Starting the year off with the brain in mind

The more I teach the more I realise the impact of how my learning about the brain is evident in the choices I am making…

The brain grows and develops from the bottom up, the brain stem first, followed by the limbic system and then the cerebral cortex, with the prefrontal cortex doing it’s major work during puberty. It occurred to me today that my planning reflects this process using Glenn Capelli's Magic Brain model, along with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  

(For more about the Magic Brain model check out this link) 

I start with addressing the basic needs first.

Belonging:

It is said that belonging is an innate human need and so it is the first thing that we work on together.

Learning chant:

Room 5 has a name, it is called The Place to Stretch and Grow. (My thanks to Adrienne Rennie for the inspiration to do this) We start with a class learning chant which encapsulates how we will work as a class together and our school values. This is now a tradition in Room 5, so the poem is passed to each new group of students that join us.

Room 5’s Learning Chant:

Welcome to Room 5, the place to stretch and grow

Working together we STRETCH and learning flows

Self belief, self belief - we know we can improve

Talking to learn, talking to learn - and listening to learn too

Resilience, resilience - we try and try again

Excellence, excellence - aim high - we do our best

Talented, talented – there’s so much that we can do

Care and respect - showing kindness to me and you

Honesty, honesty - every single day

Together we stretch and grow in so many ways!

We will discuss this, unpack each of the seven qualities listed and establish what they look like in action so we can demonstrate this in the classroom. I have found that with this being done it makes having class rules redundant.

The children create vision boards or portraits that sit near our door so people coming in can get to know us a little better and we can connect with each other more too. We also have our pepeha (for informatin about what pepeha is click here)  

Rituals:

Rituals, or routines, give a familiar structure to the day that provides security to learners whilst at the same time reinforcing a sense of belongingness. We start and end our day in familiar patterns, I don’t necessarily lead them all, in fact often the students lead and I participate along with everyone. The rituals we have are as follows, please note that this is just what works for us in our classroom so far, it may shift and change depending on student needs and what is happening around the school.  

At the start of the day:

•  I sometimes keep a fruit bowl in the classroom so students can get a piece of fruit before school starts
• We do a Go Noodle activity as the bell rings and students are coming in
• Our class leaders for the day start with our morning book where they record the day, date, weather etc.
• We do a karakia (a prayer) and the class leaders share their pepeha (introducing themselves in Maori) 
• We sing a waiata (a song- supporting literacy)
• Students go into partners for a given oral language task then come as a class to share
• We do five yoga type stretches with associated statements supporting qualities we value as above the line learners  and focus on our breathing (breathing is one of our superpowers so we practise taking deep breaths) 
• We go through our plan for the day and then get on with selecting tasks to support our learning

At the end of the day:

• We say a karakia to end the day
• We reflect on the day, sharing discoveries, telling about the great things we have seen others doing etc. I use Triple A's (that I learned from an Edutopia post a while ago) where we sit in a circle and say either something we Appreciate (gratitude is a really healthy habit to learn), something we want to Apologise for (so we can let it go before the end of the day) or something that was an A-ha (new learning we want to share) 
• As the bell rings I stand at the door and we do hug, handshake, high five where the class lines up and each child gets to choose how they would like to be farewelled for the day (with Covid in mind we can use other forms of farewell without touching) 

Connection:

I try to make sure I connect with every child each day, that is what our farewell is about. I also schedule at least two free time slots after lunch during the week. This 15-20 minute slot in the timetable gives students a chance to continue a learning task from the morning programme, follow something that interests them, play games, read, paint, draw etc. It is a valuable time for me as a teacher as it allows me the opportunity to catch up with students who might be a little isolated, who are having a tough time for some reason or who I might need to connect a little better with in some way. I may play alongside them or offer for them an opportunity to learn a new game or listen to a story. At times I use the time to just observe particular students. Other times I will offer to teach a new game that will then be an option in our morning programme and those students who join in to play become our experts and teach others.

Once we have spent time building up our class culture and laying the foundation for belongingness then we will move into exploring our brain, in particular, our emotions. 

The magic brain:

I teach the class about the magic brain first and then we focus on the Glitter Room of Emotions.

Emotions:

Name them, read about them, talk about them and how we can manage ourselves if the emotions we are experiencing are making it hard to learn or connect with others. We also explore the concept that others may experience different emotions to ourselves.  

