self-reg is a holistic model that
considers five domains of experience so
that's
biological emotion cognitive social
and pro-social and these five domains
they are actually all very
interconnected and they can give us a
window
into understanding how we can begin
because that's a big question
how how do we begin responding to this
strand which is calling for the
the social emotional learning to be
addressed as part of the grade one to
eight math curriculum
well self reg does show you that lens i
want you to keep three things in mind
first first of all there is a big
difference between
self-regulation and self-control and
that is the
game changer that self-reg offers and
really where it merges in with this self
social emotional learning strand
so there's many different definitions of
self-regulation and that's part of the
confusion
we found at least 447 447 in the
peer-reviewed literature
we use the original it's a
psychophysiological understanding it
goes back to the original use of
self-regulation and it's about brain
body balance
honestly that's what it's about
understanding stress
and learning to manage energy and
tension and having said that stress is
not a bad thing
positive stress stress is actually how
we grow and learn and it's an important
part of
living even if we could escape it which
we can't it is part of life
what we're concerned about is too much
stress the signs of it how to recognize
them in others and ourselves and knowing
what to do about it
so there is a big difference
self-control
is about managing emotions it's about
managing our behavior our work habits
it's all of those things that require us
to be in a balance a brain body balance
to be able to do there's a big
difference
so self-regulation is what makes
self-control possible
all right stay with me the next one i
want you to know
is that our adult stress is a part of
this equation
it's never just about
self-regulation-ish challenges
it's never just about a dysregulated
child it's never just within one person
when we have that mindset we're thinking
self-control you should have tried
harder you could work
stick with it you know be motivated work
hard try harder all of these sorts of
things are messages
that it is within the individual to just
simply choose to do
more those of us that have been in
classrooms for a long time we've seen
students we've seen children that we
know were trying
were giving it everything they had and
yet
they we still couldn't make that link
and none of those words that we said try
harder
resulted in more outcomes or maybe we
pushed a child through only to see them
crash on the other end
how can we think about that differently
and the brain body science helps us
so there's a really really big
difference we need to recognize that
this is between kids
have you ever felt a moment when there
was like a contagion across
your classroom or through your school or
through a small group of students where
the anxiety you can also have joy
and the uplifting moments are contagious
but so is the anxiety
the other thing is to realize that our
adult stress matters
so as a teacher if i'm really off or
nervous about a time you know about
something that i have to teach or
certain kinds of tests that are coming
up or something in the curriculum
something that i'm trying to figure out
how to reach this group of students in
this way or meet all the needs in my in
my classroom
that can translate into student stress
as well and we don't mean it to
it's not because we're bad people or we
need to to think about it
or we need to try harder ourselves it's
we recognize it as a sign of stress
so the five domains can be really really
helpful but i want you to keep the third
takeaway in mind and that is that it's
never just stressors in one domain
it is always a combination of all five
they have a magnifying effect on one
another
so stressors in one domain ping off
another and it can multiply
and create some of the challenges that
you're facing in your classroom says
you're trying to teach math
so this is not about becoming a social
emotional learning
teacher or teaching social emotional
learning lessons
but it could definitely be about
recognizing that when children are in a
better balance
and a better state the learning will go
in the class will move on i'll be able
to get to my curriculum
so that's a really important thing in in
terms of stressors
that might be affecting some of the
students individual differences some of
the time
biological i mean they're things like
lights
it can be smells in the air it can be
noise all around right that can be
really those are things the brain and
body are trying to process
allergies at a certain time of year
things related to food and hunger and
thirst all of these can be examples of
stressors
that are impacting us having to sit in a
hard seat for a long period of time
right these are stressors and when it
becomes too much when we're seeing the
signs of dysregulation in students
we can think about some of what are some
of the little ones that we can work on
emotion the frustration of math
can shut people down so quickly you can
all bring to mind a student
that will try will be okay and then as
soon as they get it wrong they're done
you know and what is it about that and
how can we see it differently
that emotion is a very strong emotion
and it's draining
and they get depleted quickly and so are
looking for maladaptive modes of
self-regulation i shut
down i put my pencil down i put my
hoodie on i rush out i get mad
these are all strategies they're
maladaptive coping strategies
maladaptive self-regulation strategies
the motion cognitive is the most
important here probably
we need to think about okay is this too
hard
is there some reason that the child is
having a challenging processing this am
i standing at the front of the class
you know for a very long time with
passive learners behind me do i have to
chunk it down is there something about
the time pressure so all sorts of things
related to
to to the math learning the social my
you know thinking your peers know what
what they're doing and you don't or
you've been in the
you know the the c group and you've
already decided what the c
group means so all of these things
related to the the social
uh domain of stressors and the
pro-social taking on other people's
stress
okay so that is the the stress of taking
on other people's stress so
other kids are struggling you know we
that becomes part of our experience as
well or you're worried about what other
people are thinking about you can be a
really debilitating one if you think you
should be at a different place than you
than you are
so the five domains we really are are
helpful at thinking of a universal level
so not just that kid this child
you know me it's it's thinking okay what
would help a lot of the kids
and so what are some of the things that
i can do to dial down
some of the tension for some of the kids
to allow them to have more time to
engage in the curriculum and the
learning that we have planned
you