lesson
VAK - use visuals (see anchor charts, auditory (you say, they say it) and kinesthetic (movement)
Chunking - break the lesson down into chunks and then allow for diffusion, time for students to process the learning and apply it (turn and talk, small purposeful writing and iconic drawings)
Speak Positively - put positive words about our class, content, school and our students into our students minds, Words matter, they influence thoughts and thoughts inspire action.
Lastly, let’s talk about attention. Typically, we can attend to learning for 1 minute per our age, taping out at about 20 minutes. We can use this information to optimize the time students have focused attention on content and when they need a break. The brain does need time to diffuse and prepare learning to go into long term memory. So, think of short bursts of information, followed by a break, then repeat.
What is the optimal learning state? Relaxed, yet alert. Knowing how to capture and hold attention and relax our students at the same time, is our primary objective. Just being aware of attention and state is the first step. Having a healthy rapport, knowing our students well and having consistent structured lessons is second. Avoid chaotic classrooms, where predictability calms the brain and allows for students to remain open minded about the learning. When we have calm hearts and minds, we are more receptive to learning.
Let’s step back and evaluate our current reality and apply strategies to help our students attain the learning we expect.
The start of the 2021–22 school year has been rough. Students across the world are experiencing “broken belongings”—a detachment from others—as the pandemic created conditions of relative isolation and a significant amount of chronic unpredictability within communities and home environments during the past 20 months.
We can observe this detachment in student behaviors, which are signals of a nervous system dysregulated by often toxic levels of stress. Our schools are being challenged to return to some type of normalcy even as we move through the third academic year of a global pandemic. The social loss our students are carrying is palpable.
[I] feel the tension in the air. As a staff, we are wondering how to reclaim feelings of safety and connection so that sustainable learning can occur. The nervous system is social, and has plasticity, but we require safety and a sense of belonging to access the frontal regions of the brain that hold our abilities to problem-solve, pay attention, emotionally regulate, and thoughtfully respond, which we all need to feel competent, autonomous, and motivated.The destructive TikTok challenges that have gone viral in many of our secondary schools, accompanied by defiance and destruction of school property, are behaviors that demonstrate how distorted belonging feels better to students than the isolation of the recent past—these highly irrational challenges are often driven by the developmental need for attachment to others. We need to harness students’ energy and attachment to each other, and follow the nature of the child. [How can we] cultivate ways we can begin to rebuild trust and connection through our procedures with the increase of predictability, safety, and relational conditions.
FOCUSED ATTENTION PRACTICES
Focused attention practices require connection with others as they help prepare our nervous systems for a state of calm alertness. We integrate these practices throughout our procedures, providing practices that deepen collaboration and empathy.
Dedicate This One: In this focused attention practice, students create an image or write a few words that they want to share about someone they appreciate. As they think of this person, they breathe deeply for one minute, sharing their love and hopes through images or words of gratitude and comfort. They then have the option of sharing their dedication with a partner.
Dual Drawing and Journaling: In this coregulatory practice, partners share a sheet of paper for one to two minutes. When the time starts, one partner draws a line or shape and then passes it to the other person so they can add a line or a shape; they continue to do this for the set time period without talking to one another. When the time is up, they can talk about what they drew together, giving it a title and any description that feels appropriate to both of them.
Compassion for others draws upon brain networks for empathy, and when these networks are activated, we develop the nervous system states that cultivate kindness—and kindness is the most.is the most therapeutic practice for transformational change.
My take:
Times such as these are forcing us to step back and reevaluate our practices. We simply cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results. But, there is good news, students, when treated with dignity and respect, will do whatever you ask of them. Your classroom can be anything you want it to be, high expectations don’t disappear, we simply stay three steps ahead of kids, being proactive to their reactions to what we are saying. Because what we say and how we say it matters.
Here some other strategies that could be helpful:
HCA Home Court Advantage - create feelings of safety to take cognitive risk, a sense of support and a feeling of belonging - start at the door with a warm smile
Clear Directions - being clear in what we say and how we say it will allow us to gain clarity and actually allow us to obtain our learning goals more quickly.
Acknowledgments - acknowledge effort! Reward the kids often… celebrate their learning - big kids still love stickers, stamps and candy
Anchor Charts - reinforce and recap concepts often, refer to anchor charts throughout the lesson
VAK - use visuals (see anchor charts, auditory (you say, they say it) and kinesthetic (movement)
Chunking - break the lesson down into chunks and then allow for diffusion, time for students to process the learning and apply it (turn and talk, small purposeful writing and iconic drawings)
Speak Positively - put positive words about our class, content, school and our students into our students minds, Words matter, they influence thoughts and thoughts inspire action.
Lastly, let’s talk about attention. Typically, we can attend to learning for 1 minute per our age, taping out at about 20 minutes. We can use this information to optimize the time students have focused attention on content and when they need a break. The brain does need time to diffuse and prepare learning to go into long term memory. So, think of short bursts of information, followed by a break, then repeat.
What is the optimal learning state? Relaxed, yet alert. Knowing how to capture and hold attention and relax our students at the same time, is our primary objective. Just being aware of attention and state is the first step. Having a healthy rapport, knowing our students well and having consistent structured lessons is second. Avoid chaotic classrooms, where predictability calms the brain and allows for students to remain open minded about the learning. When we have calm hearts and minds, we are more receptive to learning.
Let’s step back and evaluate our current reality and apply strategies to help our students attain the learning we expect.
Citation:
https://www.edutopia.org/article/helping-students-reacclimate-being-others-all-day
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