Thank you to NEARI's Smoothies for the Brain author Penny Cuninggim for providing this article to share.Shannon Chabot, NEARI's coordinator and school consultant in the areas of sensory integration and reflex and motor development, hosts this blog and explains the importance of sensory development and learning. He built the list below that both provides teachers with some useful sensory tools and shares their impact on areas of learning readiness.Our nervous systems begin the process of … [Read more...]
Thinking Errors Adolescents Can Bring to School
Many of our older students who can make choices yet are unwilling to always make good ones, use thinking errors regularly to cope with stress and avoid taking responsibility. These are the students who have some frustration tolerance and ability to control their actions as opposed to little of either. This group is more the "Won't" than the "Can't" students (who have reactive patterns they are unable to stop; "can'ts" often have mood disorders, pronounced ADHD, or serious trauma symptoms.) Of … [Read more...]
When Children are Unable to Regulate their Behaviors and Emotions
During this winter season when I am confronted with an unhappy student who can't easily or is unwilling to follow directions, I find it helpful to pause and remember some important principles of behavior management. Here are some thoughts to remember when children are unable or unwilling to regulate their behaviors and emotions: You can't control another person's behavior, only your own response. No matter what it seems, students do not want to be in control of the … [Read more...]
Using Frequency, Intensity and Duration to Improve Learning Outcomes
It is a well understood neurological fact that to increase learning, improve automaticity, and embed skills and concepts in memory, one needs to be sure there is sufficient frequency, intensity and duration of the particular skill or stimulus. We decide this every day when we determine the correct use of a medication, the right training program for an athlete, the nature of pregnancy contractions, and peak performance requirements that produce quality results in, say, a factory assembly … [Read more...]
What Makes a Good Educational Leader
Leadership is not simply management. This is nowhere more evident than in educational settings where true leaders inspire, engage, facilitate and motivate both teachers and students to achieve success. But what makes a good educational leader? And how do leaders better foster an environment where the foundation of student-centered education thrives?At INSPIRE 2014, Bill Bryan, co-founder and vice president for leadership and organization development at the Center for Secondary School … [Read more...]
The Boy Education Crisis
All educators can attest to the behavioral and learning challenges that many, many boys in their classrooms exhibit. These challenges are leading boys to fall behind educationally, and leading teachers to grapple with productive ways in which to bolster their self-confidence and allow them to focus in class.At INSPIRE 2014, Anthony Rao, Ph.D., a psychologist and noted author, led a session on “The Boy Education Crisis” that helped attendees understand how boys think, develop and learn. After … [Read more...]
Social and Emotional Development for Girls
Many teachers face their students every day knowing that some of the girls are struggling with feelings of self-doubt, self-consciousness and fear. Reaching out to those girls’ specific needs, while maintaining focus on whole classroom, can be complicated.At INSPIRE 2014, Rachel J. Kramer, Ph.D., a pediatric psychologist in Concord, Massachusetts, led a session on “Supporting Girls’ Social and Emotional Development in the Classroom” that helped attendees explore strategies for teaching girls … [Read more...]
School Practices that Downshift Students
A well-known term in the brain-based world is "downshifting." According to Renate and Geoffrey Caine who first coined the term, downshifting is "the psychophysiological response to threat, accompanied by a sense of helplessness or fatigue. The downshifted person experiences a sense of fear or anxiety, not the excitement of a challenge. Downshifting is accompanied by a feeling that you cannot access your own ability to deal with the situation. Downshifting can result from very drastic conditions … [Read more...]
Mindfulness in the 4th Grade Classroom
Contributed by Kate Clark. Kate is an elementary school principal on the North Shore of Massachusetts, and has used mindfulness practice in a variety of classroom situations over the course of her 30-year career as an educator. Kate will be a speaker at INSPIRE 2014, and her session is titled Theory into Practice: Preventative Strategies for Students with Anxiety.Fifteen quiet minutes...time for our fourth grade students to breathe, to hold off on all thoughts of the future or the past. … [Read more...]
Why Educators Need to Develop Leadership Skills
The following post is contributed by Bill Bryan, co-founder and vice president for Leadership and Organization Development, Center for Secondary School Redesign. Bill will be presenting at INSPIRE 2014.Five Reasons Educators Need to Focus on Developing Leadership Skills 1. To Lead Successful Major Change Efforts: A recent headline reads, "Early Results Indicate $4.6 Billion in School Turnarounds a Waste." Most efforts at significant change in education practices fail, but not for a … [Read more...]