Managing our emotions- calming down:

I love the meme that says ‘never in the history of calming down has anyone ever calmed down by being told to calm down’, because it is funny and, in my experience, true. This is why I believe we need to teach strategies to help manage emotions along with supporting learners to recognise the feelings they are having. Here are some of the tools I use:

• I have a calm down space in the room with a little basket where I have a range of fiddle-tools (these are tools not toys, that is a discussion I have with the class very early on), students can go and select an item to help them calm down and take it with them or stay in that spot if they want
• We watch a clip called Just Breathe (see below for the clip) 
•  I teach them star breathing using their hands- we stretch out the fingers on one hand and slowly trace around them, breathing in slowly as we go and up and out slowly as we go down each finger
• We sometimes create a calm down scrapbook of images from magazines that help us calm down
• With permission children can go for an extra run outside if needed, or bounce a ball
•  I have mindful colouring books available
• We also use Play is the Way games to explore our emotions and relationships with others

From here we delve further into the Magic Brain.

We learn about our neurons, how we learn and what helps us to learn.  

We create a learning environment together that meets the needs of our unique brains as much as possible.

We learn about people, places, our world… we work our inquiries… we play, communicate, make connections, create, read, write, play with numbers and patterns, make discoveries, ask questions, and, well you get the picture.

This is the plan of action that I have in place, of course there is a lot more going on but the basis is being aware of the Magic Brain. I think often we do this intuitively, it's always a good feeling when what we do naturally fits with what we are learning from science. :) 

Celebrating our brilliant brains

"We can no longer ignore the neuroscience"

Dr Judith Howard

In education, we can no longer afford to ignore the neuroscience. This was a statement shared with us at a course I attended last year. As a neuro-nerd I couldn't agree more with this sentiment, we need to embrace the learning that science can share with us and let it inform what we do in our classrooms. It is also important that we share this knowledge with our learners. 

 

With this in mind we have started our teaching year with a focus on our brilliant brains and how we learn. And so far it's been fun. There is a wealth of great material online and we have used video, movement, art, discussion and writing to support our learning. 

One of the clips we started with was Ned the Neuron. We actually watched it three days in a row and it is on our class website for further revisits if individuals want to. The first time we watched it I paused at various spots. The class loved being able to say neuroplasticity! We talked about what sorts of things help our brains get stronger, we talked about challenges. In subsequent viewings we focused on different aspects to explore further. 

When we discussed the brain growing and challenges we used the example of learning how to walk to help us understand better. I asked one of our classmates to demonstrate what happens when a baby first tries to walk... our actor did a brilliant job of showing the baby falling over and then trying again and again. We talked about what happened when the baby first fell over and I asked the following rhetorical questions... Did the baby just stop there and go "oh well I tried walking but it didn't work for me so I guess I won't be a walker"? Did the baby go "walking is dumb, crawling is better and I like it better"? Did the baby just stop there and scream out "it just not fair, I can't walk, I can't do this"? and so on. The class laughed as we went through these scenarios and each time we were able to say that no-one would ever learn to walk if we did this. We related this to our own challenges. 

After this we talked about how when we learn something we make new connections and the more we try things the stronger the connections get. We talked about how learning something new or different can feel really hard at first but that is OK, that is what challenge can feel like, just like the baby learning to walk. We stood up and started off being like a neuron sitting there and trying something new and slowly, with a bit of effort, stretched one arm out and then kept going stretching our fingers out too. Then we stretched our other arm and fingers. After that we stretched out one leg and then another. Slowly and with effort until we were standing like strong stars. 

We talked about things that we find challenging and that different people find different things more challenging than others... again that is OK, we are all unique! 

After this we noticed when we were challenged and our mantra in class became 'we try and try again', sometimes adding... 'just like the baby learning to walk'. We notice when we make mistakes and now we know that making mistakes is part of learning, it helps our neurons stretch and grow. 

We have also been watching the Class Dojo Growth Mindset series. There are 5 clips in total and here is the first: 

These clips further expand on the notion that through accepting challenges and persisting when we find something tricky we can improve our learning. We can strengthen our brain. 

To support our learning about the brain we have made images and written short descriptions about one of our amazing neurons. Just like us our brains, which are made up of billions of neurons, all our images are unique and interesting. 

As are our descriptions. Here are a few examples: 

My neuron’s name is Excellent Swimmer. My neuron gets stronger when I sleep. My neuron likes water. My neuron needs challenges. My neuron loves ice cream. My neuron is as nice as chocolate.

My neuron’s name is Bob. He gets stronger when I learn. Bob likes to run. Bob needs food and water.  Bob loves hugs. Bob is awesome.

My neuron is Geoff. My neuron gets stronger by making mistakes. My neuron likes apples. My neuron needs lots of love. My neuron loves sleep. My neuron is strong.

