PODCAST TRANSCRIPTSteve [Intro]: 00:01 Hello and welcome to the Parent Wellbeing and Student Learning During School Closures Edition of the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast. With the extended closing of schools, we as parents have entered into a new territory regarding what we have known as “school learning.” With this and future podcasts, I’ll look to share my experiences as a teacher, educator, parent, grandparent, and continuous learner.

Steve: 00:33 Supporting learners who are stressed or anxious during this school closure. I recently had the opportunity to read an article in educational leadership by Jessica Minahan. The article was focused on reducing anxiety and stress while schools are close and I thought it would be great if Jessica could could join us here. So I’d like to welcome Jessica to the podcast. Jessica Minahan is a behavior analyst and special educator. She consults with educators and parents on how to support students exhibiting challenging behaviors. I’m including the link to her website as well as a link to the article that she wrote into the lead in on this podcast. So welcome Jessica.

Jessica: 01:30 Thank you for having me.

Steve: 01:32 You bet. You bet. It’s obvious to all of us that this is a time of increased stress and anxiety for adults and families and students. And I’m wondering if you might begin by describing some indicators that parents might pick up that would come from that increased stress or anxiety.

Jessica: 01:55 Sure. Behavior is a form of communication. And a lot of times teenagers, young children, express their feelings through behavior without not so much their words. And a really good piece of advice is that behavior is often communicating a hidden feeling and a hidden request or a need. And so if you don’t get so overwhelmed by the behavior but respond to the hidden feeling and the hidden request, I think your response will be right on track. Some of the ways, specifically right now, the center for disease control and prevention in the United States is recommending we look for some behavior signs, excessive crying or irritation in younger children, returning to behaviors they have outgrown. So regression is very normal right now. So if your child starts sucking their thumb or talking in a baby talk voice or even bed wedding, those things are a normal reaction to stress.

Jessica: 03:00 And what we would just want to translate that as the child being nervous. Excessive worry or sadness, unhealthy eating and
sleeping habits, acting out defiant moments can also be a sign of stress. Unfortunately, a lot of these are off-putting and so, irritability is one of the number one signs of anxiety and depression and unfortunately it doesn’t necessarily lead to a nurturing response in others because it’s an off-putting behavior. Same with acting out behaviors and things like even in our teenagers use of alcohol or tobacco or something like that. And so our reactions may not match it. So we remember we want to translate that into, I’m nervous is what they’re really saying. Couple others would be difficulty with attention and concentration. You might be noticing, especially when they’re doing online school and any sort of somatic complaints like headaches or body pain is another sign. All of those we want to just keep our eye out for and remember, translate them, think of yourself as a translator that they’re saying, I’m nervous, I need a nurturing sort of response.

Steve: 04:12 As I’m listening to you make those descriptions, it’s kind of like the behavior response that the child needs from me the parent, is the one that at that moment I’m not likely to unconsciously step to.

Jessica: 04:27 That’s right. We have to think of ourselves as translator and don’t get overwhelmed by the behavior. Maybe count to three and say, okay, what is the child really communicating? And you want to look under the behavior at that feeling and that need. In fact, if you ever get a complaint, it’s very helpful to translate it in the hidden feeling, the hidden request. I used to do that with emails if I got a cranky email and then respond to my translations so you’re not over fixated. Generally we want to look at behavior that way.

Steve: 04:57 In the article you kind of gave four guidelines for responding. Validating feelings, staying calm, being truthful and reframing
negative comments. I’m wondering if I kind of labeled those one at a time. If you could give a clarifying explanation on each one. So the first one was validate feelings.

Jessica: 05:21 Yes. Because the behavior is communicating that hidden feeling and that hidden request or need, the number one first response out of your mouth instead of, hey, knock that off, something like that. If the first reaction out of your mouth is to validate the person’s feelings, it’s the most deescalating reflex to have. So if a kid says, you know what, “Grandma’s going to die. She’s in a nursing home facility.” You want to say, “I’m so sorry you’re worried about grandma.” Or “don’t go to the grocery store. You’re going to get sick and be in the hospital.” “I hear that you’re worried I’m going to get sick. I’m sorry that you’re worried about that.” That’s just the first response. It actually gets someone down a couple notches with anxiety because it’s a been heard, it’s been transferred. And that’s the first reflex actually any human in the world, if the first reflex from you is to validate someone’s feelings, if anyone’s having any type of challenging behavior, it’s the most deescalating reflex.

Steve: 06:30 That’s good advice for all the time.

Jessica: 06:32 Yes. I actually broke up a bar fight a couple of years ago. I deescalated someone on an airplane. It’s like universally helpful.

Steve: 06:40 Next one you mentioned was stay calm.

Jessica: 06:43 Yes. So the rule of them kids will – a lot of us, think we’re shielding enough from our kids, we’re reducing news, but they hear more than we think. You know, they hear us talking to each other as adults. They hear us on the phone. They’re even watching our face and our tone of voice. So the most calming tone of voice and reassuring tone of voice is to mimic the innotation and volume you would use when you’re reading a bedtime story to a toddler. That’s sort of the most calming kind of voice that you could use if you’re going to explain or answer a scary question from a kid. That, I would kind of try to default to that because you’re also communicating through your behavior, I’m not worried. So you’re essentially saying you are safe.

