** Brain Post 2… of many (to come)! **
** More science-y stuff **
A few days ago, I published a post about why teaching is so hard right now. I received such amazing feedback on that post that I have decided to carve out time to write one or two follow ups each week because there is just so much to know and understand. We are hungry for anything that will help us make sense of our current realities and for any and all tips/hints/tricks that will help us out. You can read that first post, Why Is This So Hard? here, in which I promised today’s Brain Intervals.
Before we get into why Brain Intervals work and are important, we need to understand a little more about the brain. In The Body Keeps Score, van der Kolk asserts that the brain develops from the bottom up.
This means the Brain Stem is the first to develop. In fact, it is fully developed at birth. The Limbic System develops next and the Cortex last.
Applied to the school setting, we can see that the focus has always been on developing the thinking, analyzing, and planning skills (the Cortex) of our students. For many years, that has worked quite well. In fact, we’re are pretty darned good at it!
What we haven’t been so good at is creating a system where teachers know how to interpret when student behaviors indicate they are operating from their Limbic Systems. Nor does our current educational system allow any space for teachers to adequately address student brain states. The end result is students AND teachers operating from “Collapse” or “Shutdown” (more on that later). The fact that so many teachers are worn out to the point of giving up entirely and quitting the profession is evidence that we need to do more educating about brain states and we need to do it now.
How do Brain Intervals play into co-regulation of students? Before we can answer that question, we need to understand Porges’ Polyvagal Theory. Read in detail here, but in short:
- Physiological states can support different kinds of behaviors.
- There is a connection between the body’s physiological state and the mind’s psychological experience. And,
- Neuroception (the brain’s ability to assess risk and dampen the flight/flight response) can trigger or inhibit defense strategies.
Take a look at this chart from Dr. Lori Desaultels, from Butler University.
Look at the words used to describe our emotional baseline: joy, love, relaxed, happy, creative, SAFE, calm, grounded, focused, and more. When we are in our baseline, or the parasympathetic pathway (Ventral Vagus Nerve), our defensive responses are dampened. We have no need to defend ourselves and can easily function in social situations.
Now look at the words that describe the sympathetic pathway: embarrassed, discomfort, irritated, annoyed, ANGRY, aching, shame, panic, FEAR…. When we are in the sympathetic pathway, our fuel storage, digestion, immune response and more decrease while blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, and adrenaline increase. We are able to defend ourselves in this state.
Lastly, look at the words to describe the parasympathetic pathway (Dorsal Vagus Nerve): OVERWHELM, blocked, NUMB, depression, shameful, DISCONNECTED, disassociation, hopeless, helpless, ISOLATED… this is a pretty distressing list! In this state, we will experience an increase in fuel storage, insulin, and endorphins that numb the pain threshold. Uh, HELL-O!? Anyone have unexplained weight gain right now??? We will also experience a decrease in heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, muscle tone, eye contact, awareness of the human voice, and social behaviors. We can see this in the hallways at school – 9th graders acting like 7th graders sound familiar??? People, this is what COLLAPSE looks like.
Look at this chart again. Do a quick mental health check.
In what pathway are you mostly existing?
Me? I see so many signs of collapse. So much of the time I feel isolated and that no one can understand what I’m going through. But it’s just not true. We teachers are ALL overwhelmed (and I would argue society as a whole) and operating from our parasympathetic pathways (dorsal). To put it simply: we are shutdown.
I encourage you to spend some time getting to know Dr. Desautel’s Polyvagal Chart. Track your nervous system state for a week. On a post-it note record the time of day and the state you are in. Do this 5-6 times each day. At the end of the week, look back and see where you are most frequently. Note the number of times that you cross into the sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways (dorsal) and back to parasympathetic (ventral). It is quite common throughout the day to move around on the chart and experience a wide variety of emotions.
In my last post I posited that when the amygdala is controlling the brain, or sensing danger, no learning can take place. It also seems that a large number of us, students especially, are in fight/flight and even collapse. It makes sense then that we take on a new approach to education. If the brain develops from the bottom up (brain stem –> limbic system –> cortex), then we need to educate from the bottom up. The best way to do that is through true Brain Intervals. NOT Brain Breaks that wreak havoc on our brain states and cause a loss of class control, but true Brain Intervals that we process together and that (hopefully) students will begin to take with them to other parts of their lives. Brain Intervals can signal to the amygdala (which is always searching for danger) that students are safe. Once safety is established, the prefrontal cortex can do its job: learn.
Brain Intervals work because they reduce the emotions of irritation, agitations, and more. When we are in this state, we take shorter breaths. The shallower we breath, the more carbon dioxide builds in our system. Guess what excess CO2 does to brain states? Yep! You guessed it! The buildup of carbon dioxide actually leads to increased feelings of irritation and agitation. Breathing deeply and controlling those breaths reduces carbon dioxide and increases our oxygen levels and this, in turn, calms us physiologically. A calm body leads to a calm mind. Imagine a school where Brain Intervals are the norm and student brain states are addressed all day in every class. In this school, adults would co-regulate students through the power of deep breathing (among other calming strategies) so they (adults AND students) can begin to recognize their brain states and how to regulate them.
[Learn more about Brain Intervals here.]
[To learn more about what student behaviors are REALLY saying, check out this article.]
Now, for what you’ve been patiently awaiting… A Brain Interval Resource!
This Google Slides deck has 15 ready to go Brain Intervals with suggested questions to ask to help students process their brain / body states.
You can copy/paste whichever slides you want to use right into your existing slideshows. If you have a longer class period (i.e. block scheduling) you might use several. You can use a different one each day or one per week. There is no WRONG way to use them. As long as students are making connections between their brain and body states, you are doing it correctly. After a while, you will have your favorites to use with each class. Individual students will have their favorites, too.
**Important Note**
I never force anyone to participate. Students may participate at THEIR level of comfort. They can close their eyes and do every arm movement and breath, or not. They can simply sit still and not bother anyone else. Or, they can do the deep breathing only. By allowing choice of participation, I have noticed that even my toughest, most resistant students eventually participate. They are the ones who now enter and request specific breathing activities!
I never force anyone to participate. Students may participate at THEIR level of comfort. They can close their eyes and do every arm movement and breath, or not. They can simply sit still and not bother anyone else. Or, they can do the deep breathing only. By allowing choice of participation, I have noticed that even my toughest, most resistant students eventually participate. They are the ones who now enter and request specific breathing activities!
For you own copy of these Brain Intervals, just click here. Please feel free to share far and wide, I just ask that you give credit where credit is due.
Will this magically change your classroom environment overnight? Nope. But if we train ourselves and our students to recognize our brain states and to apply one or more of these calming strategies, we can start to see change over time. I often tell my students that my brain is dysregulated and I need a Brain Interval. This is part of modeling for them how they can name their brain state and so they can begin to “tame it.” There is no shame in teaching students what it looks like to state the need to calm yourself.
If you like these strategies, please comment below. If you have suggestions, please send me an email at SenoraJotaJota@gmail.com.
Next week’s post: The 2×10 Strategy to build connections and trust with some of your most difficult students!
Until then, happy teaching!
Wow.
Thank you SO MUCH!
These are fabulous.
I especially like that you offer students different levels of participation.
Thank you again for sharing a resource that I will DEFINITELY be incorporating in my 7th grade classes, as much for me as for my students!
So glad I found this post – I saw some of these posted in your slideshow you shared for the fish commercial, and I was hoping you had more! I’ve really been wanting to incorporate these kinds of practices into my classroom more