My neuron’s name is Joe. My neuron gets stronger when I give myself a challenge. My neuron likes it when I give it food. My neuron needs water to live. My neuron loves it when I take it to cool places. My neuron is clever and friendly.

My neuron’s name is Disgust. My neuron gets stronger when I work really hard at working out problems. My neuron likes trying out words. My neuron loves the best hugs ever. My neuron is brainy.

My neuron’s name is Bob. Bob is very cool. My neuron likes to do rugby. MY neuron gets stronger when I make mistakes. Bob needs food and water. Bob loves to do maths. My neuron is wonderful.

Our classroom is known as Room 5 the Place to Stretch and Grow. We have developed a learning chant (an idea I have taken from the latest Teachers Matter Conference which I will write about in due course) and are practicing it regularly... we are developing actions to support this

.

 It is exciting to hear the language the children are using which is empowering. They are encouraging each other to persist. They are celebrating attempts. They are noticing when they have learned something new and they are sharing this knowledge with each other. 

This has been a great start to celebrating our brilliant brains. We are also practicing strategies to help us learn better. Our next steps will be exploring our magic brain and learning the Stop, Breathe, Think, Do technique to help us get back in balance and think more clearly when we get out of synch.

To read more about this you can check out some other posts in this blog: 

Learning with the brain in mind

Managing difficult behaviour with the brain in mind

Learning with the brain in mind

This post is a nod to my friend and mentor Karen Boyes who I remember talking about the comfort and learning zones at a conference a long time ago... I loved the concept and intend to share this with our class this term as we continue to learn about our brilliant brains. 

I recently shared a post about considering the brain with behaviour management and shared some tools I have used to help explain the brain to the children I have worked with. Using Glenn Capelli's magic brain model to help describe behaviour has been effective and so using the same model I intend to focus on learning with the brain in mind (see below)... it could be said we are able to learn our best when we are in the Learning Zone which in the model below is in the blue thinking room.  

Here is a little reminder of Glenn's Magic Brain model: 

1. The blue thinking room- where we have heaps of choices and this is where heaps of our learning happens 
2. The glitter room of emotions (Glenn talks about this being the multicoloured room)- this is where our feelings are and when we are feeling big emotions or lots of emotions it can get pretty messy in here which makes it hard to the get to the door for the thinking room so we need to calm the glitter down 
3. The red room of limited choices- often when we are afraid or angry we end up in the red room where we really only have 2-3 choices... fight, flight or freeze,  when the brain stem is engaged then the cerebral cortex is offline

One way to define a concept is by defining what it isn't so to explore what a Learning zone looks like I'll first establish what it isn't by looking at two extremes of a continuum... the Comfort zone and the Danger zone and what some internal dialogue relating to this might be.  

Comfort Zone	Danger Zone
This is easy I don’t even need to think about it I am so good at this Yawn…	This is probably going to kill me!!!

So the Learning zone sits in the middle of these two extremes but it isn't there alone... the Fear zone is also there  so our continuum now looks a little like this... 

Comfort Zone	Learning Zone		Danger Zone
	Fear Zone

When we are faced with a learning challenge, depending on our personal expectations, self talk and prior experience among other things, we will either enter the Learning zone or the Fear zone. 
Below is some internal (and even external) dialogue learners might have when they are in the Learning and Fear zones. 

Learning Zone	Fear Zone
This is challenging (the brain loves challenge!)	This is too hard
This might be fun	This is stupid
I can’t do this, yet	I can’t do this
Mistakes are part of learning	Mistakes are bad
Oops, I got that wrong this time	Getting things wrong is bad
I don’t know this, yet	I don’t know this
This reminds me of something else that I know	This doesn’t relate to anything I know at all
Asking for help is part of learning	Asking for help means that I am stupid or dumb
I am a learner	I am a failure

The Learning zone lets us into the blue thinking room of the brain whereas the Fear zone takes us through the glitter room of emotions and sometimes into the red room of limited choices. 

If our learners go into the Fear zone when presented with something new then the chances of them getting as much out of it as they could is really limited... unless we can help them to identify what is happening in their brain at the time and find ways to access the blue thinking room. Please note: I am not suggesting we try to remove emotions from learning at all, in fact emotions are powerfully useful in learning just not so much when they stay all shaken up and are keeping the door to the blue room closed, so we need to find ways to keep that door open. 