Steve: 07:37 Okay. And the next one you mentioned was be truthful.

Jessica: 07:41 Yes. So you want to be careful. You don’t want to over promise too much. So you don’t want to say things like, “oh, we’ll see grandma’s soon” or “you’ll be back to school any minute” or something like that because we’re not sure about all that. So you would want to say things like, “I can’t wait until we see grandma again” or you know, “it’s going to be great when we’re back in school.”

Steve: 08:09 And the last one you labeled was reframe negative comments.

Jessica: 08:16 Yea so, when you get a comment, an anxious comment, often, it’s too big and too inaccurate. So catastrophic thinking is one of the most common inaccurate thinkings that comes with anxiety. So when anxiety goes up, accuracy in our thinking goes down, and one of the most common ways is catastrophic thinking. And that’s just too big, too inaccurate to say, we’re all gonna die, you know, and we’re all gonna get sick. If you get a big, big scary comment from a kid or a teenager, what you want to do is respond in a way that gets them smaller and more accurate. So things like I will get sick. And we also in the reframe, always want to remind kids of what they have control over. So for example, when you’re anxious, a lot of what’s making all of us anxious right now is everything’s so out of control and so hard to predict that a really helpful reframe is to also put back what you’re in control of. So for example, if someone says, “I will get sick,” you could say “you’re going to self isolate, wash your hands, and you’re going to decrease the likelihood of that.” So this is what you have control over is what you’re saying.

Steve: 09:33 Reframing it to an action step that they can take with control.

Jessica: 09:39 With control. Yeah. So you know, something like “I’m stuck at home, but you’re, you’re going to be safe and you’re making sure other people are safe” or “I’m afraid grandma’s going to get sick.” “You’re doing a great job staying away from grandma at washing your hands, keeping yourself safe so that she doesn’t get sick. And so you just keep putting it back on that. Just a couple other things that might help kids feel a little more in control. In general, the more we feel in control during this time can be extremely beneficial. So on top of reminding them what they’re in control of, things like volunteering and I know that we think adults should be doing that but kids can be doing that as well. There’s a few places that you can find opportunities for online volunteer experiences like dosomething.org is a great one.

Jessica: 10:36 There’s also an adopt a grandparent one where you have kids, you know, draw pictures for an elderly neighbor and send it in the mail or you could have them write a letter. There’s environmentally conscious things like the one I like is a five minute playlist where teenagers can make a five minute playlist to help them remember to shower more quickly and they can send that to other people and even uploaded on the website and start feeling like you’re in control. Because, I don’t know, a lot of us have helped a neighbor during this time or, and if you notice about 40 minutes to an hour after you do that particularly and even sometimes the whole day you feel a little better about the whole situation.

Steve: 11:20 My grandkids painted thank you rocks for healthcare workers and a next door neighbor delivered them and the healthcare workers sent a picture of themselves with the rocks back to my grandkids. And I can tell you when they sent it to me, it had the effect on me. So I can really see the power of that.

Jessica: 11:45 Yes, I wouldn’t minimize that for kids to and yourselves.

Steve: 11:50 I’m wondering, closing out here, if you could perhaps just share some general guidelines around wellbeing for a difficult time like this, looking at parent and student and family wellbeing.

Jessica: 12:05 Sure. So what happens during something like this pandemic but in general with anxiety like I said, there’s this inaccurate thinking that we have to worry about. And that catastrophic thinking or all or nothing thinking that’s another most common inaccurate type of thinking where kids will say, I hate math, not, I just don’t like long division. So all of it becomes a problem. And to combat that, if you notice your heart rates going up or if we’re getting stressed or your kids are snapping at you, a distraction is one of the most quickly impactful things because what it means is your thoughts are going out of control. And for those of us who have had the experience where we can’t sleep at night, most adults will read a book or watch TV and that helps us go back to sleep. And you would agree if you stay on the thought, you will stay awake.

Jessica: 12:57 So it’s very helpful. I teach kids that and adults that your brain is like a remote control. You need to change the channel to calm down. And right now, we’re very at risk for thought based disregulation, right? That anxiety. And so distracting your thoughts is very helpful. If you notice your kids are snapping at each other, if you’re snapping at your spouse, I would say put on a quick movie or a TV show. You want to listen to a podcast that’s not related to anything going on. Make sure to change the channel. You have to get off that channel to calm down and get more rational. There’s also some websites that only play good news and I would love to encourage you because news is so scary right now to supplement the scary, realistic news with some good news. And it’s real stories, but it’s only good news.

Jessica: 13:55 So for example, the goodnewsnetwork.org is only plays good news, inspiremore.com only shows wonderful stories. John Krasinski is an actor and he developed a show called, it’s a YouTube channel, “Some Good News,” and he shows only positive stories from the COVID-19 crisis. So those are nice things after you watch the news, before you go to bed, or if you start taking the temperature of people in your home or yourself, where you’re starting to show those behavior signs of anxiety. Let’s distract our thoughts, change that channel, calm back down and get more rational.

Steve: 14:35 Well, I appreciate it. I’m going to steal “change the channel.” That’s a great easy one where you can use it as a suggestion to another person and use it as a suggestion to yourself. I could actually see saying that ou to a family where several members are starting to get stressed and somebody put, you know, it’s time to change the channel. It’s an idea for us to do that.

