Brain Rules: 12 Things We Know About How The Brain Works. Dr. Shanker and Self Regulation – Continuing the Conversation | February 19, 2013 by cultureofyes Two of my most popular posts have been about Dr. Stuart Shanker and his work; each post has received well over 10,000 views. To recap, the first post in November 2010 is here and the second one here was written in April 2012. West Vancouver is part of the first wave of school districts in British Columbia, along with Bulkley Valley, Coquitlam, Greater Victoria, Nanaimo and Surrey, who are working together on a project to implement and monitor the impact of self-regulated instructional models. One of the greatest contributions to date has been a one-stop shop for resources on Self-Regulation (here).
Dr. Westcot Principal, Liz Hill describes her school’s work with The Zones of Regulation: We often make the assumption that children know how to identify their emotions, but akin to teaching reading, writing and math, emotional literacy is a skill that needs to be taught to our children. Like this: Like Loading... Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness - Educate My Mind... Ten Signs Your Child Might Have An Anxiety Disorder | Therapy Soup. As part of our series on National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week (May 6-12) we’ve been posting interviews and information about children and mental health.
Today, we’re posting a brief interview on anxiety in children with Jerome Bubrick, PhD, of the Child Mind Institute. Dr. Bubrick is a nationally renowned cognitive and behavioral psychologist who’s a dedicated advocate for children and their families, Dr. Bubrick is a significant public voice educating parents and teachers about the fear at the roots of anxiety—and how it’s effectively treated. Welcome, Dr. Sometimes the symptoms of an anxiety disorder are the same, but they might affect children and adults in different ways. Their anxiety might make them do certain things, like line things up in a superstitious way, but they won’t know why.
Have the incidents of anxiety disorders in children increased in the past 20-30 years or have the reporting/diagnosis improved? We know much more now. They often won’t want to be social. 12 Things You Should Be Able to Say About Yourself. You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. – Mae West You know you’re on the right track when you can repeat each of the following headlines to yourself, honestly.
(And if you can’t, this list gives you something positive to work on.) 1. I am following my heart and intuition. Don’t be pushed by your problems. Each of us has a fire in our hearts burning for something. And as you strive to achieve your goals, you can count on there being some fairly substantial disappointments along the way. 2. You are your own best friend and your own biggest critic. People who are proud of themselves tend to have passions in life, feel content and set good examples for others. Being proud isn’t bragging about how great you are; it’s more like quietly knowing that you’re worth a lot. 3.
Act as if what you do makes a difference. Is it true that we all live to serve? You are only one, but you are one. 4. Happiness is within you, in your way of thinking. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Related. The Importance of Teaching Mindfulness. Flickr: ssoosay By Aran Levasseur Think of sitting quietly in a spartan room. There are no TVs, computers, smartphones, books, magazines or music. If you’re like most people, this probably sounds like a recipe for boredom. In our culture, we avoid moments of “not-doing” because we don’t associate boredom with having any value. And our aversion to boredom and not-doing have been amplified in our hyper-connected age. It’s been said that the currency of the Net is attention. A torrent of stimulation is just a click or touchscreen away, ensuring that even the slightest trace of boredom can be mitigated through constant screen connectivity.
Recent brain imaging studies reveal that sections of our brains are highly active during down time. “Downtime is to the brain what sleep is to the body.” According to a report from the University of California, San Diego, in 28 years — from 1980 to 2008 — our consumption of information increased 350 percent, while our downtime continues to shrink. Anxiety: It's Not What You Have, It's What You Do. “If we don’t recognize what is going on in our heads we find it easy to assume that somehow our anxieties come to us ready made from the outside. It can feel as though they are happening to us and that they are caused by something outside of us.” Who wants to live forever? By AndWhyNot According to Charles Merrett, clinical psychology as a treatment for anxiety doesn’t really work the way we’d like it to. And he should know . . . he’s been a clinical psychologist for more than 35 years.
