Shoulda' Woulda' Coulda'

I was in a grade 3 classroom on Friday and it was another cold day with a forecast of possible snow.  The school is located near Windsor Ontario which is about as far south as you can go in Canada  so we don't always have cold snowy weather in December.  The announcements were ending with a note about plans in case of indoor recess and the student who was sitting next to me said very matter-of-factly, "If it's going to be an indoor recess we need to go to the gym so we can burn off all this energy."

And I was making so many connections to what we had been learning about in the Self-Regulation course through the MEHRIT centre.  The five steps of self-reg are:
1. Read and reframe behaviour - is it stress behaviour?
2. Recognize the stressors
3. Reduce the stressors
4. Reflect (develop self-awareness)
5. Respond

This eight year old was doing so much self-reg work.  She realized that if the students were a bit squirrelly later on in the day it was because they'd been cooped up and hadn't been outside to play - stress behaviour not misbehaviour.  She recognized that lack of outdoor time as a stressor and she had some strategies for reducing the stress (going to the gym).

But here's the thing, announcements were over and everyone returned to their bell work and the day got started, and in hindsight, I feel like I really missed out on an opportunity to reflect with and respond to this student.

Dr. Shanker reassures us that self-regulation is a process of endless learning and deepening self-awareness.  I hope that next time an opportunity like this one occurs, I'll be able to not only recognize the self-reg that the student is demonstrating but be able to respond in a more meaningful way.

On that note, they were able to go outside but I think about indoor recess as a good example of a context for developing self-regulation and the idea of micro-environments.  How do we provide safe, engaging opportunities for students who need to burn off energy?  How do we provide safe environments for students who need time away from the social context of the classroom?  Can we have students moved to mixed age groupings so they aren't in the same room with the same people, especially when indoor recesses go on for several days in a row?

Below are some ideas I've seen used.  Feel free to share some of yours:

• particular classrooms host 'bingo' for primary, junior or intermediate students so students can be in mixed groups and out of their own classroom
• math manipulatives available for independent exploration
• reading
• library open for quiet reading for those students who need a quiet environment
• computers and iPads available for student use
• some centres set up in the hallways to reduce the number of students in class and provide a change of setting
• board games
• physical activity centres in the gym or classroom
• yoga mats for students to do stretching in the hallway or at the back of the classroom
• art materials available for student exploration
• healthy snacks

From Dr. David Suzuki PS

Self-regulation as Classroom Culture

 When I first began teaching kindergarten, I had little teddy bear cut outs at each centre to indicate the number of children who could play there.  For example, there were three chairs at the play doh table so there were three bear cut outs and three children could play there.  There were four chairs in the house centre so four bears, etc.  This is what I had been taught during my ECE training.

And what quickly happened is that I and the children spent our time policing how many children were in each centre.  "Miss, there's five people in the house centre. He came last, he has to go!'  "But she's had a long turn...." and so on and so on. 

So, my ECE partner and I decided to get rid of the teddy bears and get rid of the limits on how many children could play in each centre.  And the culture in the room shifted!!!!!!  We could focus on engaging with the children in play, and the children learned to determine what the limits were at each centre.  Sometimes a child would pull a chair from our make and take centre over to the play doh table and we might have four or five chidlren there.  On their own, they decided when there were so many people that the play doh was divided into such small portions that they couldn't really play effectively.

A few years ago I was visiting a kindergarten classroom and the teaching team had introduced a hardware store to the dramatic play centre with predrilled lumber, screwdrivers, screws and other materials.  As soon as whole group time on the carpet was done, about twenty students descended on the very small dramatic play centre.  We waited and in a few moments .... 6 or 7 students dragged some of the lumber and materials over to the tables to work on them there, about 8 children stayed in the drama centre and continued to explore and the rest wandered off to other centres.  They were able to decide if they felt playing in the house centre was worth the stress of negotiating space and materials or if they would rather wait and play there later.  All of this happened in mere moments and required no teacher intervention.