Jessica: 14:56 Yes. Just take a breather.

Steve: 14:58 Well, Jessica, thank you so much and a reminder to folks that if you check back into the lead in, you’ll find ways that you can connect with Jessica on her website as well as her article. Thank you for having me.

Steve [Outro]: 15:14 Thanks again for listening. You can subscribe to Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud on iTunes and Podbean and please remember to rate and review us on iTunes. I also want to hear what you’re pondering. You can find me on Twitter @stevebarkley or send me your questions and find my videos and blogs at barkleypd.com.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Announcer: 00:00 Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud is brought to you by Academy For Educators. Online, professional development for teachers and leaders. Online courses, modules, and micro-credential programs for teachers to enhance their skillsets. Now featuring the instructional coaching micro-credential, including five online modules framed around the work of Steve Barkley. Learn, grow, inspire. Academyforeducators.org.

Steve [Intro]: 00:25 Hello and welcome to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast. For over three decades, I’ve had the opportunity to learn with educators at all levels, both nationally and internationally. I invite you to listen as I explore my thoughts and learning on a variety of topics connected to teaching, learning and leading with some of the best and brightest educators from around the globe. Thanks for listening in.

Steve: 00:53 Teachers creating parents support for student learning. I’m excited today to introduce all of you to Arin Casavant, a middle school science teacher in Bismarck schools in North Dakota. For the last several weeks during the school building closures, I’ve been focused on actually, doing a podcast for parents to encourage parents to support students as learners. I initially started that podcast because I was hearing some people describe that the parents now needed to be teachers and I thought that was missing the role. The role we really need is for parents to understand how they can promote learning as the teachers are working with families to make the greatest learning possible during this time. And I was sent a copy of a letter that Arin sent out to parents and it caught my attention and I asked her principal if she could arrange for me to connect with Arin and see if I could get her to make this podcast for us and she she agreed to join us. So Arin, welcome.

Arin: 02:10 Thank you very much for having me. I’m excited.

Steve: 02:12 You bet. Could you start by just giving us a little bit in introduction to to yourself and maybe talk a little bit about what your classroom instruction generally looks like and sounds like?

Arin: 02:26 My classroom looks very different than a typical middle school classroom and I say that because my training is actually elementary based. This has actually been my first year at the middle school level and so you see a lot of hands on, you see a lot of just student centered classroom. I also worked at a science center for about six years before this as well. And so I always say I’m kind of an informal education teacher. I look at our standards more informally and I want students to create their own learning. So in my classroom, you’re going to see a lot of proof of learning weeks. And those particular weeks are when students are given the standard, that big glorious standard that we have to look at. And they’re asked to tell me or they’re asked to show me what does proof of learning this look like to you? And so you might see kids in the hall, making a video. You might see kids in my back room drawing pictures. Maybe they’re doing a painting, students create board games, online games. You see a lot of different activities in my room. Every couple of weeks we cycle through this proof of learning project.

Steve: 03:50 So folks, I’d like to read the letter that Aaron had sent out to parents because I thought she just stated it so well. So the letter says, “Dear parents/guardians, I’m sending this to you, not to your child so that you can decide which best fits your situation. I believe science is one of the most important constructs ever devised by mankind. I believe curiosity drives science and learning. With all that being said, I know this is a crazy time and I do not want school classwork to interfere with some incredible learning opportunities afforded to you and or your child to explore and ask questions. This is my proposal. If you would be willing to cook, build, engineer, knit, sew, etc. with your child this week and submit a picture for evidence, your child will be excused from science homework. So if you try a new recipe, built a Pinewood Derby car or plant some seeds, start a garden, take some pictures and submit them in lieu of science work this week. This may be done for any week, for the rest of the year in science. Science is anywhere, everywhere that you ask questions and find answers. I hope this provides a more enjoyable and curiosity filled end to the school year for your child. Thank you.” So Arin, tell me a little bit about what was going through your head as you compose this and put it out.

Arin: 05:31 This email, I must be honest, we have had a really good professional learning community, PLCs with the different colleagues in different grade levels what with the distant learning. And so this idea kind of came from a colleague as well. And really we want kids to have really that time to just explore and be at home. This whole new world and a whole new classroom for them. And so this isn’t just happening at the sixth grade. We have this email go to seventh grade and eighth grade and just across the school because we want them to see what they can really do and really pull off with those parents.

Steve: 06:10 So when you say this went out, so it was grade six, seven and eight from the science teachers?

Arin: 06:15 This came out from the sixth grade classes and then seventh grade and eighth grade. So we went across the whole school.

Steve: 06:24 I’m wondering what the initial responses are that you’ve been getting back from from parents and kids.

Arin: 06:32 I like my colleagues as well, we’ve had some really good responses and I’m just excited for the opportunities that I didn’t even think existed. For example, I have one student, a dad actually has a family of six kids, a very busy family, and yet he’s allowing his daughter to take charge of building a dining room table. And they’re drawing the blueprints. She’s sending me pictures every day and now they’re working on benches. Never would we have built a dining room table in my classroom. I had a parent talk to me and they said, I finally got my kid to go fishing. So it’s amazing.