So how can we help move into the Learning zone if we find ourselves in the Fear zone? Well this is one of the questions we'll be discussing in our class at some stage but in the meantime here are a couple of suggestions that I can offer: 

• Think about another time when you learned something and it was really hard and then it got easier... often learning something new is hard at the start and that's normal.  
• Relate to children learning to walk... they don't try once, fall over and then based on that experience decide that clearly walking isn't for them! They try and try and try again, persistence is a key to learning. Making mistakes, getting things wrong, falling over is part of learning. 
• Remind yourself that it is OK to make mistakes... as a teacher you have the ability to support this mental framework so how do you make sure your learners know mistakes are OK? 
• YET is a powerful word, it supports developing a growth mindset. 'I can't do this yet' is empowering where just stating 'I can't do this' is limiting. 
• Remind ourselves that the brain LOVES challenges. Challenges help to form new connections and keep things interesting for the brain. 
• There are strategies we can use to help make learning new things easier, here are a couple: 1. scaffolding- by relating the new material to something else we have done or learned in the past; 2. break it down- see if you can break the new learning down into it's parts so we are learning one smaller thing at a time rather than something absolutely ENORMOUS!  
• Stop, Breathe, Think, Do works here too... when we hear ourselves saying that we are dumb or stupid or can't do this then that is a sign we need to STOP (have a break) and breathe. Then think about what we can do: perhaps ask for clarification or help if we need it; or have another go; or try a new strategy.

This work is designed to help make brain science accessible to our learners and I hope that as we work together the children will develop it further in ways that I can't predict, and that they will become more curious about their own amazing brains. For me the more I learn about this, the more I want to know and greater my appreciation for the magnificence of the human brain and our potential becomes. 

This is about empowerment of the learner, supporting them to better know themselves so they can unlock the potential within and shine which I figure is a big part of our role as parents, caregivers, teachers, school administrators, educationalists. I do appreciate your feedback and suggestions as I continue to build on these concepts with our children and hope that something in here might be useful for others as well. 

Some links that you may find interesting: 

From this blog: 

Managing difficult behaviour with the brain in mind (+some poetry and lesson ideas) 

Supporting at risk students- reflecting on teaching practices to support students

Why we need mindfulness in our schools- a few thoughts about mindfulness in the classroom

Karen Boyes: 

Effort vs Accomplishment - a summary around fixed and growth mindsets

Everything is hard before it is easy- looking at this aspect of being in the learning zone 

Brene Brown: 

The power of vulnerability- exploring the feeling of vulnerability and seeing the powerful and positive that can be found in it (great for our own learning and development) 

Supporting At Risk Students- Some learning from Jenny Tebbutt's workshop

Today I attended a course created and presented by Jenny Tebbutt about supporting at risk students in a mainstream environment. There were many valuable tidbits for me as a teacher to consider and apply to my programme going forward which is always a good thing. If you get a chance to have time with Jenny I thoroughly recommend it. 

Different learners have different strengths... think about the strengths your students possess.
A visual summary of some of the learning from today. 

The theory behind what she shared was even more valuable, it made sense and helped me to clarify my thinking. The basic theory introduced and discussed was focused on different groups within our classrooms spoken about as waves- 

• Wave 1- our learners who are confident and competent learners 
• Wave 2- our learners who are a little behind in their learning but with remedial programmes focused on building skills within curriculum areas can make significant improvement
• Wave 3- our learners with specific learning differences such as dyslexia and autism 
• Wave 4- our learners who qualify for specifically funded support due to severe learning or behavioural needs

The focus of the session was on addressing the needs of the Wave 3 learners as Jenny suggested that remedial programmes often do not address the specific underlying cognitive processing needs for these learners. So one solution offered was to address classroom teaching practice, taking on effective teaching practices for dyslexics which it is suggested improves outcomes for all learners... it is about teaching for DIVERSITY. 

Some questions to reflect on when considering teaching for diversity: 

• Are we playing to the strengths of our learners? Do they get to pursue their passions? How do you support them with their weaknesses? 
• How do we address VAKPOINT (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, print oriented learning styles) in our teaching to provide a multi sensory learning environment? Glenn Capelli has some great resources around this. 
• How well do you know about the learning needs of your students? (Consider BEES- Behaviour, Educational, Emotional, Social)
• What other information can you gain from running records? Think about visual errors, substitutions, omissions etc. 
• What structures do we have to support our learners? Think about your routines and learning environment... it is suggested that for 3rd Wave learners structure is vital to security in learning. 
• Are you explicit in your teaching? Do you use WALTS or success criteria? Do they know why they are learning what they are learning? 
• Are you teaching your learners skills and strategies so they can be self managing? Do they know how to use a highlighter to support their learning? What about mind mapping, brainstorming, using thinking tools, memory strategies etc? (For more information about these strategies check out Karen Boyes' Study Skills resources and courses) 
• What supports are you providing for your learners? How are you accommodating for differences? 
• How are you engaging with whanau (family) and the community to support learners? 
• How do you ensure that learners have ample opportunities to practice and improve? 
• How much feedback do you give to your 3rd Wave learners? It is suggested that we give these learners more feedback and feed forward so they know what their next steps are. 
• How does the learning environment cater for different learning preferences? 

