[Scope and Sequence for Brain Aligned Instruction : Building Engagement, Relationships and Positive

Behaviors] Applied Educational neuroscience is a framework and discipline that addresses the neurobiology of stress, regulation, engagement and connection. This is a framework, not a program. It embraces and integrates applied educational neuroscience research and strategies to ensure educators are “sitting beside their students in relationship, behaviors, and academics.” All children and adolescents challenged with emotional, cognitive, and social needs will begin to understand that their genius brains are wired for resiliency and change. This is a discipline for educators to deeply address their own brain states and the research and strategies they can personally apply to build hope, resiliency and positive emotion as they embrace the needs of our vulnerable children and adolescents. 1. How does brain development affect the teaching and learning process? Further, how do STRESS/Adversity impact the brain and learning and how do we work to mitigate those impacts to help students? 2. How can we consider behavior through a regulation lens? All behavior is communication. How do we change our brain state to stay connected to students during behavioral conflicts? How do we respond to help them learn to respond and self-regulate during stress or other conflicts? 3. How do we use neuroscience research to improve learners’ engagement with their own learning? All of these build into AGENCY…how students perceive their own competence and their ability to impact it. Connection + Purpose = Wellbeing. We must ultimately TEACH students about their neuroanatomy and turn the pedagogy of learning, emotional regulation and self-discipline into a science they can personalize and build within. The below scope and sequence is created for modifications depending upon age and grade of each student. These are taught and implemented into our classrooms as procedures and routines. They are created to enhance a safe and trusting environment and are part of an entire school year! The activities and strategies may need to be extended and an educational neuroscience topic may take an entire week to cover.

2018Dr. Lori DesautelsAssistant ProfessorCollege of EducationButler Universitywww.revelationsineducation.com(C) Copyright 2018Desautels

Framework for Teaching Brain Aligned Content for Engagement, Relationship and RegulationDay One- Topic- The Brain!What do you know about the brain?What does the brain control?What confuses you about the brain?

Strategies/ ActivitiesPre-Assessment of what students know!

1. Brain Jeopardyhttps://jeopardylabs.com/play/brain-aligned-teaching7

Create brain storm lists in small groups so students can work together with guessing what they already know and then with a few objects like a three pound weight, tofu, jello, a jug of water and some type of fat, you can show them that the brain has many of these characteristics. Teachers and students can begin to create a Brain Area in the classroom where findings and questions are posted.How can you tie this into the standards you are teaching across all areas?

2. Hand Model of the brain-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CpRY9-MIHA

Resources1. Younger Students

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nH4MRvO-10

2. Sentis VideosHow the Brain Works/ Video 1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSzsI5aGcK4

3. Neuroscience for Kidshttp://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/links.html

Day 2- Topic- Three Main Areas of the Brain and their roles in the body, feeling and thinking!

Strategies/ What is a brain interval?Brain Intervals- The purpose of these is to stimulate the reticular activating stem located in the brain stem. When we begin to lose attention, no learning can occur. The brain intervals bring novelty and curiosity and a brief state of confusion which is healthy for activation while learning in robotic ways can lull the brain to sleep! Our brains need an interval of time, to soak in new information and this is also why brain

ResourcesWatch Sentis Video 2: Areas of the Brain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_vT_mnKomY&index=2&list=PL 53nCCeNj-RQDhbjE9LjvnFad-wdB5bw7Neurotransmission!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdJ5eq6iNPA Pass out brain shaped papers for exit slips as students write out or draw what they have done over the past 24 hours and what part of

intervals are so important to learning!! – Dr. LoriSee the different brain intervals at the end of these lessons.Teach students that their prefrontal cortex is where decision making happens - we want to be in our prefrontal cortex at school! Teach students to put their hands over their forehead to find their prefrontal cortex

the brain did this or these activities occur!Making Decisions Clip Inside Out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5rAqANyjis

Day 3- Topic- Limbic System/ Amygdala

Strategies/ Activities Bring in almonds or small rocks in the shape of the amygdala- discuss how the amygdala is our emotional station and it can sometimes hijack our ability to think! When this area of the brain is firing, the frontal lobes behind our eyebrows shuts down and this is when we need to calm the amygdala.What happens in this part of the brain?What is an emotional switching station?

ResourcesEmotions and the Brain Sentis/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdJ5eq6iNPAWhy we get angry! / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bKuoH8CkFcTwo Minute Neuroscience Video on the Amygdala: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVvMSwsOXPwQuantum University - Amygdala https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU5QmZp9Cmo Younger StudentsAmygdala Ha Hahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG26SPoaG2I

Day 4- Topic – What Are Focused Attention Practices?

Focused Attention Practices have many benefits. First they calm the limbic brain activity and sympathetic nervous system inviting the parasympathetic nervous system in! They also activate executive functions in the prefrontal cortex in particular, sustained attention and emotional regulation helping us to create a pause and a bit of reflection.Focused Attention Practices - Complete your first focused attention practice as a class - Talk about why focused attention practices are helpful

ResourcesThere are lots of videos about celebrities who meditate! This might motivate older students! Kobe Bryant - I Meditate Every Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucNODrsGdx0&list=PLmWktbOLl ZuaHEVS4dhqz8DyOTQ1eYIWO&index=3

Celebrities that Meditate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

for learning and the brain - Set agreements/expectations for focused attention practices.

1. Begin with tracing our fingers of each hand with an inhale and exhale!

2. Start for only 30 seconds or less and build up time as a challenge for the class.

3. Always make this a choice and reflect for a minute afterwards. ( See Focused Attention Practices at the end of the scope and sequence)

v=XgtDPiZNefYAdd middle/high school videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKgWaBc6e38K-2 videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CdPQ7X1MzU

Day 5- Topic- Our sensory systems and the brain!Brain Stem- sensory and motor systems!