Steve: 07:13 If you could talk to the parents individually as these activities are going on, what are you hoping or imagining that conversation between parent and child might be?

Arin: 07:26 I’m really hoping that that conversation is curiosity driven. It’s intuitive. So parents are asking their children, “what do you think would be best in this situation?” For example, I have a couple of families who are planting gardens and I want the parents to ask the kids, do you think putting these particular flowers in this part of our house would be appropriate or this part of our yard? And allowing those kids to have those deeper level thoughts, it’s what I would expect in the classroom and showing parents it’s okay to make kids think. It’s okay to let them guide and have those intuitive thoughts.

Steve: 08:13 Do you have a debrief planned for carrying out with the students to kind of see if they understand what they learned or if they can debrief what they experienced in whatever it is that they took on?

Arin: 08:27 Yes, that’s also important part of this type of learning is that reflection. And going back to that, I always say the engineering design process or the scientific method – going back and cycling, why did that work or not? And so these particular students are going to have a short survey sent out, but I’m also going to ask the parents to help with those as well. I want the parents to explain what they learned and how they supported. Because I think we really changed the way learning has happened and I think parents are going to see themselves become a lot more of a valuable resource in the future.

Steve: 09:10 Yeah. I hope that you will will forward me some of the things that you’re that you’re finding with that. One of the podcasts that I did for parents was on questioning. You know, what are the kinds of questions you ask that help your learner to go to go deeper with what they’re uncovering. Again, not teaching doesn’t have to be a right answer, but knowing that your questions are going to to probe the students to go further. I had one parent suggest to me that what we were really dealing with now was a a gift of time. That generally, in the hassle of everything that kids needed to get done and their participation in sports and outside school activities and mom and dad having their own schedule and everything kind of in order to survive, we had to stay on this parent driven kind of process, that there was a new opportunity here to actually allow kids to take risks that we normally didn’t allow them to take. So let them schedule things the wrong way, let the first two attempts at completing this task not work because I can look to see what I can learn from that and, and how I can take it to the next step.

Arin: 10:36 I love that you say a gift of time. You know, I’m a teacher of 180, so kids, but I’m also a mom of three and I never had this much time with three young boys as I ever wanted possible in my life. Particularly my third grader, he has a wonderful teacher who’s really just reached out. But I have allowed my son to take more risks than I have before. And last week he rode his bike and typically I’m kind of this helicopter mom of staying within eyesight. And I said, you know what? Ride. And I ended up getting a cell phone call that he biffed it. He fell. He was about a half a mile away, but he was so proud of himself because he got his first big bruise.

Steve: 11:22 [laughter]

Arin: 11:23 He loved it. He said, look, mom, I cleaned it up and it’s really not that bad and I don’t think it’s going to bruise that bad is what I think. And what a learning opportunity to let them be brave and go out and explore.

Steve: 11:36 It’s so powerful ringing to me because I’m working on a piece for another podcast for parents, “looking at resilience” and without those kinds of experiences, resilience can’t develop.

Arin: 11:50 I agree.

Steve: 11:53 Have you gotten input from teachers from other content areas regarding – I’m kind of wondering in my mind if people see this as a thing that fits in science, but they maybe aren’t so sure that it fits into other areas. Have you been in any of those conversations with colleagues?

Arin: 12:12 I did share this email to several different English teachers as well as a couple of math teachers. And one of the math teachers expressed that this would be a cool opportunity to allow them to design or build something, kind of in a 3d dimension and have them measure and figure out the volume and the base. So they’re doing those content areas, but yet they’re allowing that exploration of build whatever you want. And for this example, it happened to be a robot. They thought they could build some kind of recyclable robot at home. So I do believe it can be used throughout all content areas. I think in English, let’s have the family sit down and watch one of these movies that we’ve been binge watching the last few weeks. Really look at those characters and maybe write a story about a new character. Let the parents have fun with these kids, you know, see what they can do. Because when learning about our kids, I didn’t even know my five year old could read. I didn’t know Steve, my five year old can read. I didn’t know that. He was amazing. I’m learning that through this experience.

Steve: 13:27 That’s powerful. That’s powerful.

Steve: 13:28 So the big piece that I’ve been exploring with everybody is, this is a critical time for reflection. So I see teachers who are
teaching online, teaching through distance and the need to reflect on what did I learn today that can have me do a better job of this tomorrow? And then at the same time, what is it that I’ve learned that I want to keep so that when the classroom school doors open back up and we move in that direction, are there pieces that I want to take back with me. And I’m wondering if you’ve got any thoughts on on the learning that’s come out of your last couple of weeks that you’ll be taking ahead with you?

Arin: 14:19 I think going back into my classroom in the fall and I do hope it’s the fall. I think we’re in a kind of limbo of a few three weeks, that I don’t think we should jump back into a classroom. I think what we have right now is really beautiful. I think what we have right now is such job embedded training. This is amazing what’s happening. And so I do hope it’s the fall I want to bring back to the classroom, that ability to let kids continue that proof of learning on their own and let kids explore with what they like and give them the choices, but also include the parents. When I was in the elementary classroom, I would assign my kids homework, but my homework was always do this with your parent, do this with your parent, have dinner with your parents tonight.