There is a lot to consider but as Jenny suggested what we are really aiming for is to make best practice common practice and that's what all our learners rightly deserve. 

Same bat time, same bat channel- can TV help us improve student engagement?

Here's a little thought I have been having for a while... what if we looked at what TV stations do well to capture and maintain an audience and applied that learning in our classrooms?

I know it sounds a bit odd and in our day where we have varied forms of visual/digital entertainment perhaps the analogy is redundant but I'll let you decide that.

This is some of what I have been considering:

• On TV channels they have specific programmes airing at certain times but it shifts and changes depending on the day. There are some regular programmes and some variation, there are also thematic times such as Christmas or special days of remembrance where the schedule reflects that theme. 
• There are regular ad breaks, often every 10-15 minutes, which can be entertaining in themselves or provide us with an opportunity to shift focus or move around a little. 
• There are a range of programmes scheduled which are designed to meet the interests of varied parts of the target demographic. 
• The target demographic is carefully considered and monitored. 
• Programmers use cliffhangers and other strategies to hook their viewers in and make them want to tune in next time (as the old Batman series said 'same bat time, same bat channel') 
• Sometimes programmes that are less popular are sandwiched between two more popular programmes to keep their viewers tuning in. 
• What is coming up may be talked about in the credits from the previous programme to ensure that viewers do not switch channels. 

When we apply this to the classroom here is what it might look like:

• Lots of consultation with the students so you understand your 'demographic'. What are their favourite subjects, least favourite, how do they prefer to learn, what are their goals, strengths and needs... then consider how you can cater for that (hint: they won't be the same as the class you had last year, or the year before and they will probably change preferences throughout the year too)
• Short snappy lessons- don't drag on boring your audience or they will tune out! 
• Previews of what is coming up as we round off what we have just done e.g. (after a summation of what was learned) "so that was maths folks, coming up we will be exploring the fascinating world of adjectives in our writing...".  
• You can also preview a new topic coming up next week or next term at different times to build anticipation and buy in.  
• There will be predictability with daily scheduling but there will be variability between lessons and you may adjust your schedule seasonally. If we do things the same way all day engagement will drop off (hint: being talked at for long periods of time in the classroom is exhausting and encourages tuning out). 
• If something is a less popular subject then schedule it between two other more popular subjects or parts of the classroom programme e.g. if there is a general reluctance with math and written language don't schedule them immediately one after the other.  
• Stop regularly to allow people to move, shift focus, stretch, ask questions or talk. (Click here for some reasons to consider more action in your classroom) 
• If something isn't working then consider changing it, do something new or different, find another way. You could trial different things to see if they work, like pilot programmes.  

We want our students to tune in, buy in and engage just like a TV station wants their viewers to do, the big difference of course is that we don't want our students to be passive 'viewers' of the learning but active participants whose opinions, interests and needs do matter. And to finish here's a really bold thought, what would it look like if every student had their own schedule designed with them in mind? Just an idea...  

So, how do you get your students to tune in to the learning offered in your school or your classroom? 

By the way, please excuse the spelling for some folk out there, I come from New Zealand :)

Why we need space for mindfulness in our schools

A friend recently shared a news report about a school community debating the teaching of mindfulness in the school, some thought it was a great idea whilst others did not want it shared with their children.

It was a fascinating piece to read.

I think perhaps there was a little of the fear of the unknown playing in the minds of some so perhaps there was room for further explanation and sharing of research to support the adopting of the practice. Who knows and it's not my place to be debating the rights and wrongs of that particular school issue but it did get me thinking about mindfulness in our schools and if there is a place.

Photo sourced from:
 http://sustainable.org.nz/sustainable-business-news/your-mind-at-work-is-mindfulness-good-for-business#.VCk1ifmSwyk

For me mindfulness is about being aware of our own thinking and bringing ourselves into the present moment so we can fully engage in what is happening right now rather than worrying over what has happened or might happen.