Strategies/ Activities What are our senses and how do we use them each day?What is perception and how does perception relate to our senses?In one minute, draw or write down everything in this classroom you are taking in through sight sound touch or smell!What is your strongest sense? What is your weakest sense?

Resources1. Sentis Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BdzhWdVaX0

2. View Neurotransmission videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbmt-6o-Bp0

3. I love this sensory video for older students! Bring in different smells and sensations and let students smell and guess what they are!

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

Day 6- Topic- Our Senses Continued…/ Review of the Brain!

Strategies/ ActivitiesWe will begin to explore Focused Attention Practices using our different senses!Sound, sight, touch, and breath!Strategies/ ActivitiesFor 30 seconds try a focused attention practice capturing a sound or breathing in your favorite color and breathing out a worry.

Brian Andersonhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMKc8nfPATI

Day 7- Topic- NeuronsOne neuron means nothing by itself! It takes us hundreds of thousands of neurons to just remember our own names!

Strategies/ ActivitiesWe will make candy models of neurons with licorice, M’and M’s, and different candies that resemble the cell body, dendrites and axons!

Open with this video and discuss after stopping and starting at different points or give students certain terms and definitions to listen to as they capture the answer as they listen!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDpydfpEads

ResourcesOlder Studentshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZh0A-lWSmYYounger StudentsStructure of a Neuronhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZh0A-lWSmYNeurons for Everyone!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZh0A-lWSmYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLN1UsvmVvM

Day 8- Topic- What is neuroplasticity?

Strategies/ ActivitiesBreak the word apart and what do you think this has to do with learning, feeling and behaving?

1. Ball Toss in a CircleForm a circle and choose a leader who will begin and end the ball toss. There are 2 rules! You must remember the person who you throw the ball to and who throws the ball to you! After you have received the ball and thrown it, you place your hands behind your back. The toss will end when it is tossed back to the person who started the ball toss. You will complete this exercise three times trying to increase your speed as someone takes a stopwatch and times you!This activity demonstrates that repetition and practice create a fast circuit of connection and the more we

ResourcesSentis video- Neuroplasticityhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELpfYCZa87gBackwards Brain Bicycle Videos

do anything the better we become!

Day 9- Topic-Neuroplasticity

1. Watch videos and discuss circuits in your brain that are strong and connected. These strong circuits (neurons that are firing and wiring are what we call habits!) meaning… what is something you do well?

2. Discuss what is challenging for you or something you would like to get better at!

3. Watch David Eagleman and the Stacking Cups!

Stacking Cups with Austin!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nhRPVWM9A0

Day 10- Neuroplasticity

Strategies/ ActivitiesWatch the Backwards Brain Bicycle and decide something personally or within school you are going to try for a week! Track those new habits you are forming! Teachers join in and model new forming circuits.

ResourcesBackwards Brain Bicycle Videoshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ424nF4N4U

Day – 11- Topic – Dendrites and Axons and Synapses! (Resting and Action Potentials)

Strategies/ Activities1. Create human form synapses

which create a circuit as we link hands and arms mimicking an axon and dendrite… as we link arms and then hands, squeeze the person’s hand next to you indicating a signal has passed.

2. After watching the video, write three take-aways and share with your partner!

A synapse is a chemical message sent between two neurons connecting them to one another … just like when we send a snap chat! The message is sent but disappears but the meaning of the message stays with the group of people who receive the snapchat or message! So how is a snapchat like a synapse?ResourcesSynapseshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT3VKAr4rooNeuroscience video for kids showing a neuronal connection!Younger StudentsBrain Jump with Ned the Neuron

https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=g7FdMi03CzI

Day 12 –Topic- Stress Response Systems

Strategies and Activities1. We begin discussing stress.

What is stress? Have students share their definition. How does your body feel when it is stressed? What sensations do you have? Explain to students that sometimes when we are feeling anxious, worried, angry, disgusted, or sad, we cannot always know exactly where we feel these emotions or even explain them! Sensations are physical feelings and these we can name! Here are some examples: tired, tense, itchy, cold, icy, tingly, full, numb, frozen, flowing, goosebumpy, butterflies, suffocating, closed, etc. What other sensations can you think of?

Our bodies have a stress response system that is supposed to take care of us under times of stress but sometimes it goes on overload and keeps pumping out stress hormones. Let’s watch!

2. How stress affects the brain and body!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuyPuH9ojCEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnpQrMqDoqE

3. Breathing and Moving help us to relieve the stress and this is why we are learning about focused attention practices! Wat we can name, we can tame. What is sharable is bearable!

4. Japanese Method of relieving stress/ thumb hold anxiety, first finger holds fear, middle finger holds anger, ring finger holds sadness, and pinky finger holds optimism and our self-esteem. As listen to soft instrumental music about 60 to 80 beats per minute holding each finger for 30 seconds to one minute we can dampen the stress response!