The way people think and speak about anxiety (“EverydaySpeak” as Merrett calls it) is as if it is a condition, or something that has “happened” to you. Merrett uses the example of “The Speeding Car” to illustrate his point. It is only when you become aware of the car and begin to attach significant meaning to the situation that the anxiety comes into play. But attaching meaning to something has another effect also. I was always so certain of what i'd do by Meredith_Farmer “Our minds are rarely idle. Autism, Aspergers, ADHD. Learning to BREATHE | A Mindfulness Curriculum for Adolescents. How To Teach The Relaxation Response. Tips for Teaching Mindfulness to Kids. How can we build the quality of mindfulness in our children, our classrooms, and our schools? The Oakland-based Mindful Schools program, of which I am a co-founder and co-director, teaches children in public and private elementary, middle, and high schools how to be more mindful of their thoughts and actions.
As of the fall of 2009, Mindful Schools had brought our five-week in-class mindfulness training to over 7,000 children in 26 schools, 22 of which serve low-income children. The program is secular, extremely cost-effective, and uses short, interactive exercises that are tailored for children. Both quantitative and qualitative responses from teachers, principals, and students have indicated that our program greatly improves the classroom and the overall school environment. Purpose. Because this is a tool that students can utilize throughout their life, it is important that the connotation of “mindfulness” remains accurate. Have your own mindfulness practice. Create the environment. Teachers Guide | The Buddha. By Dr. Amy Saltzman Download this guide as a .pdf or a Word .doc. What Is Mindfulness? This brief document provides a working definition of mindfulness, an overview of the scientific rationale for offering mindfulness to children and adolescents, a review of the professional and personal benefits of practicing mindfulness, specific suggestions for developing your own mindfulness practice (which is a prerequisite to sharing mindfulness with your students), and two examples of practices you can use in your classroom.
While there are many definitions of mindfulness, the definition I use with children and adolescents is: Mindfulness is paying attention to your life, here and now, with kindness and curiosity. As human beings we have the unique capacity to pay attention to/be aware of our internal and external worlds and the interactions between the two. Why Is Mindfulness Important? Stress and Learning As a classroom teacher, you already know that many of your students are stressed. Home | Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education. How To Start a Meditation Program in Your School.
Middle school teacher Rose Ludwig rings the bell to begin Quiet Time, a daily program of silence and optional meditation for students. Quiet Time (QT) is a program of mandatory quietude and optional meditation that happens schoolwide, twice a day at Visitacion Valley Middle School (VVMS) in San Francisco. It was implemented by the Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education (CWAE), a San Francisco nonprofit organization that is a national leader of whole-school implementation of QT.
Here are some of the pieces that needed to come into place for QT to run and succeed at VVMS as well as tips for how you can get started and trained. Setup and Process To ensure success, the setup is critical. Students must be in their seats with their desks clear (unless they will be reading or writing during QT, which is permitted for students who elect not to meditate) and not talking. A good duration for QT in middle school is 15 minutes. Requirements for Success How to Get Trained in Meditation.
Classroom Mindfulness. Mindful Schools - Engaging children. Supporting educators. Transforming schools. Positive Psychology Interventions with Depression. Sometime in the last century I was stuck in the Geneva airport waiting for a snowstorm to pass so that I could catch my long-delayed flight home. My mood had turned as bleak as the sky. This was no surprise. My default position seemed to hover somewhere just above depression. I fished Martin Seligman’s Learned Optimism out of my bag. Within a few pages, the seeds of my transformation were sown, and I had found a path that would lead to authentic happiness.
What Does Positive Psychology Have to Do with Depression? My own experience was more akin to tropical storms in the soul with highs followed by lows. One of the most dispiriting things about having a visit from the black dog (a frequent symbol for depression) is the narrow range of treatment available, which usually boils down to anti-depressant medication or one of the talking therapies. Positive psychology forged its reputation as the study of happiness with a goal of increasing the tonnage of happiness on the planet. My First PPI.