I am no expert in the field at all but I thought I would share some ideas that I have from my perspective as a parent and teacher. I have been thinking about why mindfulness is an important habit for our children to learn and then about how we could create opportunities for developing and practicing mindfulness in our busy school days.

Why focus on mindfulness in our schools? 

If our children are able to calm their minds and be 'in the moment' as it were then I see that it could lead to some positive outcomes such as:

• better stress management
• students could be better able to identify where they are having a difficulty and generate possible solutions or seek help in a timely fashion 
• improved concentration through avoiding distractions 
• encouraging better self management enabling students to respond rather than react to conflict or negative situations 
• more harmonious playground activity 
• enabling the teachers to concentrate on learning opportunities rather than behaviour management in the classroom meaning everyone gets a better deal

And the potential good news is not only for our children, their mental wellbeing and their learning... it has the potential to help teachers too! If we practice mindfulness with our students we could enhance our own health and wellbeing at the same time as creating a healthier, more harmonious working environment for our students, colleagues and families. There is a lot of evidence to support mental health benefits for adults with mindfulness. 

It is great to see some research being done in the field of mindfulness in education to support the practice and offer a road map for future progress in schools. Check out this link for one useful paper about the process written by Grant Rix  from NZ Mental Health Foundation with a focus on the NZ context. 

How to encourage mindfulness in our schools? 

There are a whole range of techniques that I believe could be used to enhance mindfulness, many of which are about calming down the chatter inside our minds. 

Here are a few that I have used in my own classrooms or for my own wellbeing, some of these may work better than others and I would be interested in your feedback: 

• breathing techniques- deep diaphragmatic breaths to calm the mind. I have used this with children who have anger control issues... when something happens and you feel angry before you do anything else move away and do 10 deep breaths where you focus on breathing in and out slowly then come and see someone. For more about breathing click here 
• relaxation- a mentor from my teachers college days took us through a muscle relaxation exercise which I know still helps me to relax my body and mind at times. Basically you lie on your back and systematically tense different parts of your body then release them starting from your toes and working your way up the body (so you scrunch your toes up tight and then release, do this two or three times then move into tensing up your feet and up the body). The focus is on feeling the tension release when you let go. 
• visualisation- when I have dozens of things spinning around in my head I sometimes need to stop, accept them then let them go and I have found visualisation really helpful. There are several that I use and have used with children as well, here are a couple. Imagine you have walked through a forest and you come to a deep clear pool in a clearing, it is warm and safe, around the pool are big round stones, as you pick each one up imagine something that is worrying you and write it on the stone, then let the stone drop into the water, watch it float to the bottom, you can pick that worry up any time you want but for now it can stay there. Another one is walking down a hallway with lots of doors and putting my worries or concerns into each door and shutting it before going through the end door where the room is empty. There is also the balloon idea, which can be done physically as well as in your mind, imagine blowing up a balloon, each breath you put in something that is worrying you, when it is full, tie it off and let it go, watch it float up into the air and away. 
• being grateful- I know that this seems to be creating more to think about but every so often, stopping and working out what I am grateful for right now helps to even things out and bring me back to reality when I am getting bogged down with negative thoughts.  
• having down time- if we are always moving from thing to thing to thing without finishing something off or having down time then there is no space for mindfulness... and it is stressful for our learners. We need to be able to wrap something up before shifting to the next thing. I do think that integrated learning helps create flow and seemlessness which makes the shifts and changes throughout the day more organic. I also think summarising our learning, reflecting on it if possible, before we move on can help create that space as well. 
• juggling- giving your brain a repetitive task that takes your focus and attention to complete helps to quieten the extraneous noise as well. I taught one class to juggle at the start of the year and they did really well, it was amazing how focused some students became. It works with other tasks like knitting. I found earlier this year making a pom pom with my little boy incredibly calming. It is about being present with that task however, rather than multitasking... in fact it can be an opportunity to practice letting thoughts come and go whilst staying focused on the task at hand. 
• yoga- in one class we would do 10 minutes of yoga every school morning before getting into
  
  maths, I used a children's book of yoga positions (Isabelle Koch- like a fish in water) and we would do 4 or 5 positions most days sometimes with music sometimes without. It was amazing the calmness that would descend over our classroom, for myself and the class. The focus was on breathing and moving slowly.  
• focus on our senses- mindful eating is one suggestion that comes up often, it is focusing on the whole experience of eating our food, smell, see, taste and even touch. When you go for a walk outside focusing on what you can see that you might not have seen before or what you can see, hear, smell right now can be helpful, it is all about bringing your attention to what is happening in the here and now. It amazes me with what my little boy notices when we are out and about that I haven't spotted. 