ResourcesMusic for relaxation, studying and dampening the stress response.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmoGdaOeUkQ&list=PL3K4bu5ml6giU39ifLp_Z6Ope9dqVBqt_

Day 13- Stress Response

Strategies/ Activities/ ResourcesIdeas to begin the day to release

Systems and Focused Attention Practices

the stress we carry into school!1. Taking deep breaths brings an oxygenated glucose blood flow to our frontal lobes. Taking just three deep inhales and exhales calms the emotional brain.2. Movement is critical to learning, as it activates several areas of the brain at once while calming the brain. I will usually lead with a rhythm, using a plastic cup or my body, and students will mimic me by drumming the pattern on their legs and arms. The collective sound brings a sense of community to the classroom.3. Once a day, I pass out a drop of lotion, and for 90 seconds students give their hands and fingers a massage, noticing their palms, fingertips, and any sensations that feel uncomfortable or stiff. We always reflect afterward.4. For a few minutes, have the students rock along their spine to help them feel present in their bodies. This also provides a soothing rhythm that subtly grounds them with sensation and movement.5. Placing our fingers on our throats, we begin the day with a sound or class chant and feel the vibration of our vocal cords. This gives everyone a chance to participate and to see how we can mimic different animals, instruments, and random classroom sounds such as papers crinkling.6. The students sit with their legs straight out and begin wiggling their toes and ankles, shaking knees and thighs, rotating

shoulders, arms, and finally their heads, keeping all body parts moving at the same time. Then we reverse the process and stop our heads, arms, shoulders, and on down. This gives children a great body scan and a sequence for working memory.7. Sometimes I’ll put on music and give the students old scarves, and we’ll dance around the room waving the scarves and feeling the soft sensation as we dance and pass by one another. When the music stops, we freeze and notice our postures and movements. This strategy can be led by the teacher or a student to see if we can mimic a movement or create our own.

Day 14- Topic- Emotional Triggers

Strategies / ActivitiesOn this day we will talk about how the brain does not know the difference between an actual negative event and one that we are thinking about and remembering!Use a creative visualization with a lemon . Have students hold out one hand and pretend they are holding half of a lemon. Talk them through one minute of smelling the lemon, and then squeezing the juice and pulp and seeds onto their tongues. Hold the contents of the lemon on the tongue and then swallow. After this exercise reflect on how this felt. Did their eyes water? Did they have more saliva in their mouths? Our brains do not know the difference between an actual event and thinking about something stressful. This is why we can get triggered so easily!

ResourcesWhat are some coping strategies that would feel good to you? See the above lists and model some of your own.1. Listening to music2. Exercising3. Meditation/ focused

attention practices4. Hand Lotion and rocking

along the spine5. Rocking ten times along

your spine6. Sparkler Breathing-

pretend you have two sparklers in your hands and as you move them around in the air , inhale and exhale with each movement five times. At the end, let out a slow sizzling breath- the sound a sparkler makes when it hits a bucket of water.

Let’s begin to draw or write out our triggers. Students can share, post the collection of all triggers and begin to use neuroplasticity to find coping strategies to lessen those triggers.

7. Run your hands under warm water for 90 seconds

8. Hold your cheeks with your hands for a minute.

9. Choose a sensation you are feeling and draw on paper what that sensation looks like.

10. Japanese finger squeeze

Day 15- Topic- Coping Strategies for our Triggers/ Tapping

Strategies / ActivitiesWhat is EFT?What happens in our brain when we use this calming method?

ResourcesFor Teachers!!!Tapping and its benefits for studentshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPqQGsYFsX4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s99M8eJV4sk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWx_e199k88https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoEahyKeFgoFor Teenagershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtjHUoXYojEFor younger studentshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1efrIBI9BYWhen I tap with my classes… we do not use words! We just tap the acupoints together and play a Simon Says game as sometimes the students lead this exercise in relieving negative emotion!

Day 16- Topic-The 90 Second Rule

Strategies/ ActivitiesWhat do you think this is? Let’s write down our answers or guesses!ANSWER: Our bodies on their own with our guidance can get rid of negative emotions in 90 seconds…Older secondary Students

ResourcesFor older students/ Tony Robbins/ gratitude!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT-r3-I6eY0For all Students/ Negative Brain Bias

Let’s listen to this video, hold a core pose for one minute or tap for 90 seconds… deep in our hearts feel it beating, the blood pumping, the life of our hearts that beat and pump for us all day long! What are you grateful for?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLqzYDZAqCI&list=PLImZFIKE4ka8gRAVJUO-DzD0F9BXrzopz

It is normal to feel negative emotion because our brains are wired to survive before we feel and think! And it is OK to go into survivor mode for short bits of time once in a while, but when our bodies are constantly going into that negative brain state, it becomes a hard wired habit! Above or Below the Line! - Draw your own line and let’s monitor our brain state changes all day to see where they fall and how they change!!

Day 17- Topic- Gratitude and Pay it Forward

Activities/ Resources How Does Gratitude affect the brain?Create gratitude journals as we write three things we are grateful for in our morning meeting. We will then each take five notecards and write a positive affirmation on these and share them throughout the day with other staff, students, and teachers!

Resources How Gratitude makes us happy? What can we do each day in our class to kick start our brains?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5lZBjWDR_cKid President!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA5Qpt1JRE4

Day 18 - Topic- Emotions and the Brain

Strategies /Activities1. Sentis Emotions and the

Brainhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNY0AAUtH3g

What three things did you learn about emotion and the brain?Let’s talk about Inside Out and watch the emotions as we draw from a pile of colored straws and describe the feelings we have most often each day and what is causing those in our brains! Here are some

2. Sentis Emotions and the Brain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNY0AAUtH3g

questions that will drive our learning over the next two days!These questions were designed for promoting student discussion, self-reflection, and self-awareness. Dr. Dan Seigel’s research reports that, "What is sharable is bearable."

Sadness helped Joy in the film, and your own Sadness can help you.

1. How do you cope with Sadness?2. Can you use your Sadness to feel better? How?3. What would happen if we never felt Sadness? Is it sometimes good to keep Sadness inside a circle so that it does not spread and get out of control? Why?

Day 19- Topic Emotions

Strategies/ Activities

Fear and Anger can protect and motivate us.

