Many staff members from St. Theresa School recently had an opportunity to attend a conference led by Stuart Shanker, author of Calm, Alert and Learning and of Self-Reg. Self-regulation issues and challenges seem to be at the forefront of many discussions in the field of education. Discussions abound with respect to anxiety in younger and younger children, the number of children with diagnosed ADHD, aggressive and violent behaviours in our schools, along with a host of other challenges that are likely present in every classroom. Why does it seem that more and more of our children are experiencing difficulty in the realm of self-regulation?
Dr. Shanker, during his recent visit to the Ottawa Catholic School Board, told the audience that the current generation of children is a generation that has likely never truly experienced calm. He expanded upon that statement by explaining the "Triune Brain" and how areas of the brain the need to be shut down or turned off are remaining active, thereby creating ongoing drains on energy ultimately leading to challenges with self-regulation. Dr. Shanker spent some time speaking about the impact that screen time, and particularly violent video games, are having, in particular, on the limbic systems of our children. He spoke of studies that have been done of many different violent games (including Minecraft), all based on the premise of predator and prey. The limbic system of the brain does not know that the video game is a game and therefore becomes activated as it believes that there is a real and present danger. Dr. Shanker stated that the limbic system can remain activated from four to six hours after a child has played a video game and that although a child might go to sleep, the brain is not completely at rest as the limbic system remains on alert for the danger. The sleep that the child is getting, therefore, is not a restorative sleep leading to low energy and difficulty coping when faced with stressors, many of which are part of everyday life...like being asked to do a chore, being corrected by a teacher, having a conflict with a peer during recess, etc.
Should we be concerned about the screen time that our children are exposed to? The simple answer is yes. Studies with respect to self-regulation, mental health, obesity and physical health all indicate that screen time, if not closely supervised by adults, can have detrimental effects on our children. Please visit the following two articles for more information about the impacts of screen time and violent video games on the capacity to self-regulate.
Screen time is making kids moody
The Self-Reg view of violent video games
Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Friday, 28 October 2016
Learning about our responsibility to others
On October 26, St. Theresa grade six students and students in the Me to We Club made sandwiches for the Shepherds of Good Hope. We began our day by looking at an image of the "Homeless Jesus" statue.
We talked about how everyone in our world should be looked upon as the face of God. We talked about how our sandwiches could be the only food that a person without a home might have for that day. Mrs. Hopkins encouraged us to make the sandwiches with care because the sandwich might also be the best part of the person's day. In order to make the sandwiches, every students was asked to bring in bread, meat and cheese. We all had to make 10 sandwiches. We made 750 sandwiches which is almost enough to give each person visiting the Shepherds of Good Hope one sandwich for one day. Making sandwiches really made us feel like we were being helpful and that we could be bright lights in someone else's day. Below you will see pictures of our group making sandwiches and delivering the sandwiches to the Shepherds of Good Hope truck.
Blog Post by Anthony Bathurst and Amy MacDonald
Sunday, 23 October 2016
Progress Reports
The progress report card will go home very shortly. Receiving a report card can be quite anxiety inducing for both children and their parents. How can we work with our children to have them understand that the any report card is a measure of what they are able to do at a specific moment in time and not a permanent evaluation of their capabilities? How can we, as parents, help our children to understand that it is OK not to be perfect in every aspect of the report card? The work of Carol Dweck on Mindset (see previous blog post on mindset) teaches us a lot about how to approach many things, including receiving a grade on a report card. The fixed mindset will react to the report card in a way that will lay blame for why a specific grade has been achieved. The fixed mindset will seek to fault the teacher or some other external factor for the grade that has been given. The growth mindset will understand that the student has not YET learned to do a specific thing or must continue to work on practicing skills in order to improve.
It is SO VERY important for our children to understand that learning is a process and a continuum. When a teacher indicates, either through a grade or a comment, that a child needs to work on specific aspects of the curriculum or learning skills, it is because they are continuing to learn.
Here are a few tips on using the report card as a catalyst to further learning.
1. Focus on the comments that are given as they will usually provide next steps and clarify why a child has received a given grade or evaluation.
2. Ask your child to explain what the next steps mean and how these next steps will help them to continue learning.
3. Praise your child's efforts, particularly if there have been improvements since the previous report card.
4. Avoid praising intelligence. Continually telling a child that he/she is smart invites a fixed mindset and often makes a child averse to taking risks and learning for fear of not being seen as smart.
