Falling In Love...

I know it is early days but I just have to say that I have already fallen a little bit in love with my class.

How can I  not when they come up with strategies like the ones on the chart below?

We are working on learning about self-regulation. In the past I have used the A.L.E.R.T.  program and am continuing to use it this year. I am also planning to study up on the Zones of Regulation which is kind of the updated version of the A.L.E.R.T. program.

The A.L.E.R.T. program likens your body to a car and teaches students to become aware when their "car" (or body) is not working optimally. The Green Zone is the ready for learning zone and is where students need to be to learn to the best of their ability. Their are two other zones (Blue and Red) that students learn about.

At one time or another we find ourselves in all of the zones. The goal is to learn (and apply!) strategies to move from these other zones and back to Green.

One of the things that I like best about this program is it doesn't label feelings as good or bad. Feelings just are.

If a student is feeling very angry (in the Red zone) they use the strategies to calm their bodies and get back to Green. There is no judgement on the students for feeling angry. I love this!

Did you see the strategies they came up with? Alone time. Take a nap. Take deep breaths. Find a friend. Do something else. These came directly from the students. They pretty much taught my whole lesson for me!!!! It was awesome!

Tomorrow we are going to work on the Blue zone. I expect they'll do a great job of telling me what feelings are in the Blue zone since they are experiencing a lot of them this week! Feeling tired. Missing their moms. Feeling distracted. Lacking focus. Of course their teacher is feeling a lot of the same things!!!

Cheers!

Ms. Hughes