This module was super interesting to me! I found all this information on the brain super enlightening and it's helping me to see my students in a more understanding light. They can't help the way they act or feel - it's their brains!
My question is what strategy or intervention did you find particularly interesting or useful for future use in regards to creating a less stressful classroom environment for your students, especially the anxious ones?
I personally liked the idea of consistency and predictability. It's something so simple that I personally have taken for granted. Students need to feel secure and consistency and predictability in the classroom can definitely help that.
I really like the idea of having students work in small groups to practice skills. This way, they can practice and improve in a low-stresss environment. I think this can go a long way towards helping reduce student's anxiety.
I find it interesting and particularly relevant that they address social anxiety. A lot of reports are coming out about school age children and college students experiences the highest levels of stress, and therefor tehe most cases of anxiety, than have been previously recorded in these age groups. I just read a news article about Duck Syndrome, applying to college kids in particular, who seem calm on the surface, but their brains are actually experiencing severe anxiety and how this affects their ability to perform successfully in the skills they need to be demonstrating. What strategies combating anxiety do you think will be most useful from this book? Have you thought of any other strategies you wouldn't mind sharing with the rest of us?
I particularly like self-management as a strategy. Although it is introduced as a strategy to help students with impulsive behavior, I think that it could also help students with anxiety. If they monitor, record, and analyze what situations make them anxious while they are not feeling anxiety, then they may be able to help come up with ways to reduce their own anxiety. Metacognition, y'all.
I agree completely, Shamiah! I think helping kids recognize the signs of their anxiety and what causes it, will help them not only in the classroom, but in real life too! It's a great way to teach metacognition, like you said! Good point, Shamiah! :)
That is a great point! You can solve so many issues with teaching a student to understand self-management! How would you personally go about teaching self management? Would you teach it to all of your students or just those where you think they may have issues?
I particularly like how Sousa addressed the possible reasons for students acting out. Normally, seeking attention is one of the first reasons listed, but Sousa deftly delves into the other reasons that people often neglect to acknowledge. He then brings up child-parent relationships, which we studied in depth earlier this year (with the attachment theory), which tackles the whole "they do it for attention" argument. I thought it was very well organized to support his argument. It also reminded me of what Hannah always says, "there are no bad students, just students who sometimes behave badly," or something like that. I may have messed that up, but feel free to correct me Hannah!
EMDR and EFT are super intriguing to me! What did you guys glean from them?
I am a bit skeptical about EFT but I also did not believe in the power of meditation until I fell in love with yoga. I would really like to try some of them out.
I admit EMDR and EFT sound completely crazy, but I keep hearing about more and more research evidence supporting them. I figure at the very least they aren't damaging or expensive, so why not?
I think the biggest thing I gleaned from them is that they apply multiple physical strategies to relax yourself. Do you think you would apply one of these techniques or another form of meditation in your classroom? If so, how would you integrate it to be most effective and still be able to cover everything you need to do for class?
I really want to do yoga with my kids. I teach beginners yoga right now and I am working on getting my full certification to be able to teach it on my own. I feel like meditation is such a HUGE asset and skill to those students who do not know how to redirect their stress. I want to just set aside time to teach this, along with other non-cognitive skills that may not necessarily fit the scope of Common Core. I feel so strongly that students cannot learn if they are constantly being challenged by outside forces and those forces are usually things we can help them with.
Hannah- so we're going to start having weekly yoga sessions during class to help with our stress right? That you're going to teach? Haha just kidding, but not really.
That's a great brain break too! I wonder if doing yoga and taking that time to be active in the classroom would really help the boys, since the do better if there is some physical activity.
I really liked all of the strategies that the book provided for helping students to cope with the different challenges that they may have. They were very creative, yet simple and realistic. I think that it was only possible to come up with so many solutions because Sousa kept an open mind about all of the possibilities that may be causing a students behavior. He acknowledges that it's not as simple as "The kid is bad because he wants to be bad".
My question is do you guys think that there could be away to combine Brain yoga with the concepts of EMDR and EFT, so that when a child gets really stressed in class, they could do a bit to help both calm them down and get their brains ready to learn more?
I definitely think we could combine some type of yoga for the brain with EMDR and EFT. I feel like it is our job to ensure all students have the necessary tools to be successful and the only way we will know what works and what does not work is by arming them with what they need.
Do you have any specific ideas for how you might want to go about this in your own classroom?