Arin: 15:14 If it was a national holiday of board games, I would say have your parents play a board game with you tonight. And they would submit pictures and every morning, the next day we would celebrate whatever the kids did that night. I got a lot of positive feedback. So next year I’m going to try to bring middle school parents back into that classroom that I’ve done in the past and seeing it be successful these last couple of weeks, I know I can do it and I think I have a wonderful school on board that would continue that.

Steve: 15:47 Well that’s great. Thank you. I will definitely be checking back with you and I would say that bringing parents more deeply into the middle school can have just positive ramifications all the way around. It’s an important connected time. Kids are trying to figure a lot of stuff out and if we can, as a school, create more opportunities to assist the parents and how they work with their children, how they support their kids’ learning, that’s all positive outcomes. So listen, you have a great next couple of weeks here and I will then looking to check back with you.

Arin: 16:31 Yes, I’m sure you’ll the parents comments as well, so I’m excited about it.

Steve: 16:36 Yes, I will. Thank you very much. Have a great day.

Arin: 16:40 You too. Bye.

Steve: 16:41 Bye.

Steve [Outro]: 16:42 Thanks again for listening. You can subscribe to Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud on iTunes and Podbean and please remember to rate and review us on iTunes. I also want to hear what you’re pondering. You can find me on twitter @stevebarkley or send me your questions and find my videos and blogs at barkleypd.com.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTSteve [Intro]: 00:01 Hello and welcome to the Parent Wellbeing and Student Learning During School Closures Edition of the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast. With the extended closing of schools, we as parents have entered into a new territory regarding what we have known as “school learning.” With this and future podcasts, I’ll look to share my experiences as a teacher, educator, parent, grandparent, and continuous learner.

Steve: 00:34 Finding the “Goldilocks” challenge sweet spot. Imagine a continuum if you would, with these four words placed along the continuum. Boredom, comfort, attention, anxiety. So picture if you would, starting all the way on the right, we have boredom. As we move to the left, we get to comfort. As we move further to the left, we get to attention and then the last spot on our continuum is anxiety. Can you identify when as a adult learner, you find yourself at different spots on that continuum? Can you picture being bored when you’re reading a report that’s perhaps taking too long to get to the main point or you’re in one of those online meetings where the topics currently being discussed are not related to you? Are you comfortable when you’re reading a book or an article about a favorite topic of yours? Would you describe yourself at attention when you’re identifying how a new recipe differs from something that you’ve perhaps already made?

Steve: 02:08 And then, for you, when does anxiety come into learning or carrying out a task? For me, it’s that time that I’m working with the Ikea directions and I can’t decide which screw to use next or which way to turn the two pieces. As you watch your learners at home working, can you spot when your child is at different spots on that continuum, what do they look and sound like when they’re bored and how’s that different from being comfortable or at attention and what are the signs that anxiety has set in? You’ll pick these patterns up as you watch your learner knowing that they are different. And those of you with more than one child at home can probably spot the difference when they are anxious, but they show it in different ways or bored and they show it in different ways. Now, where on this continuum do you think we make the maximum gains in our learning?

Steve: 03:30 Not just one of the spots of bored, comfort, attention or anxiety, but any spot along that continuum. I want to explore in this podcast, a sweet spot and that’s the spot that’s between attention and anxiety. It marks a spot that we might call high-focused attention. The sweet spot. On this continuum, there’s two places where learning won’t occur and that’s the two ends of the continuum. When my anxiety gets high, I step into what’s known as the fight or flight or freeze syndrome. Learning shuts down. It’s not going to happen. The same is true at bored. Our brains are actually designed to protect us from being bored, so as that meeting goes on too long on something you’re not interested in, your mind begins working on the grocery list or tackling something that you want to do when you get home. It in effect, is protecting you from boredom.

Steve: 04:46 Now, learning can occur along the rest of that continuum. The magical spot, that sweet spot is that high-focused attention spot. One way to define that spot is understanding the difference of working out at the gym with a trainer. The value of the trainer is that they work to keep you at that sweet spot. Without the trainer, I’m on the treadmill going, “I think it’s time to stop.” But that’s right when the trainer reaches in and it’s the button says no, three more minutes at a higher speed. But equally, the trainer will make sure that I don’t over exert in the first 10 minutes of my workout and lose the rest of the value. So the trainer keeps me at that sweet spot, allows me to slow down a little bit, begin to move towards comfort, but not let me get too comfortable and bring me back to that sweet spot.

Steve: 05:52 Another way to describe this sweet spot is known as “just time learning.” When you’re in the midst of learning something that you know very quickly, you are going to have to turn and do. You’re going to have to implement that new learning that tends to raise us to that sweet spot of being high-focused as a learner. If you watch your child building a physical skill, you’ll see that they make use of adjustments in order to maximize their practice time right at that sweet spot. If they’re shooting a ball at a target and they’re missing too many, they’ll move closer because too many misses would get them to boredom or anxiety. Equally, if they’re making too many in a row, they will back up to increase the challenge of the task, keeping their practice again at that sweet spot. Video games have mastered the sweet spot unbelievably.