4. When was Fear needed in your life?5. How did Fear help you?6. What is the perfect amount of Fear?7. What happens to our thinking and problem solving when we carry too much Fear or Sadness?8. How does Anger show up in your brain?9. Has Anger ever helped you?

Resourceshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cn1pYnAZSE

10. How do you typically handle your Anger?

Disgust keeps us from being poisoned physically and socially.

11. How has the feeling of Disgust helped you?12. How has expressing Disgust hurt your relationships or experiences?

In the film, Joy plays the leading role among the feelings in Riley's brain.

13. Does Joy always play the leading role in our brains?14. What happened when Joy and Sadness left headquarters?15. How do we see Joy in your brain?16. What creates Joy to take over your brain?

Imagine having no feelings at all.

17. What would life be like if we didn't have feelings?18. Describe two positive changes in our life if we didn't have feelings.19. Describe two negative changes that could occur in a life with no feelings.

Watch what feelings you notice and how they change from the film Inside OutInside Out- With a paper and pen, record all the feelings you noticed… when have you felt similar emotion?

Day 20- Topic- Emotions/ Triggers and Coping Strategies/ New Roles in the Classroom

Strategies/ ActivitiesOn this day we will review and post our emotional triggers and the coping strategies we have created to replace the behaviors that are not working well for us!How could you share these?Assign new roles and responsibilities on your classroom that help everyone to regulate their emotions and take responsibility for one another. Here are some choices!

A. Kindness and Gratitude Keeper

B. Resource Manager- looking up topics related to what we are studying and share those!

C. Feeling Tracker- to recognize when a classmate or another student is beginning to feel negative emotion suggesting we might need a focused attention practice!

D. The Giver- what might this role be in your classroom?

Day 21- Review The Brain

Activities/ StrategiesWe are halfway through our unit! Please pick a topic you have learned about and show what you have learned through writing, drawing , using play dough or clay or any medium you would like to use!Suggestions: Create a Class Mural, Class Newsletter or website

ResourcesWe will celebrate with this video of all we have learned or maybe we create our own video to share with our staff, school, and parents!David Eagleman/ The Human Brainhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvPu2kYstcg&index=1&list=PLH_nypAO3GE0S7TDsJcqFudX2aebICjP_

Day 22- Topic- Hippocampus/ Memory

Strategies/ ActivitiesDiscussion- Your hippocampus stores memories –How is the hippocampus connected to a core memory? Let’s brainstorm

ResourcesTED ED-Older studentshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu_zOYHeGrg

and guess!

Why is memory important for learning at school? What core memories from your life make up your “personality islands”? Get to know one another by sharing core memories and personality islands! Family Island, Pet Island, Running Island, Cooking Island, etc.

Article by Dr. Lori: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/islands-of-personality-trains-of-thought -lori-desautels

Core Memories Clip from Inside Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXGhfYVAOKE

Quantum University - Hippocampus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu_zOYHeGrg

Day 23- Topic- Core Memories/ Short and Long Term

Strategies/ ActivitiesWhat happens to your memory under stress?What is the difference between a core memory and a regular memory?Share one of each and list the details of each memory! Which memory has more details? Can you write down the different details?Memory Games

1. Bring out ten items on a tray and show students for 10 seconds. See what students remember?

2. Put a short sequence and then build a longer sequence of numbers and letters together!

3. What is a long term memory and a short term memory?

4. What strengthens memory?

ResourcesDr. David Eagleman/ Memory!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu_zOYHeGrg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO1kgl0p-Hw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKzUSfzqh5A ...

Day 24 – Topics- Reviewing the learning brain and Working Memory

Strategies/ ActivitiesFollowing this video, you will write down or draw all the facts you can remember and then move to a group of four and compare how well you remembered the details of this review!

ResourcesThe Learning Brainhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgLYkV689s4

https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/working-memory-games/

Working Memory video for older studentsDr. Doolittle

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

Day 25- Topic- Our Train of Thought

Strategies/ Activities/ Questions

Questions for Students

1. When does your train of thought run smoothly with few stops?

2. When does your train of thought struggle? Why?

3. What can I do in the classroom to help your train run with great speed and accuracy?

4. What can you do to help your train of thought stay on the tracks and reach its destination?

Strategies

1. For younger students, it is important to have a tangible train of thought in the classroom. This could be a larger model of chairs and cardboard boxes, or students could build individual models of trains. Images of trains posted in an Attention and Focus corner could help to prime the brain for focus and remembering.

Resourceshttps://www.edutopia.org/blog/islands-of-personality-trains-of-thought-lori-desautels

2. For older students, creating an analogy or visualization of the train of thought could support goal setting and planning. Where is your train heading right now? Is this where you want to go? What are two changes in planning this journey that you could make today?

3. Teaching students about their neuroanatomy is empowering, as well as the foundation of learning and connection.

4. Teaching students how to calm their minds through breath and movement will help them focus attention and become better learners. You can read more about this mindful approach in:

Day 26- Topic- Emotional Regulation

Strategies/ ActivitiesWhen we ae angry, anxious, upset in any way, our PFC shuts down and it is so hard for us to think clearly or rationally or even create a pause and think before we speak or act!Can you think of a recent time when you felt this way and unintentionally spoke or acted before thinking about the consequence? We learn to pause and regulate at a very young age, but if no one in our homes shows us and teaches us how to do this… It is

ResourcesPauseYoung people with ADD often show an inability to create a pause, or a moment of self-restraint between stimulus and reaction while weighing the consequences of their impending reaction. To assist students in creating this pause, give their brains the opportunity to make associations with color, visuals, and concrete objects. Tangible

much harder when we get older!Choose a few of these videos and watch with students! Then we can discuss our coping strategies again! Are we using these to emotionally regulate?