Salut mon amie! I definitely think it's a great idea to combine EMDR, EFT, and brain yoga! I think, as of now, teachers don't do enough to help students who are very anxious and stressed. I think it would be a great way to do proactive Plan B with a particularly anxious child - show them what they can do in class when they are feeling overwhelmed. Plus, it would be a sign to you as the teacher to know that you may need to follow up after class and ensure the student is handling everything okay!
Hannah- I think that certain topics can be difficult for most students to understand. So perhaps, after going over those particularly topics, having the students do this could help them think about it as being less stressful. If they feel less overwhelmed by it, then, I hope, they will show more persistence.
I also found the effect of stress on learning very interesting. The fact that stress causes the amygdala to become overstimulated and in a hyper-metabolic state, thus preventing information from being processed and stored by the rest of the brain is amazing. It's amazing that one emotion can have such an effect on a person's brain and learning capability. Willis listed several signs that your lesson/new information may be stressful, and I felt like I had experienced a lot of those before. For example, Willis states that a number of students actively participating in discussion being lower than normal might be a sign of stressful content. I know that when I find a topic particularly hard to understand or stressful in any way, I tend to not speak up.
Willis also listed strategies for creating low-stress classrooms. What else could we do to make our classrooms less stressful environments?
I also found the information on low stress environments in the classroom very interesting as well. I think we have talked about how stressful environments make it hard to learn, but how sometimes it can be useful because it so immediately involves strong emotion. I know, for example, if I answer a question wrong in class, I will have that fact committed to my memory much better than anything I use flash cards for! Now that we've studied the brain, we can actually understand the difference in the pathway of information, which makes it all make so much more sense to me. As far as creating low stress classroom environments go, I think focusing on classroom culture is the biggest key. A lot of the strategies we are learning, like CPS, are great tools for minimizing stress when there is the possibility of tension. I think, in some part, your classroom design can play a role as well. For example, if you cram them together like sardines, they may struggle to pay attention. Some kids could get stressed out just by having the door closed, like what we talked about in Exceptional Learners.
This module was super interesting to me! I found all this information on the brain super enlightening and it's helping me to see my students in a more understanding light. They can't help the way they act or feel - it's their brains!
ReplyDeleteMy question is what strategy or intervention did you find particularly interesting or useful for future use in regards to creating a less stressful classroom environment for your students, especially the anxious ones?
I personally liked the idea of consistency and predictability. It's something so simple that I personally have taken for granted. Students need to feel secure and consistency and predictability in the classroom can definitely help that.
I really like the idea of having students work in small groups to practice skills. This way, they can practice and improve in a low-stresss environment. I think this can go a long way towards helping reduce student's anxiety.
DeleteI find it interesting and particularly relevant that they address social anxiety. A lot of reports are coming out about school age children and college students experiences the highest levels of stress, and therefor tehe most cases of anxiety, than have been previously recorded in these age groups. I just read a news article about Duck Syndrome, applying to college kids in particular, who seem calm on the surface, but their brains are actually experiencing severe anxiety and how this affects their ability to perform successfully in the skills they need to be demonstrating. What strategies combating anxiety do you think will be most useful from this book? Have you thought of any other strategies you wouldn't mind sharing with the rest of us?
ReplyDeleteI particularly like self-management as a strategy. Although it is introduced as a strategy to help students with impulsive behavior, I think that it could also help students with anxiety. If they monitor, record, and analyze what situations make them anxious while they are not feeling anxiety, then they may be able to help come up with ways to reduce their own anxiety. Metacognition, y'all.
DeleteI agree completely, Shamiah! I think helping kids recognize the signs of their anxiety and what causes it, will help them not only in the classroom, but in real life too! It's a great way to teach metacognition, like you said! Good point, Shamiah! :)
DeleteThat is a great point! You can solve so many issues with teaching a student to understand self-management! How would you personally go about teaching self management? Would you teach it to all of your students or just those where you think they may have issues?
DeleteI particularly like how Sousa addressed the possible reasons for students acting out. Normally, seeking attention is one of the first reasons listed, but Sousa deftly delves into the other reasons that people often neglect to acknowledge. He then brings up child-parent relationships, which we studied in depth earlier this year (with the attachment theory), which tackles the whole "they do it for attention" argument. I thought it was very well organized to support his argument. It also reminded me of what Hannah always says, "there are no bad students, just students who sometimes behave badly," or something like that. I may have messed that up, but feel free to correct me Hannah!