Steve: 07:07 They allow you enough practice to get pretty good at that level and then immediately introduce you to the next level, which will require you moving back towards that more high-focused attention to master at the next level. Highly independent learners know how to move themselves on this continuum when they’re working with school learning similar to the way that they move themselves when shooting a ball at a target. Sensing that a task is getting too comfortable, they’ll move ahead to a more challenging problem or they’ll ask themselves a question to create a new unknown. I wonder why the speed decreases over time. Similarly, they can feel anxiety or frustration building and know to seek some feedback, hints or clues. I know during that time of putting Ikea furniture together, there’s a spot where I’ll ask my wife to interpret the diagram before anxiety shuts me down from finishing the task.

Steve: 08:28 Independent learners also know that it’s time for a break or a change because they can’t stay at that sweet spot for too long, but not too long of a break or you’ll have trouble getting back to focusing your attention on the learning task. As you support your learners, help them to become conscious of where they are on the continuum and what steps they can take to move closer to the sweet spot. What are the possibilities when feeling anxiety building? How do I identify and tap my resources? If I’m losing interest, moving towards boredom, what can I do to move to raise my attention? How can I increase the challenge or set a new goal? Look for times that you can share with your child, your own emotions as you’re tackling a task and how you’re making a conscious decision to adjust and thus gain more from the time that you’re investing in the task. As you help your child, when they are frustrated, make sure to help just enough to get them back to the sweet spot. Keep the challenge strong enough to maximize the learning. If you notice your learner getting too comfortable, offer a question or a challenge to assist them in moving closer to the sweet spot. Conversations and feedback are valuable in assisting your learner in being conscious of how they can influence a situation and maximize their learning result, becoming empowered learners. Thanks for listening.

Steve [Outro]: 10:29 Thanks again for listening. You can subscribe to Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud on iTunes and Podbean and please remember to rate and review us on iTunes. I also want to hear what you’re pondering. You can find me on Twitter @stevebarkley or send me your questions and find my videos and blogs at barkleypd.com.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Announcer : 00:00 We are all facing the unique challenges of working and learning from home. The near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools or NESA is holding it’s next networked learning series featuring Steve Barkley. “Personalized Coaching With Steve Barkley” will address the unique challenges and opportunities instructional coaches, administrators, teacher leaders, and mentors are presented with during this time. Take your skills to the next level with this online, facilitated, personally coached, six week program with Steve Barkley. Learn more at barkleypd.com.

Steve [Intro]: 00:41 Hello and welcome to the Parent Wellbeing and Student Learning During School Closures Edition of the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast. With the extended closing of schools, we as parents have entered into a new territory regarding what we have known as “school learning.” With this and future podcasts, I’ll look to share my experiences as a teacher, educator, parent, grandparent, and continuous learner.

Steve: 01:14 Supporting learners’ understanding with similarities and differences. Throughout this podcast series, we’re exploring strategies that parents can use as they work to support their student learners. In this podcast, I want to address the strategy of looking for similarities and differences as a way to assisting the student in reaching understanding and in approaching problem solving. Searching for similarities and differences when in a new situation is a natural process of the brain. When confronted with something new, different or unfamiliar, we ask, how is this like something that I already know and how is it different? An example that occurs for me with frequency, is arriving at an airport in a foreign country with signs and labels that I can’t translate. I spot similarities and use patterns from my past to experiment, either to confirm my understanding or to cause me to see that this pattern doesn’t work here.

Steve: 02:36 So I’m back to looking for more similarities and more differences that will change my understanding. As I exit the plane and enter the terminal, I recall a pattern from my past that baggage claim is usually down. I look for indicators that my expectation or understanding applies in this instance. You’ve experienced this application of similarities and differences with a young child who, accidentally at first, while pulling themselves up with a cabinet handle, discovers that the door opens. Note how quickly they apply that discovery, testing it out on every knob that they see and as their parents you’re running to purchase safety locks. Another application of this same different pattern occurs when a young child goes on a trip to the supermarket and they encounter a person out front with a dog. On a return visit, they’re expecting to find that same person with their dog in front of the supermarket.

Steve: 04:00 The child needs more repeated visits in order to sort out what are long existing patterns from what is different. What should I expect to be the same at the supermarket and what would I understand as being different? When your child is stuck with a new problem, task, a new word, you might begin by asking them, “what do you see that’s the same as something you already know and what seems different?” Suppose while reading your learner looked up at you and asked, what does antisocial mean?” You might respond by asking, “do you know what it means to be social?” Your child might respond with, “yeah, friendly to lots of people.” You might then ask, “what does the anti-bullying program at your school mean?” Your child might respond by saying, “well, it means stop bullying or against bullying,” and you then ask “what would it mean if you took anti and added it onto the word social to make antisocial?”

Steve: 05:22 Here’s another example. Suppose your child was stuck on a math problem that said, put these numbers in order from smallest to largest, 3.41 34.1 0.341. Again, ask the question, “looking at the numbers, what’s the same and what’s different?” Your child would respond that the numbers three, four and one appear on all three. The location of the decimal is different. Let’s take those numbers now and write them in a straight column. Keeping the decimals in a straight line. 3.41, 34.1, 0.341. Then as your child, “do you notice anything?” Now your child might respond with, “34 seems to be the biggest.” Your response back, “yes, that’s 34 and one 10th.” And your child says, “then three is the next biggest?” And you respond, “yes, that’s three and 41 hundredths.” And your child responds “so 0.341 must be the smallest.” And you’d respond, “you got it.” We can actually put a zero in front of that, 0.341 because it’s less than one whole. It’s 341 thousandths. Searching for similarities and differences builds the identification of generalizations or patterns and it’s also used to analyze things. These are often precursors to appraising, evaluating and decision making. Imagine that you’re exploring with your high school student the course selection options for the next year. Here’s how same different questions might set up that kind of decision making.