5. Remember that your child's teacher assesses your child against benchmark standards based on professional judgement and based on the learning of other children of the same age level in the same grade. If your child receives a C or a N(needs improvement) or an S(satisfactory), it means that there is need for growth and learning. This is where you should begin the learning conversation with your child....making it about how to continue to learn and grow as opposed to being focused on the letter grade or letter comment.
It is SO VERY important for our children to understand that learning is a process and a continuum. When a teacher indicates, either through a grade or a comment, that a child needs to work on specific aspects of the curriculum or learning skills, it is because they are continuing to learn.
Here are a few tips on using the report card as a catalyst to further learning.
1. Focus on the comments that are given as they will usually provide next steps and clarify why a child has received a given grade or evaluation.
2. Ask your child to explain what the next steps mean and how these next steps will help them to continue learning.
3. Praise your child's efforts, particularly if there have been improvements since the previous report card.
4. Avoid praising intelligence. Continually telling a child that he/she is smart invites a fixed mindset and often makes a child averse to taking risks and learning for fear of not being seen as smart.
5. Remember that your child's teacher assesses your child against benchmark standards based on professional judgement and based on the learning of other children of the same age level in the same grade. If your child receives a C or a N(needs improvement) or an S(satisfactory), it means that there is need for growth and learning. This is where you should begin the learning conversation with your child....making it about how to continue to learn and grow as opposed to being focused on the letter grade or letter comment.
Monday, 10 October 2016
An educational partnership
This cartoon regularly makes its way around educational circles. It depicts a pendulum that seems to have swung from one extreme to the other. Neither of these two depict a healthy approach to learning. Learning needs to be a partnership between a child, his/her teacher and the child's parents. Neither of these two images represents a partnership, both represent power, influence, misplaced responsibility and blame. Both represent a win-lose situation. In the first, the teacher is the winner as the child is blamed for lack of success. In the second, the child is the winner as his parents blame the teacher for the lack of success. Neither represents a healthy approach to learning.
It is the year 2016 and learning is about so much more than the grade that a child receives on a test, assignment or report card. School is about so much more than delivering specific content expectations and then measuring the success of each student. The job that we have as parents and teachers is awesome and at times overwhelming because we are charged with the responsibility of preparing our children for a future that we cannot really define. Success will be defined by the degree to which our children can be:
- creative,
- global citizens,
- effective collaborators,
- effective communicators,
- of good character
- critical thinkers.
It is time to change the cartoon above to reflect the current practices and realities of our schools, empowered learners who know exactly why a specific assessment result was obtained and who know exactly what they need to work on for improvement.
Parents play an important role in the partnership and can greatly assist by developing an understanding of their children as learners. For some great questions to assist in establishing communication focused on learning for your child, visit the link below.
19 Meaningful Questions to Ask Your Child's Teacher (This is an American site therefore some of the information might not be relevant to the Ontario education system)
Wednesday, 28 September 2016
Resilience - You can't always get what you want.
The school year has begun in earnest and the learning is well under way. The more deeply we delve into various learning and social opportunities, the more likely it is that your child will experience occasions where things do not go as they had hoped, wished or wanted. Learning to deal with disappointment is a necessary skill for all human beings because in life we know that there are many times when we do not get what we want. The song by the Rolling Stones, "You Can't Always Get What You Want", captures the essence of some of the difficult experiences that we all have in life. As parents and teachers we must help our children understand that sometimes despite how hard we try, how good we are at something, or how much we want something to happen, things do not go as we planned. In those situations, the modelling that we do as adults for our children will either enhance resiliency skills or increase dependency on adults to make things right.
One of the very important lessons that we must impart to our children is that fair and equal are not one and the same. When we make decisions as parents and as teachers, there are a whole host of factors that come into play. For example, in selecting students to participate on sports team, physical skill and expertise are not the only things that are taken into consideration. Teachers and coaches look at the whole child and each individual child to determine whose needs would be best met by being selected for a team. A child who does not possess a great deal of skill or expertise in a paticular sport might be selected over a student who is engaged competitively in the sport outside of school. Reasons for the selection might range from the manner in which the student approaches collaborating with team members, whether or not the student has access to organized sports of any kind outside of school, the number of times a student has been selected in the past, along with a host of other reasons. The same decision making process happens in all aspects of our classroms, including how groups are selected for learning opportunities, which additional activities and responsibilities will be offered to students, what learning activities are offered to students, etc.