The Ontario Kindergarten Program document reminds us that children are capable and competent learners, full of potential and ready to take ownership of their learning. The classroom environment needs to reflect our belief that children are competent and capable. What limits do we really need to have in our classroom and which ones are purely arbitrary?

Here's a great article by Carol Anne Wien about teachers in a preschool centre in Ontario who found that eliminating many rules and reorganizing the physical space reduces accidents, noise, aggressive play and reduced teacher stress. This was originally published in the NAEYC's journal Young Children in January 2004.

Deanna Pecaski McLennan shares a post on her blog about how the Flow of the Day in her kindergarten classroom allows students to deepen their learning through large blocks of time.

Standing Desks and Other Classroom Micro-environments

I stumbled across these Standing Desk Hacks while wandering on Twitter the other day (be sure to scroll down once you open the link to see all of them).  I immediately made a connection to the self-regulation idea of micro-environments, or creating small spaces within the large spaces of our indoor and outdoor learning classrooms where students can go to up regulate or down regulate.

But as I went back and looked again at the Twitter images, I realized that none of them seemed to involve children or to be situated in an elementary school context.  I wonder how often we discourage children from creating these standing desks or other micro-environments even though their behaviour is clearly communicating to us that the current environment is a stressor for them.  As students burn energy trying to stay seated, they have less energy for learning.

Last week I was in a grade three classroom, working with a group of 6 students as they learned a new math game called Blokus  (It is a fun spatial awareness strategy game.  If you haven't played it yet, you should try it. It is so much fun! ) Each student had a partner and they had a colour of tile, and then I had the yellow tiles on my own. While we were playing some students were seated, some were standing, and all were able to learn.  If I had been worried about making sure everyone was sitting down, some of them wouldn't have been able to focus on the math and that's what was really important.  And really, how awesome is it that they are so excited about a math game that they can't sit still!!!!

Playing Blokus - some students standing, some sitting, everyone engaged!
Photo by Sherry Doherty (Twitter @sherrysws)

Having said that, one student was still having difficulty even while he was standing - he was banging his metal water bottle, he was singing, he was bumping into the desks. After a few attempts at redirection, I finally had to say to him, "Adam*, you need to go sit on the carpet for a couple of minutes until you can join us at the game without distracting me so much."  He went to the carpet and sat quietly while we continued to play, then after a minute announced, "I'm ready to come back."
(*name changed)

"OK Adam, but this game requires us to concentrate.  You have to make sure you're not too distracting."

He stood through the game for the whole period, and he still needed to move around a lot, but he was able to do it in a way that wasn't bumping the desks and threatening to send the game board to the floor and he wasn't disturbing the students who needed a quieter environment to concentrate and strategize.

Ideally, I wish I had taken more time to talk through the steps of self-reg with Adam and to debrief with him afterwards about his strategies that the used; that will be my goal for next time.  But, for now, I was able to recognize the behaviour as stress behaviour not misbehaviour and he was able to find strategies to successfully be part of the group.  I'll count that as a success.

From www.self-reg.ca

Classroom Environments that Promote Self-regulation

As part of the course I'm taking through the MEHRIT centre, we were given the choice on how we wanted to do our latest reflection.  Inspired by Susan Hopkins, I created this video to showcase some of the ways that teachers in our board are using the classroom environment to promote students' development of self-regulation.  In a nutshell, self-regulation is the ability to monitor your own energy level - are you hyperaroused? hypoaroused? or calm, alert and ready to learn?  and then either up regulate or down regulate as needed.

Kindergarten classrooms can be noisy, busy environments but you can see in these photos how educators have created calm, soothing spaces for children.  Reducing stress allows students to reach that calm state necessary for learning.  I was in a rush when I created this video since our reflection was due that day, so I didn't add the photo credits.  I've listed them at the bottom of this blog post.