Steve: 07:50 What are the required courses? What are the required areas where you can select a course that fulfills that requirement? What room is there for open electives? This analysis by creating three different categories is done by identifying similarities and differences. Looking at the courses in the required area, let’s start with math. How are the options for a math class similar or different from each other? How would each of those course options impact your future options, your workload, possible ranking, personal satisfactions? This now prepares the student to prioritize what’s important, to evaluate the options and make a choice. Look for opportunities that you can model how you look for and differences in increasing your understanding.

Steve: 09:03 When you look at a new recipe, do you consider how it’s the same and different from others that you’ve prepared? When looking at the directions to a new board game or card game that the family’s going to play? Do you compare how the directions to the game are similar to games we already know and then important how they’re different? When making a replacement purchase, in what ways do you want the replacement to be the same or different from the original that you’re replacing? As you consciously encourage and support your learner in identifying similarities and differences in order to analyze and generalize, you are supporting critical thinking and problem solving skills that are important life skills. Thanks for listening.

Steve [Outro]: 10:11 Thanks again for listening. You can subscribe to Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud on iTunes and Podbean and please remember to rate and review us on iTunes. I also want to hear what you’re pondering. You can find me on Twitter @stevebarkley or send me your questions and find my videos and blogs at barkleypd.com.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Announcer: 00:01 We’re all facing the unique challenges of working and learning from home. The Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools or NESA is holding it’s next networked learning series featuring Steve Barkley. Personalized coaching with Steve Barkley will address the unique challenges and opportunities instructional coaches, administrators, teacher leaders and mentors are presented with during this time. Take your skills to the next level with this online, facilitated, personally coached, six week program with Steve Barkley. Learn more at barkleypd.com.

Steve [Intro]: 00:42 Hello and welcome to the Parent Wellbeing and Student Learning During School Closures Edition of the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast. With the extended closing of schools, we as parents have entered into a new territory regarding what we have known as “school learning.” With this and future podcasts, I’ll look to share my experiences as a teacher, educator, parent, grandparent, and continuous learner.

Steve: 01:15 Increasing learner independence and creating parent personal time. Many parents find themselves now working at home on top of all the usual family work requirements and added into that, now looking to support their children studying and learning. Please know that claiming some time for yourself is not only fair and appropriate, but it’s important for your learner to build independence and confidence as a learner. Why is independent learning important? It not only helps us as a student, but it has skills that are transferrable to most jobs and life. motivation, independence, initiative, organization, perseverance and time management. If you miss the earlier podcast on helping build time management, you might want to reference back to that. It is natural, especially in this quick changing environment for children at any age to be seeking extra adult time for reassurance. You want to provide that reassurance. You also want learners to increase in developing independence and to recognize your need for some time.

Steve: 03:00 Realize that all teachers at every grade level experience this challenge of building students as independent workers. In a classroom, sudents frequently need to work independently, even in kindergarten when the teacher works with a small group of other students. Middle school and high school teachers need students to continue engagement independently when the teacher is providing support to another individual student or small collaborative group. Here are some strategies that might assist you in stretching your learners independence and in creating some critical time for yourself. After a discussion about the importance of mom, dad, and learner spending time working independently, look to set a goal for the length of time that your student tackles working independently. For your youngest children, that might mean a 15 to 20 minute time slot and then looking to stretch that and build that as students’ skills develop. Establish a plan for what we want to accomplish during that chunk of independent time.

Steve: 04:35 You might share with your student after they’ve outlined what they are looking to accomplish, what you want to accomplish. It might be answering 10 emails or reading a report. For younger learners, look to build a sense of game into this. Perhaps setting a timer and your learner working to beat the clock. At the end of the time, do a short debrief. How successful were we? Did we learn anything about how to organize or prepare ourselves for independent time? Can we repeat another similar time or do we need to take a short break? Increase the chances for success by having your learner explain what they need to do in the task before they begin. Be sure that questions about the task are asked before jumping in. Don’t just ask your child if they know what they need to do. Instead, have him or her explain to you the directions for the task they’re taking on.

Steve: 06:00 Establish that failing to complete a learning task or getting stuck isn’t fatal. In fact, struggling is part of learning. The struggle can establish the need for gaining more information in order to increase one’s understanding. You might ask your child that if they get stuck and they’re waiting for the time that you’ve been allotted, that they actually prepare the questions that they want to ask you when you are available. Coming up with those questions, some students will actually solve their own problem by having a breakthrough in thought. You might create a reference list of what to do if you get stuck and I’m not available. Here’s some possibilities. Stop and think about a different strategy and try again. Remember, struggling is part of learning. If you’re reading in your mind begins to wonder, stand up, stretch and start over again. I worked with a high school teacher who posted a list on his wall of what students could do if they’re stuck and waiting for the instructor.