It is very difficult for children to understand why someone might appear to get something he/she did not have access to. It is also very difficult for children to understand why it looks like some students are getting special treatement or consideration. As adults we must help our children understand that there are many things that go into a decision that is made and often the explanation of those reasons cannot be shared because it involves the learning and social profile of another person. Will this alleviate the feeling of disappointment or even rejection? Probably not. So what can we do, as adults to help our children understand that fair and equal are not necessarily the same and that sometimes disappointment will happen?
1. Talk to your children and affirm the feelings that they are having. Let them know that you understand how they feel and that it is OK to feel disappointed.
2. Encourage your children to keep trying. It is very easy to give up when first not selected or when a disappointment occurs. Resiliency is trying again and working hard to acheive a goal.
3. Encourage your children to speak to the teacher or the coach asking for an explanation, particularly one that is rooted in growth mindset...meaning asking what the student could have done better or needs to work on,
4. Avoid immediately reacting to your child's distress by tyring to make it right. It is natural for us to want to remove the hurt an disappointment from our children but fixing the problem for them instead of helping them work through it can be detrimental to the development of resilency skills.
5. Model for your children how to navigate disappointment. They watch us constantly and they learn from us.
For further reading on children and disappointment, please click the link below:
How to Help Children Deal with Disappointment
One of the very important lessons that we must impart to our children is that fair and equal are not one and the same. When we make decisions as parents and as teachers, there are a whole host of factors that come into play. For example, in selecting students to participate on sports team, physical skill and expertise are not the only things that are taken into consideration. Teachers and coaches look at the whole child and each individual child to determine whose needs would be best met by being selected for a team. A child who does not possess a great deal of skill or expertise in a paticular sport might be selected over a student who is engaged competitively in the sport outside of school. Reasons for the selection might range from the manner in which the student approaches collaborating with team members, whether or not the student has access to organized sports of any kind outside of school, the number of times a student has been selected in the past, along with a host of other reasons. The same decision making process happens in all aspects of our classroms, including how groups are selected for learning opportunities, which additional activities and responsibilities will be offered to students, what learning activities are offered to students, etc.
It is very difficult for children to understand why someone might appear to get something he/she did not have access to. It is also very difficult for children to understand why it looks like some students are getting special treatement or consideration. As adults we must help our children understand that there are many things that go into a decision that is made and often the explanation of those reasons cannot be shared because it involves the learning and social profile of another person. Will this alleviate the feeling of disappointment or even rejection? Probably not. So what can we do, as adults to help our children understand that fair and equal are not necessarily the same and that sometimes disappointment will happen?
1. Talk to your children and affirm the feelings that they are having. Let them know that you understand how they feel and that it is OK to feel disappointed.
2. Encourage your children to keep trying. It is very easy to give up when first not selected or when a disappointment occurs. Resiliency is trying again and working hard to acheive a goal.
3. Encourage your children to speak to the teacher or the coach asking for an explanation, particularly one that is rooted in growth mindset...meaning asking what the student could have done better or needs to work on,
4. Avoid immediately reacting to your child's distress by tyring to make it right. It is natural for us to want to remove the hurt an disappointment from our children but fixing the problem for them instead of helping them work through it can be detrimental to the development of resilency skills.
5. Model for your children how to navigate disappointment. They watch us constantly and they learn from us.
For further reading on children and disappointment, please click the link below:
How to Help Children Deal with Disappointment
Sunday, 18 September 2016
Mindset ... The Power of Yet
What is the power of yet? It is the main characteristic of growth mindset. It tells us that if we do not currently understand how to do something or find something challenging, we do not give up, instead we understand that we do not know how to do it YET. In our classrooms we see examples of growth mindset and fixed mindset each day. Students who demonstrate a growth mindset have much greater learning potential than a student demonstrating fixed mindset. The student demonstrating a growth mindset does not flee in the face of challenge. Although something might be challenging, and even frustrating, the student with the growth mindset will persevere and use known strategies to further develop neural pathways, thereby creating new strategies. The student with the growth mindset understands that making mistakes is part of the learning process and is, in fact, essential in order to learn. This applies to all aspects of life, not just academic progress. The student with the fixed mindset believes that he/she should be able to solve all problems immediately without struggle. If something proves to be challenging, the student with the fixed mindset tends to shut down, to assume that he/she is not smart enough. As such, challenges are avoided and often the student will use distractions to draw attention away from the fear of failure that is present. In our classrooms, this often comes out as behaviour or blame.