items can be symbolic reminders for students of all ages. Here are examples of signaling an intentional pause:• Flicking a red rubber band bracelet on our wrists or placing a red ball cap on our heads are two practices that teachers could model and repeatedly share when a pause is needed before making a hurried emotional or academic decision.• Accompanied with a tangible item, teachers can help students identify words that are analogous to waiting and hesitating. Stop, halt, think, rest, breathe, float, and tread could be posted in specific areas of the room with pictures and images to add meaning.• Students could bring in an object from home that reminds them to stop, pause, and wait. These personal objects could be placed in a “red corner,” a highlighted area in the classroom where they are seen as reminders. Seeing, saying, and experiencing meaningful and personal reminders can effectively create associations and metaphors that the brain desires and needs for personalizing new responses.The strategies in this section originally appeared on Edutopia in my article: “Strengthening Executive Function Development for Students With ADD” https://www.edutopia.org/ blog/executive-functiondevelopment-students-addlori-desautels22PresenceLearning © 2017. All Rights Reserved.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4UGDaCgo_s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs559guIGDo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFkRbUKy19g

Day 27- Topic- Emotions are Contagious

Strategies/ ActivitiesMirror Neurons- What are these?Stand in front of the class with a big cold glass of water and drink it slowly… taking deliberate sips and watching and talking to the students about how delicious this water tastes!Now we process!How did this make you feel?What did you experience as you watched this person slowly sipping and enjoying cold water?Let’s talk about mirror neurons! Watch the videos and we discuss! Think of a time in your life when someone’s actions or bad mood was felt by you even if you were not directly involved with them!

ResourcesAll Studentshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTFdMwCXpMwWe are human magnets… picking up other’s feelings, thoughts and actions subconsciously!We are social brains!Empathy and Mirror Neuronshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzMqPYfeA-s&list=RDQMDzvo_A7NaXY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmEsGQ3JmKg&index=2&list=RDQMDzvo_A7NaXY

Day 28- Topic- Social Brains

Strategies/ ActivitiesWe cannot live without one another! We are wired for relationship and cannot really function well without one another!Make a list of everything you can do by yourself without anyone!Make a list of everything you do each day that involves another!

ResourcesFor All students!From Neurons to Networks!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLp-edwiGUUSentis/ Social Brainshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0XmZW6xYSg

Day 29- Topic- Social Brains

Strategies / ActivitiesBring in a thick book like a telephone book! Show how easy it is to tear one page and then grab 50 or 100 pages together and try to tear these! If you have enough pages, they simply will not tear! We are stronger in group and collaboration!Why do we we sometimes though not get along in groups? Could it be that our survival brain is kicking into action??

ResourcesDr. Matt LiebermanFor older students/ watch in small segments and discuss!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNhk3owF7RQ

Teaching Empathy to studentshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU3QfyqvHk8

How could we work to collaborate in better ways working like a thick book that’s pages cannot be torn when working together!

Day 30- Topic- Empathy

Strategies/ ActivitiesThe Bystander EffectDo you ever feel like you should help someone but you don’t when you are in a group of people? Watch this and think of a time when we did or did not!!

Can animals teach us empathy?Can animals pick up on our emotions?

ResourcesOlder studentsThe Bystander Effecthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy6eUTLzcU4The Empathy Gaphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdLOkqMfRJkAll Studentshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzPMMSKfKZQ

Young students on Empathy/ Mirror NeuronsSesame Street!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_1Rt1R4xbM

Day 31-Topic- Multiple Intelligence

Strategies/ Activities1. What are Multiple

Intelligences?2. The question we need to

begin asking ourselves and our students is: “How are you smart?” Not… “How smart are you?”

ResourcesWhat is Multiple Intelligence?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2EdujrM0vA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf6lqfNTmaM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=falHoOEUFz0

Day 32-Topic- Multiple Intelligences continued…

Strategies/ Activities1. Let’s look at our own

intelligences!2. What are our learning

strengths and our learning challenges?

3. 3. What vocations match our intelligences?

Resourceshttps://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-assessment

http://literacynet.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

Older Studentshttp://kerstens.org/alicia/planning10/Multiple%20Intelligences%20Inventory.pdf

Matching careers to multiple intelligenceshttp://bestcareermatch.com/career-chart

Thomas Armstrong- https://www.teachervision.com/using-multiple-intelligences-theory-choosing-career

Day 33- Topic- Adolescent Brain

Strategies / Activities1. How is the adolescent brain

unique?2. What are the gifts of the

adolescent brain?3. Why is middle school so hard

sometimes?4. This brain is going through its

second greatest time of development… how does this happen?

What or who was your Bing Bong? Could it be an object (like a blanket or teddy bear) or something abstract?

What does Bing Bong symbolize? Why is it important for Riley to let

go of Bing Bong? Why did Bing Bong jump off the

wagon? What makes it so sad for the

audience (especially parents and adults) as we watch this part?

Do we really ever lose Bing Bong? Explain.

Do you have a core memory of an experience from your imagination? What is it like?

Resources

Opening documentary for 10- on up !!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGdlpaWi3rc

Great two minutes to explain adolescent brain!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dISmdb5zfiQ

The Adolescent Brainhttps://www.edutopia.org/blog/adolescent-brain-leaving-childhood-behind-lori-desautelsVideo clips of Bing Bong and the Adolescent Brainhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXj61BXEy2M

Explaining adolescent Brain for older studentshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiduiTq1ei8

Dr. Jill Bolte Tayor

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

Day 34- Topic- Music and the Brain

Strategies/ Activities1. Have you ever played a

musical instrument?

