The need for student support
The NeuroLogic® staff works with lots of different schools, so we tend to see themes in our student populations. One thing we often hear is that the number of students who need additional support is growing. If your school uses PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Support) or I-MTSS (Integrated Multi-Tiered System of Support), you might call this Tier 2 support. This means the student cannot manage in the classroom with the support given to all students (Tier 1 or universal support). When we see that the group of students needing Tier 2 support is getting too big, it typically means that Tier 1 or universal support needs to be bolstered.
This is frustrating to many of our teachers because they are already asked to get through so much content. So, do we have to choose between classroom support and academics? I believe the answer is no.
Slowing down to provide support
Many of you recently finished putting together holiday meals. If you’re like me, you often approach this “the fast way.” I head to the store and mentally click through the different items I will need as I toss them in the cart. Then, while unpacking at home, I realize I forgot sour cream and cinnamon. The slower way (which is ultimately more effective) is to check my pantry and write a list before going. The slow way feels excruciating when I am so busy, but it generally results in one trip to the store.
What does the fast way look like in the classroom? It means getting started immediately without regulating the students. There is so much to do, and doing a regulating activity can feel like an unnecessary extra step. But when you must stop and try to drag kids back on task over and over it is like me having to run back to the grocery store because I just wanted to get started right away. I speak to groups a lot and, ironically, I find myself skipping a regulation exercise for my listeners when we are short on time. I train this stuff, and I still struggle to slow down to go fast!
What does going slow to go fast look like?
When we help our learners to be in the smartest part of their brain (the cortex), they will be fast to take in or demonstrate academic material. Let me share some things I have learned from some of our finest! I know a teacher who covered all her overhead lights with images of tree tops so the class feels like they are meeting in a forest. One teacher puts a waterfall with soothing music on his smart board whenever he isn’t using it. I know a high school science teacher who has a small regulation couch in the back of his room. Students who are having a rough time are invited to take a 5-minute regulation session there. These are examples of items always in place that create constant regulation.
The tougher one (at least for me) is the discipline of starting a meeting with a check-in or a breathing exercise. Even though it sometimes takes less than five minutes, I find myself impatiently wanting to get to my material. When I take the time to help my learners (often teachers) have a regulating experience before we talk, I get so much more investment. At the beginning of this year, I did a short series of brain breaks with a group of teachers, one that made them laugh, one that got us on the same rhythm with clapping, and finally a short breathing exercise. One teacher came up after and said, “I didn’t understand it until I felt it myself. I am going to try that with my students.”
If you are like me, you probably know a lot of the “regulation stuff,” but it is the discipline of slowing down and doing the regulation thing that is the real difficulty.
Regulation challenge
Try this regulation challenge: do at least one brain break with your students for 30 days. The first 20 people who complete 30 days and email us at neurologic@lakesidetraining.org to share their experience will get a NeuroLogic® fidget pen!
By Kathryn deVries, MBA, PhD, LPC
Program Director of NeuroLogic® by Lakeside