How can we help our children understand that learning is messy and that it is completely normal to make mistakes in the process of learning? What can we do as adults? Dr. Carol Dweck, author and researcher in the area of mindset, offers many different strategies. A major one that is easy to implement is to look at the way in which we praise our children. Are we telling them each time they do something right or well that they are smart? Or when they do something well or master something are we praising them for using great strategies, for sticking with it or for the effort that led them to a great result? The first manner of praise is a fixed mindset. A child who hears continuously how smart he or she is will eventually be afraid to try something new because he/she will be afraid to fail. The child who is praised for effort will understand that it is hard work and perseverance that leads to success and will therefore try all the harder in the face of challenge.
Many of our students come to us already well formed in a fixed mindset position. They present to us with a dislike of school, sometimes behavioural challenges and often with social challenges as they have difficulty with flexibility and understanding other perspectives. You can start to help your child by focusing on praise for effort. You can also ask the following great question each day:
What was the best part of your day?
As parents we often ask the question ...How was your day?...For our students who are experiencing challenge and perhaps demonstrating a fixed mindset, this question is an opening to give a litany of all kinds of terrible things each day. Depending on the reaction of his/her parent, the child can actually come to think that the only thing that mom or dad wants to hear is the negative and so this is what is relayed.
The question "What was the best part of your day?" leads students to have to reflect on something that was good. It then provides an opening for parents to ask, "What made that part of the day so good?". This, in turn, leads to opportunities for parents to praise effort and perseverance.
The following link provides a short video by Dr. Dweck explaining mindset.
The power of yet
How can we help our children understand that learning is messy and that it is completely normal to make mistakes in the process of learning? What can we do as adults? Dr. Carol Dweck, author and researcher in the area of mindset, offers many different strategies. A major one that is easy to implement is to look at the way in which we praise our children. Are we telling them each time they do something right or well that they are smart? Or when they do something well or master something are we praising them for using great strategies, for sticking with it or for the effort that led them to a great result? The first manner of praise is a fixed mindset. A child who hears continuously how smart he or she is will eventually be afraid to try something new because he/she will be afraid to fail. The child who is praised for effort will understand that it is hard work and perseverance that leads to success and will therefore try all the harder in the face of challenge.
Many of our students come to us already well formed in a fixed mindset position. They present to us with a dislike of school, sometimes behavioural challenges and often with social challenges as they have difficulty with flexibility and understanding other perspectives. You can start to help your child by focusing on praise for effort. You can also ask the following great question each day:
What was the best part of your day?
As parents we often ask the question ...How was your day?...For our students who are experiencing challenge and perhaps demonstrating a fixed mindset, this question is an opening to give a litany of all kinds of terrible things each day. Depending on the reaction of his/her parent, the child can actually come to think that the only thing that mom or dad wants to hear is the negative and so this is what is relayed.
The question "What was the best part of your day?" leads students to have to reflect on something that was good. It then provides an opening for parents to ask, "What made that part of the day so good?". This, in turn, leads to opportunities for parents to praise effort and perseverance.
The following link provides a short video by Dr. Dweck explaining mindset.
The power of yet
Friday, 9 September 2016
Fantastic First Week
We have had a wonderful first week of School at St. Theresa. We spent a lot of time this week reviewing the basic routines and expectations at the school. Staff at the school understand how important those routines are to reducing anxiety and to ensuring that students are ready for learning. Routines are just as important at home as at school. This is especially true after a long summer of a different kind of routine. This is the time of year to establish routines for bed times, for homework and for the various responsibilities that your children might have at home. There is a wealth of information available about the importance of back to school routines at home that help staff at school ensure that your children are calm, alert and ready for learning.
Through this school year, staff will be exploring more about self-regulation and the very important role that self-regulation strategies play in your child's ability to engage in learning.
Here is a link that speaks about the importance of setting back to school routines at home in order to help your child be successful at school.
Back to School Basics
Through this school year, staff will be exploring more about self-regulation and the very important role that self-regulation strategies play in your child's ability to engage in learning.
Here is a link that speaks about the importance of setting back to school routines at home in order to help your child be successful at school.
Back to School Basics
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