As an aside: I do wonder if when we start 'educating' children that we inadvertently unlearn their natural sense of mindfulness, if perhaps we create more internal 'chatter' or bring in more distractions (think about our classroom spaces for example, are they visually noisy?). Do we often demand that they focus on what we are wanting them to right now when they are actually fully engaged in something else? Might it be best for our children to adopt a mindful pace? This education isn't only what happens in classrooms either.

There is much to consider. I guess in my way of thinking I wish this wasn't something I had needed to learn (or perhaps relearn) as an adult and perhaps having opportunities for our children to practice mindfulness in our schools will help us all.

Links:

• http://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/newsletters/view/article/27/407/2012/ 
• http://teach-learn-lead.blogspot.com/2014/05/sing-your-song.html
• http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/like-a-fish-in-water-isabelle-koch/1112144111?ean=9780892817733
• http://teach-learn-lead.blogspot.com/2014/08/stimulating-or-visually-noisy-does-what.html

Why teach writing in school?

Why do we teach writing in school? I've been thinking about this recently so tonight I am sharing some of my ponderings. At the same time it makes me wonder how often we really question why we teach what we teach every day but let's stick with the writing for now.

There are a lot of reasons we might teach writing, here are a few to start with: 

• to learn one way to develop, organise and/or clarify our thoughts
• to communicate with others
• to share our learning 
• to be able to actively participate in society... to have a voice
• to broaden our opportunities in the future 
• to show evidence of our learning 
• to exercise our creativity
• (to quote 'Mr Keating' from Dead Poets Society, to woo women?!?) 

It would appear that there are many good reasons for learning how to write which is great news, this gives us a huge range of options to create authentic purposes for writing. Authentic is the key word here. As adults, generally speaking, when we are writing we are doing it for a purpose and an audience. In classrooms it would seem to be more often an academic exercise and I am not sure that it needs to be. 

Let's think about some of what we may write in the world outside school and the audiences we might be thinking of as we write: 

• A shopping list- for ourselves or a person who is doing the shopping for us 
• An application- for a future employer perhaps 
• A book- for a particular demographic 
• A blog entry- for a particular demographic or mainly for yourself to clarify your thoughts
• A diary entry- for yourself, or for a family member in the future to read 
• A professional reflection- for yourself to improve your practice and/or an appraiser or critical friend 
• An email/letter- for the person you are writing to, perhaps a friend 
• A facebook post- for your friends or something for the general public 
• A report- for your employers, a stakeholder in a business, members of a community group/committee  

So in our classrooms if we are asking the children to write about a given topic for us, the teacher, is that modelling what writing is really about? I know we need to help our children to improve their writing to enable them to communicate more effectively (in writing) but the challenge is doing this in a meaningful way. We, their teachers, are not their only audience. 

As I said I have been thinking about this and here are some ideas that I came up with about possible contexts and audiences for our students, clearly it is just a start: 

• Writing to a local member of parliament about a community issue we are concerned about 
• Writing an application to take on a role in the classroom or school (perhaps a leadership role?) 
• Blogging for themselves or to share with friends/family members showing what they are learning about at school or in a particular project 
• Diary writing for themselves (I remember at a course many years ago hearing this advice to offer to students about free diary writing at school [may have been from Kelvin Smythe?]- just don't write anything you wouldn't want your parent/caregivers to read if they were to pick up the book) 
• Writing to the school board about an issue around the school or an idea to improve the school 
• Writing a story for another class in the school, or for school children overseas where they may have limited access to books and resources for learning to read 
• Reflecting on their own learning, what is going well, what they are working on- this could be for the teacher, for themselves, for parents/caregivers
• Writing for a school newsletter/newspaper/website to share what is happening in the school with the community 
• Writing a plan for a project- either for yourself or recording for a group of peers (it could be a shared document like a google doc) 
• Taking notes for yourself on a particular topic that you are learning about

Sometimes the context comes from other learning, such as a response to a drama we are engaged in where we may write 'in role'. We may feel compelled to record our thoughts in response to a text we have read or an issue we have been learning about. The opportunities are endless, and when our children notice these for themselves then perhaps we are on the right track to creating real writers.

A note about spelling and neatness before I close. When we write something for ourselves we need to be able to read it, so it needs to be legible and we need to understand it. However if we are writing for someone else we need to practice some empathy and understand that making it clear and easy to read is really important, we have conventions such as spelling to support this ease of reading. In my opinion spelling and neatness is about understanding context and audience. 