ResourcesMusic and Your Brainhttps://www.youtube.com/

2. Do you enjoy listening to music?

3. How does music make you feel?

4. Does music bring up memories?

5. What do you think happens in the brain when you play an instrument or listen to music?

Play four different melodies for students…each for about one minute and have students draw or write how these different songs make them feel!

Play three or four different instrumental melodies and have students draw what they hear creating lines, shapes, various colors and anything that comes to mind!

watch?v=R0JKCYZ8hng

Playing music is like a full body work out!https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing-an-instrument-benefits-your-brain-anita-collins#digdeeper

Engaging every area of the brain at once!Listening to music that calms us!60- 80 decibels-https://www.inc.com/john-rampton/the-benefits-of-playing-music-help-your-brain-more.html

Day 35- Topic- Question and Answer Day about the Brain

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/brain-games/?lp=trueBrain Games/ Brain Craft videos for students high interest and engagementhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVy5E2DZkKM&list=PLQwg0PxpUPloVUzfl75OuwJTPjCgn8jzM

Day 36- Topic- Movement and Music and the Brain

Strategies/ ActivitiesExercise is really for the brains!!The Hindu Squat!John Rotey!

1. Divide students into 4 or 5 groups and have each group develop an exercise routine to lead each week!

Exercise affects our moods, learning and memory! It is not about weight loss!

Resourceshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBSVZdTQmDs

TED ED- Exercise!https://ed.ted.com/on/GGONwzhW

Day 37- Topic- Movement and the Brain

Strategies / ActivitiesRhythms – Try each morning meeting to create a rhythm with hands, stomping or rocking using

Resourceshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l_6K9hrpxY

props such as cups, to mimic one another listening for the beat while moving our bodies together!

Use these at least two or three times a week!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kt4yWC1dfk

Hand clap game ( make up your own!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ICDWs7lnfI

Younger Students!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4zsLZzU5xE

Day 38- Topic- Sleep and the Brain

Strategies/ ActivitiesHow does sleep happen?Why do we sleep?What happens in the brain when we sleep?Let’s record our sleep for a week!How can we do this? What will look for?How do you fall asleep?What is your routine for falling asleep?What are your distractions when you are trying to fall asleep?

ResourcesWatch and let’s talk!!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o2yyO0JAes

Losing Sleep is dangerous!!It affects memory, learning, causes disease, immune function, and mood and reaction time, high blood pressure and many other toxic conditions!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqONk48l5vY

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

Day 39- Topic- Food and the Brain

Strategies/ Activities

1. Bring pictures or actual food items to class! As you hold up each item, have students rate the healthiest and the worst foods we eat!

2. Make a menu of how you eat every day! Create a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu and include drinks!

3. How much water do you drink?

4. Let’s discover how the foods we eat affect our brains!

ResourcesTED EDHow our brains are affected by foods?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyQY8a-ng6ghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sISguPDlhY How sugar affects the brainhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEXBxijQREo

Day 40 – Topic Art Strategies/ Activities Resources

and the BrainSee Below on Bi-lateral ScribblingAnimal TotemsDrawing and naming our sensations and feelings!

Art for Healing from Adversity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mweZR7gw_cU

Very important!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-eRAxCXX3w

For Teachers/ and all Educators

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo_a0bTacCM

See Addendum!Day 41- 45- Brain Projects

Strategies/ ActivitiesCreate a week of neuroscience projects to showcase for other classrooms and staff! Students can work in pairs, alone or in ways that feel most comfortable! This is a week of summation and celebration in how the brain affects all our learning, behaviors, and relationships.

This week could be followed with so many ongoing activities!

1. Neuroscience Club for students

2. Brain Book Study for educators

3. Building a Brain Lab

Resources

https://www.edutopia.org/users/dr-lori-desautels

Addressing Adversity through Sensations, Emotions, Art Movement and Breath!

Dr. Lori Desautels

College of Education

Butler University

The trauma and adversity that students are carrying into classrooms and schools is changing how educators need to address higher levels of learning and cognition. Fifty-one percent of children in public schools live in low income households, equating to over 47,000 schools. When poverty rates are less than 10% the United States ranks at the highest levels of any country in the world in reading, math and science. But when the poverty levels exceed 50%, there is a significant drop in academic performance across all grade levels and this is where the media distorts how the students in the United States are performing overall! In this time, 25% of all adolescents are experiencing anxiety disorders and this number actually climbs to 30% with adolescent girls. https://www.elementsbehavioralhealth.com/featured/teenagers-are-feeling-more-anxious-than-ever/

Up to one in five American youngsters — about 7 to 12 million, experience a mental health disorder each year, according to a new report billed as the first comprehensive look at the mental health status of children in the country. And the rate is increasing, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which produced the study in 2014.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/cdc-says-20-percent-of-us-children-have-mental-health-disorders/2013/05/19/8c316b42-c0b3-11e2-8bd8-2788030e6b44_story.html?utm_term=.4bc4c0f7b7e7

In this time, we are required to attend to much more than teaching reading science and math. This time calls for a deeper understanding of how our brains develop, respond to adversity and how every experience changes the structure and function of brain architecture. Educators have the ability and honor to address the science of adversity and the biology of stress which can hijack the areas of the brain that need to be activated to attend, engage, and learn inside our nation’s classrooms.

Significant poverty, anxiety, and other adverse childhood experiences compromise and impair the systems in our brains that are intimately connected to learning, behavior, and positive emotion. In particular the limbic system has an affinity for cortisol, a stress hormone produced in our bodies and brains when we need to be alert and pay attention. When children are exposed to unbuffered chronic levels of stress, cortisol is overproduced and can actually kill off receptors in the hippocampus, an area in the limbic system responsible for learning and memory. When adversity and trauma have been present throughout a young child or adolescent’s life, the sensory and motor areas and right hemisphere in the brain are compromised from a lack of maternal input and emotional regulation during critical periods of development. The right

hemisphere comes on board the first year of life and holds negative emotion, visual images and implicit memories. Adversity can become stuck in this area as students move through development.