ReplyDeleteIt is exactly what I say! Hillary, I am so glad that I have rubbed off on you!
DeleteEMDR and EFT are super intriguing to me! What did you guys glean from them?
ReplyDeleteI am a bit skeptical about EFT but I also did not believe in the power of meditation until I fell in love with yoga. I would really like to try some of them out.
I admit EMDR and EFT sound completely crazy, but I keep hearing about more and more research evidence supporting them. I figure at the very least they aren't damaging or expensive, so why not?
DeleteI think the biggest thing I gleaned from them is that they apply multiple physical strategies to relax yourself. Do you think you would apply one of these techniques or another form of meditation in your classroom? If so, how would you integrate it to be most effective and still be able to cover everything you need to do for class?
DeleteI really want to do yoga with my kids. I teach beginners yoga right now and I am working on getting my full certification to be able to teach it on my own. I feel like meditation is such a HUGE asset and skill to those students who do not know how to redirect their stress. I want to just set aside time to teach this, along with other non-cognitive skills that may not necessarily fit the scope of Common Core. I feel so strongly that students cannot learn if they are constantly being challenged by outside forces and those forces are usually things we can help them with.
DeleteHannah- so we're going to start having weekly yoga sessions during class to help with our stress right? That you're going to teach? Haha just kidding, but not really.
DeleteThat's a great brain break too! I wonder if doing yoga and taking that time to be active in the classroom would really help the boys, since the do better if there is some physical activity.
DeleteI really liked all of the strategies that the book provided for helping students to cope with the different challenges that they may have. They were very creative, yet simple and realistic. I think that it was only possible to come up with so many solutions because Sousa kept an open mind about all of the possibilities that may be causing a students behavior. He acknowledges that it's not as simple as "The kid is bad because he wants to be bad".
ReplyDeleteMy question is do you guys think that there could be away to combine Brain yoga with the concepts of EMDR and EFT, so that when a child gets really stressed in class, they could do a bit to help both calm them down and get their brains ready to learn more?
I definitely think we could combine some type of yoga for the brain with EMDR and EFT. I feel like it is our job to ensure all students have the necessary tools to be successful and the only way we will know what works and what does not work is by arming them with what they need.
DeleteDo you have any specific ideas for how you might want to go about this in your own classroom?
Salut mon amie! I definitely think it's a great idea to combine EMDR, EFT, and brain yoga! I think, as of now, teachers don't do enough to help students who are very anxious and stressed. I think it would be a great way to do proactive Plan B with a particularly anxious child - show them what they can do in class when they are feeling overwhelmed. Plus, it would be a sign to you as the teacher to know that you may need to follow up after class and ensure the student is handling everything okay!
DeleteHannah- I think that certain topics can be difficult for most students to understand. So perhaps, after going over those particularly topics, having the students do this could help them think about it as being less stressful. If they feel less overwhelmed by it, then, I hope, they will show more persistence.
DeleteI also found the effect of stress on learning very interesting. The fact that stress causes the amygdala to become overstimulated and in a hyper-metabolic state, thus preventing information from being processed and stored by the rest of the brain is amazing. It's amazing that one emotion can have such an effect on a person's brain and learning capability. Willis listed several signs that your lesson/new information may be stressful, and I felt like I had experienced a lot of those before. For example, Willis states that a number of students actively participating in discussion being lower than normal might be a sign of stressful content. I know that when I find a topic particularly hard to understand or stressful in any way, I tend to not speak up.
ReplyDeleteWillis also listed strategies for creating low-stress classrooms. What else could we do to make our classrooms less stressful environments?
I also found the information on low stress environments in the classroom very interesting as well. I think we have talked about how stressful environments make it hard to learn, but how sometimes it can be useful because it so immediately involves strong emotion. I know, for example, if I answer a question wrong in class, I will have that fact committed to my memory much better than anything I use flash cards for! Now that we've studied the brain, we can actually understand the difference in the pathway of information, which makes it all make so much more sense to me. As far as creating low stress classroom environments go, I think focusing on classroom culture is the biggest key. A lot of the strategies we are learning, like CPS, are great tools for minimizing stress when there is the possibility of tension. I think, in some part, your classroom design can play a role as well. For example, if you cram them together like sardines, they may struggle to pay attention. Some kids could get stressed out just by having the door closed, like what we talked about in Exceptional Learners.
Delete