For more information about self-regulation:

The MEHRIT Centre

Understanding Self-Regulation: Why stressed students struggle to learn

For an example of one of Susan's video blogs:
Is this Self-Reg?  5 Misconceptions about Self-Reg in Schools

My Classroom Environment Reflection video:

Photo credits:

Slide 3 & 4: Ontario Ministry of Education presentation

Slide 5: right: https://www.pinterest.com/explore/infant-room/

Slide 7 & 9: http://mrsmclennan.blogspot.ca

Slide 10 & 11 (right): http://joannepizzutoatgecdsbonca.blogspot.ca

All other images: Google Image search

Let Me Teach Like The First Snow Falling

I posted this last year when I first start blogging. Very few people read it then, so I've revised and am reposting. 


This week we finally got our first snowfall of the season!  It wasn't much - just a light dusting, but it was still exciting. Whenever we get the first snowfall, I always am reminded of one of my favourite poems by Taylor Mali:

Undivided Attention

A grand piano wrapped in quilted pads by movers,
tied up with canvas straps—like classical music’s
birthday gift to the criminally insane—
is gently nudged without its legs
out an eighth‐floor window on 62nd street.

It dangles in April air from the neck of the movers’ crane,

Chopin-­‐shiny black lacquer squares

and dirty white crisscross patterns hanging like the second‐to­‐last

note of a concerto played on the edge of the seat,

the edge of tears, the edge of eight stories up going over—

it’s a piano being pushed out of a window

and lowered down onto a flatbed truck!—and

I’m trying to teach math in the building across the street.

Who can teach when there are such lessons to be learned?

All the greatest common factors are delivered by

long‐necked cranes and flatbed trucks

or come through everything, even air.

Like snow.

See, snow falls for the first time every year, and every year

my students rush to the window

as if snow were more interesting than math,

which, of course, it is.

So please.

Let me teach like a Steinway,

spinning slowly in April air,

so almost-­‐falling, so hinderingly

dangling from the neck of the movers’ crane.

So on the edge of losing everything.

Let me teach like the first snow, falling.

Mali. Taylor. “Undivided Attention.” What Learning Leaves. Newtown, CT: Hanover Press, 2002. Print. (ISBN: 1-­‐887012-­‐17-­‐6)

When I began my work as a curriculum consultant more than ten years ago, most of our professional development took place at the board office or a catering hall.  Teachers would leave their schools, come to a workshop, then return to their schools and be expected to implement whatever strategies had been 'covered' at the session.  As consultants, we were expected to have expertise in our area and to share our expertise with teachers, administrators, trustees and parents.

Since that time there has been a dramatic shift in how we support educators in their professional learning and much of our work is done at the school using a model of collaborative inquiry where the teachers and consultants engage as co-learners in action research based student learning.

This model of collaborative inquiry has pushed consultants and instructional coaches into uncomfortable territory at times.  No longer can we show up with our powerpoint and handouts and our agenda.  Instead, the learning is driven by the observations and analysis of what students are saying and doing and how they are representing their thinking.  There are times when I feel very much like I am 'so almost falling' and on the edge of losing everything, yet it is also exciting and invigorating.  Engaging as a co-learner has allowed us to build relationships in a completely different way.  There is still a time and place for a more directed presentation style workshop, but our work will never be the same, and that's a good thing!

More information on teaching through collaborative inquiry:

Collaborative Inquiry in Ontario 

Collaborative Inquiry for Educators
    Follow the author on twitter @Jenni_Donohoo

Journal of Staff Development, June 2016

More information on teaching through poetry:

All About Alliteration: Responding to Literature Through A Poetry Link

Cold Plums and the Old Men: Let Children Read and Write Great Poetry

Lonely As A Cloud: Using Poetry to Understand Similes

Poetry: A powerful medium for literacy and technology

A YouTube video of Taylor Mali reading Undivided Attention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1MHVqAWGmI

(outdoors.org)