Steve: 07:29 His list included, try and Google help. Is it possible that you can phone a friend or work on a different task until I’m available? And if all else fails, pull out a book and read. Adding to that list of alternatives is a way of empowering the learner. More immature independent learners may need some assistance in practicing staying independent and not interrupting the parent. Some teachers use the strategy of giving a teacher like that three slips of paper and each time that they interrupt it costs them one of the slips. That provides a concrete way for a student to catch him or herself and think about if there’s another alternative to interrupting the adult. Such a strategy sets a stage for that learner to celebrate when the independent time has been completed and they’re still holding some of their passes. It will likely require some upfront time to prepare and focus and support your learners in developing the skills and confidence of working independently. The benefits now and in the future can be well worth the conscious investment, not just for your child but also for you. Good luck and be encouraged.

Steve [Outro]: 09:27 Thanks again for listening. You can subscribe to Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud on iTunes and Podbean and please remember to rate and review us on iTunes. I also want to hear what you’re pondering. You can find me on Twitter @stevebarkley or send me your questions and find my videos and blogs at barkleypd.com.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTSteve [Intro]: 00:01 Hello and welcome to the Parent Well-Being and Student Learning During School Closures edition of the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast. With the extended closing of schools, we as parents have entered into a new territory regarding what we have known as “school learning.” With this and future podcasts, I’ll look to share my experiences as a teacher, educator, parent, grandparent, and continuous learner.

Steve: 00:34 In this podcast, I’m looking to explore three different areas for you as a parent to consider as you engage in this new learning opportunity with your children. All three are centered on your focus on learning rather than on teaching. Looking at this opportunity to explore learning and think less of a need to step into the role of being a teacher. This is a great time for you to learn about how your youngster learns best. Is it seated at a desk? Is it lying on the floor? Is it studying in the kitchen, standing at the counter? Is it reading a book while pedaling on the exercise bike? Is it in the house or sitting out in the lawn? Is it with music playing in the background or quiet? I just received a picture of my grandson learning at home in a science lesson on his computer.

Steve: 01:47 As he sat there, his pet bunny was on his lap and he was stroking the bunny as he focused on his computer. What I know about learners is that some can focus better petting that bunny on their lap than sitting at their desk. As I sat down to write out some notes for this blog, I placed music on my computer to play in the background. There are many other people who would have chosen quiet as the best way to think through writing out a plan. Big caution here. Often as parents, our style interferes with our acceptance of our children’s style. As a parent, we often think that our students, our children will do best if we put them into an environment where we would do best. Now is a great time to experiment. What environment seems increase your child’s ability to focus and maintain stamina?

Steve: 03:06 In the future, you may want to share your findings with your child’s teacher. We know that voice and choice can increase student interest and engagement in their learning. This learning at home should be a good time to explore choices that often aren’t available in schools and classrooms. How can your child participate in planning the day around their choices when to complete which activity sleep late or start early to finish early. When do they want to plan their breaks? Hopefully teachers are building more choices into the tasks that they are signing. If they have, encourage your learner to consider personalizing to maintain their interest rather than finding the easiest way to complete the task. My middle school granddaughter just received an assignment to take some pictures of nature and post them online. What options might pique her interest? The spring flowers looking through the ground? Moving some leaves in the woods and capturing a picture of ants scampering off. The new bird’s nest in the eve of the roof or that single dandelion managing to grow through the crack in the sidewalk.

Steve: 04:43 Where might her conversations with mom, dad, or a little brother extend the learning beyond the task that had been assigned? The third element that I’d offer up for you to explore is what teachers call a think aloud. When teachers use a think aloud, they’re modeling a task for the students. And as they model the task, such as solving a math problem or identifying the main idea in a passage, the teacher shares out loud with the students, the thinking that he or she goes through in solving that problem. If your children are spending more time with you, consider extending their learning by practicing your thinking out loud. If you’re out getting groceries, what purposeful choices are you making to decrease your health risk? How you open the door or where you stood in line to wait your turn. Talk out loud when you make the decision. Are you making decisions inside the store to purchase one product over another?

Steve: 06:06 Are you comparing ingredients or weight or price? If you’re working at home alongside your children, considered taking time to share some of the tasks that you are tackling. This gives new meaning to take your child to work day. Can you find connections between thinking and problem solving that you’re doing and the work that your children are tackling for school? Your examples can increase your child’s understanding of the “why” behind task that they are doing and the learning that they are exploring in school. I hope you found some of the elements in this podcast to explore and expand your child’s learning and your own. I’ll look to continue with future podcasts. Feel free to send me your questions or suggestions that I can share with others. You can contact me at sbarkley@pls3rdlearning.com. That’s S B A R K L E Y @ PLS, the number three, RD, learning.com. We are in unchartered waters. That can be an opportunity to grow and learn, look to make it happen. Thanks for listening.

Steve [Outro]: 07:48 Thanks again for listening. You can subscribe to Steve Barkley ponders out loud on iTunes and Podbean and please remember to rate and review us on iTunes. I also want to hear what you’re pondering. You can find me on twitter @stevebarkley or send me your questions and find my videos and blogs at barkleypd.com.