Many children and adolescents carrying in adversity and trauma struggle with processing, organizing and expressing incoming stimulation which can impede higher cognitive learning! When we activate the right hemisphere through sensations, movement, art, music, connection and play, we help our students to regulate negative emotions, feel connected and integrate left and right hemisphere where connections between verbal and nonverbal communication strengthen.

Just as there is a neurobiology of stress and adversity, we also have uncovered a neurobiology of trust and connection which helps mediate the adversities so many of our students carry into the classroom. We are now called as educators to understand the malleability of the brain and the power of relationships that can safeguard and heal the interconnections between various areas of higher cortical thinking and the emotional centers of the brain.

Why does all of this matter? In today’s world, teachers are not only facing significant challenges within the fragile brains of students that directly impede learning but more important, our educators are experiencing second hand trauma from the pressures of being unprepared to address the emotional and social challenges of a child’s well-being.

Students “carry in” their experiences, private thoughts, cultures and a continuum of feelings that change often! Students who carry in pain based behaviors sometimes need for us to enter the back door of their brains (the brain stem area) as the frontal lobes are often shut down and not able to process words, logic and heightened emotions. The back door is where we can address the lower parts of the sensory and motor systems that are often compromised when chronic stress is present.

Teachers who can step out of a disruptive pattern of communication and behavior with salient tasks, have a much better chance of connecting to the students first thing in the morning and throughout the class period or day! There is an area in the brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS) and this area in the brain stem is always on alert for salient information in the environment. It is a primitive filter and when sensory information comes in that is pleasurable and motivating …even for a few minutes, the higher brain has a better chance of processing cognitive tasks and academic assignments.

Regulating brain states is not a warm fuzzy extra. Our students are walking into our classrooms and schools with significant anxiety and negative emotion! The impact of stress and adversity on the brain and body intimately affect our emotional physiological and cognitive health. When the stress response is chronically activated there is decreased volume in the hippocampus which affects memory, irregular levels of neurotransmitters, an overproduction of neuronal connections in the limbic areas of the brain affecting fear, anxiety, and impulsive responses.

The following strategies and activities are intended to assist with emotional regulation, build attachment and connection in the classroom, as most of our troubled students are operating from the lower structures of the brain with reactive cognition. When we can support these lower structures there is a much better chance for information to reach the Prefrontal Cortex which is attached to all parts of the brain.

Adversity intimately affects development of the Right hemisphere and this right hemisphere is the locus of control over emotions and behavior.

Addressing Implicit Memory, Emotions, Images and the Sensations Resting in the Brain Stem and Limbic Structures of the Brain

1. Sensation awareness can be introduced and shared each morning during the morning meeting or community time.

Adversity and trauma reside in our biology not our psychology!! The amygdale is our emotional switching station but the stress response begins in the brain stem!!!

The language of the amygdala is feelings!

The language of the prefrontal cortex is words!

BUT the language of the brain stem is sensation!

To begin the day, have students share with a picture or description how their bodies feel. Examples are jittery, tense, pressure, cold , tingly, like jell-o, butterflies, hot, chilly, shaky, icy, weak, empty ,full, tearful, goosebumpy, heavy , open, etc.

Here is a Sensation Word Box -

Cold/ warm/ hot/chilly

twitchy/ butterflies

sharp/ dull/itchy

shaky/trembly/tingly

hard/ soft/stuck/jittery/icy/weak

relaxed/calm/ peaceful

empty/ full

flowing/spreading

strong/ tight tense

dizzy/ fuzzy/ blurry

numb/prickly/ jumpy/owie/ tearful/ goosebumpy

light/ heavy/open

Tickly/ cool/ silky

Still/clammy/ loose

Sensations are different than emotions! They describe the physical way the body feels. Children who are struggling with speaking can point to places on their body that hold a sensation. Sensory awareness promotes cognitive growth and self-awareness.

When students can begin to identify their sensations, they begin to tap into the body and brain where the negative feelings and images are!

Questions to ask!

1. What are you sensing? As the teacher begin sharing and modeling your own sensations!

2. Where is this in your body?

3. What might be the reason for these butterflies?

4. Thank you for sharing as it is so important to know how you feel in your body as this helps reduce some of the negative feelings!

5 What would feel better to you? How can we or I help?

What helps?

1. Just sharing can reduce and dampen the stress response

2. A Focused Attention Practice- breathing and some movement

3. Take a few minutes and draw on a sheet of paper what your sensation looks like!! What color would you give to (itchy, tense, fuzzy, or clammy (for example.) Are they small or large? Does this sensation feel friendly or angry?

From the research of Dr. Peter Levine

When we tap into sensations then we can attach emotions to them and finally when we're ready, we can provide words or the story!!!

Just as the brain is built from the bottom or back to front, our experiences of adversity begin in the brain stem and can become stuck! This is true for all of us. As Dr. Dan Seigel states, "What is shareable is bearable and what we can name, we can tame!"

Animal Totems

Students will view pictures or figures of animals. They will then choose an animal that they are most conned to either positively or negatively.

After exploring their animal the teacher asks the following questions and these can be answered during a whole class exercise or students can share their responses with a partner, through a picture or they may write down their responses.

A. What is it about this animal that you like or dislike?B. How is this animal like you in any way?/ How is this animal nothing like you?C. What are the two best qualities about tis animal? What are the two worst qualities? D. What would the home of this animal look like?E. Who is in this animal’s family and do they get along with one another?F. If you could give this animal magic powers, what would they be?