Context and audience are important considerations to create authentic learning opportunities and whilst we may see learning to write as an essential skill, having a good reason to do so is no less important. In fact, I'd argue that it is almost vital... when we have a good reason, we are far more likely to be motivated to participate in the learning and that is when the magic happens.   

This is a letter my three year old wrote to his nana when she was overseas... authentic contexts are everywhere

Fidgets and wrigglers in the classroom

A number of years ago I attended a Teachers Matter conference where I heard Dr Rich Allen speaking. During Dr Rich Allen's presentation he stated the following "If the bum is numb the brain is the same". This little statement has stuck with me and I have quoted it numerous times in the years since.

Last night I was having a read of various things and an article about the Real Reason Why Children Fidget caught my eye and it seemed to fit with that little statement from Rich Allen

The article suggests that many of our children are not moving as much as they used to or need to and this is impacting on their learning and even the development of their balance and core strength. I think some of the following school based and lifestyle factors contribute to this area of concern:

• in many education systems we take young children (5 and 6 year olds but sometimes younger) and set them up in classrooms where they are expected to sit for significant periods of time, often listening and concentrating... that is hard work for the brain 
• we know that developing gross and fine motor skills supports development in reading and writing and yet we often expect them to learn to read when perhaps physically they are not ready to do so 
• physical movement increases oxygen supply to the brain which aids concentration and eases weariness and yet in our curriculum overloaded days physical education and opportunities for movement are scheduled into specific time slots which lacks the flexibility to fit with the needs of our learners
• the school day is long, it is divided into periods of concentrated work with usually 2-3 breaks during the day for self directed movement but not all children choose to be active in those break times either  
• after school many children have homework which is again sitting down and often reading and writing based 
• after school many children are coming home to sit down and watch TV or play with/use other digital devices that involve little varied movement 
• through heightened health and safety measures children are not having the same opportunities to climb trees and take other 'responsible' physical risks where they get to develop balance and core strength in natural play 

So let's go back to Rich Allen's statement. If children have gotten to the stage that they are fidgeting then perhaps as teachers we need to consider that this is a signal that learning is being impacted and we need to change tack for a moment. I used to do a lot of observations of teaching and one thing I did as a norm was to sit on the mat with the children, one reason being it helped me identify how long was too long and pass that feedback on to the teachers I was observing. As teachers we are often sitting on more comfortable chairs or moving around more than our students as we stand to explain something or walk around engaging with different children while they sit at their desks working so we may not truly appreciate just how long our students have actually been sitting. It is worth considering. I know I get really uncomfortable when I have to sit for too long and when I am thinking about how uncomfortable I am, I am not concentrating on what someone else is saying to me! 

There are many ways to address this, some easier than others to be sure, and here is a small list for a starter (I am sure that you will have a whole heap to add and would be keen to hear ): 

• have regular brain breaks or energisers within your day, a quick one I used with some of my classes was calling out two body parts and we had to get them to touch i.e. knee and nose, elbow and hip, ankle and elbow, toe and nose etc... this often involved us moving and stretching our bodies in all sorts of shapes to try and make it work! Another one was balancing on different body parts i.e. bottom and 2 elbows, 1 knee and 1 elbow, 1 foot and 1 knee etc. 
• if you see some children getting edgy and fidgety do a quick energiser to shake it off, get the blood moving and then get back into it 
• when doing partner chats or think/pair/share why not encourage the children to stand 
• allow the children to lie down to hear a story 
• when doing fitness or physical education think of encouraging movement in lots of different way like rolling and swinging and hanging upside down as well as balancing
• think about how we teach, are there different ways we could help the children engage with the topic of learning that isn't based on sitting and listening, reading or writing? That is not to say that literacy isn't important, I am just suggesting that we explore different ways of working. Even walking around and reading could help or writing spelling words with different parts of your body might be a useful alternative  (and movement can support memory as an aside) 
• I used to do a short yoga session with one class I had every morning before we did maths, I think it made the maths sessions calmer for us all, I know it helped me anyway 
• stand, stretch and shake regularly 
• and here's a wee tip from Karen Boyes that works to support those children then really need to move a little bit... give them a piece of bluetak to have in their hands and fiddle with, I used this recently for a couple of little gentlemen and it seemed to work in terms of reducing distracting behaviour for other students 

A good friend was sharing some of her learning with me recently and commented that one of the key things she took from a recent course was that 'all behaviour is communication', it's another favourite statement to share. If fidgeting is behaviour then as teachers I would suggest we need to consider what it may be communicating and if there is something we could do about it that could help our children to get more out of the learning opportunities they have.