From Linda Chapman’s Work with troubled children and adolescents

2. Bi-Lateral ScribblingA. With a large sheet of paper and two different markers in each hand, students will follow the

directive of the teacher.B. Make random marks up and downC. Make horizontal marks across your paperD. Make large arcs across your paperE. Make large circlesF. Make circles fastG. Make circles slowH. Make dots all over your paper

Questions to Ask!

Is there anything about this scribbling that resembles you or any part of you?

Is there anything about this scribbling that is nothing like you?

Are there any pictures or designs you see in this scribbling?

What word comes to mind as you look at your scribbling?

Would that word describe something about you or someone you know?

3. Filling up the page with shapes and colors! This activity will explore a child’s feelings! Are they aware of their feelings and what might be his or her perception of self? Please select the colors of markers or tissue paper that represent your feelings and begin to draw and color his or her feelings filling up the paper as much as he or she wants! Feelings can overlap, run together or are displayed in any way the students choose. Questions that follow.

A. What color is the largest? If it had a voice what might the color say?B. What color is the smallest? If it had a voice what might this color say?C. What color gives advice? D. What color would like to be in charge? What color is in charge? E. Which color would like to hide?F. Which color would protect the hiding color? G. Which color is most peaceful? H. Which color is least peaceful? I. Is there anything you would like to change about the image?

4. Create Your Own Room and Place

Imagine having a room or space that is all yours! They can decorate it and furnish it anyway they would like. You have complete control to decide who is allowed in the room and who is excluded.

Questions

1. How would you spend your time in this room? 2. Who is allowed to visit? Who is not allowed to visit?3. How would you care for your room? 4. What person, object or decoration makes this room the most special? Why?

Linda Chapman/ Neurobiological Informed Trauma Therapy for Children and Adolescents

These activities build sensory and motor systems to develop the mind, body, self, activating the right hemisphere with visual and sensory experiences! They also address the missed opportunities of emotional –regulation aiding in neurological development which leads to cognitive development!

Brain Intervals and Focused Attention Practices

1. Taking deep breaths brings an oxygenated glucose blood flow to our frontal lobes. Taking just three deep inhales and exhales calms the emotional brain! There are many ways to teach our students how to breathe and why this is important. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/brain-breaks-focused-attention-practices-lori-desautels

2. Movement is critical to learning and when we move, we activate the frontal lobes waking up our executive functions while lessening the stress response system. We begin and end the day with red cup drumming and body drumming! Taking turns a student leads with a rhythm and then we follow. We drum a pattern on our legs and arms and we mimic the leader. Red cups are fun to use as well as the collective sound brings a sense of community and family to the classroom!

3. Hand Massage- Once a day I pass out a drop of lotion and for 90 seconds students give their hands and fingers a massage noticing their palms, joints finger tips and any sensations that feel uncomfortable or stiff.

4. Rocking along the spine of our backs helps us to feel present in our bodies and provides a soothing rhythm that subtly grounds us with sensation and movement.

5. Placing our fingers on our throats, the teacher begins the day with a sound and then the students mimic the sound feeling the vibration of their vocal chords! This gives everyone a chance to participate and to see how different voice tones, volumes feel in the body.

6. Crab Walk and Slithering Snake-7. Domino Effect- 8. Scarf Dancing-9. Writing with the opposite hand10. Bi-lateral movements11. Writing out worries on post-its12. Toe and heel walking13. Rubbing hands together until they feel hot and then release 14. Tastes –sour to sweet15. Neck Massage

1. Eyes Closed: Write your first middle and last name with your eyes closed.

Alternate option: Write a sentence about what we just learned with your eyes closed or write three vocabulary words connected to content.

2. Scramble and Unscramble: Give students a word and ask them to make other words with the letters in that word. (i.e. Breakfast: rake, fast, eat, ate)

Alternate option: Use a vocabulary word that is connected to your content.

3. Favorite Food: Describe your favorite food to a partner for 30 seconds using only adjectives.

4. Secret Language: Create a secret language with a partner and practice using it for 30 seconds.

5. Fist Pumping and Stomping: Pump your right fist and count to 6. Pump your left fist and count to 6. Stomp with your right foot and count to 6. Stomp with your left foot and count

to 6. Repeat counting to 5, then 4, then 3, all the way to one and done! 6. Desk Tapping: A leader taps a pattern on the desk or table. Pause for two seconds, then

say go! The class repeats the pattern. 7. Pen Flipping: Start by tossing a pen to yourself and trying to make it turn one and half

times. Then toss your pen to a partner. 8. Opposite Hand Writing: Put your pen in your non-dominant hand and write your name in

the most beautiful font possible. 9. Junk Bag: Grab an object from the junk bag. Come up with a new purpose for that object. 10. Pop: For 30 seconds count as fast as you can and replace every third number with “pop!”

11. Wave with right hand and pat your belly with left hand…then switch!12. Wink with one eye and snap with your fingers on the opposite hand…then switch!

13. Make an L-shape with your left hand and put your pinky up on your right hand…then switch!

14. Bilateral Scribbling: Get a piece of paper and two markers. Draw on the paper with both markers at the same time. Vertical lines, horizontal lines, polka dots, arches, circles etc.

**This helps the right and left hemisphere communicate. It helps students to regulate.**

Grab your left ear with your right hand and your nose with your left hand…then switch!

Put arms out in a T. Close your eyes and pulse your arms for 90 seconds.

Focused Attention Practices and Brain Intervals

https://www.edutopia.org/article/quick-classroom-exercises-combat-stress

Brain Aligned Bell Work

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/new-way-deliver-bell-work-lori-de

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/energy-calm-change-it-up-lori-desautels