By Heather Bredin I have always wanted to create a classroom environment that communicates safety and promotes self-expression and respect. But when the COVID-19 virus hit the world, our goals shifted to a different kind of safety: physical safety from the...
By: Vicki Parnell “You’re doing WHAT? WHY?” “I feel anxious just thinking about that.” With reactions like this, you’d think I was I talking about going skydiving, wrestling with sharks, or conducting some kind of dangerous medical experiments on my body. Nothing that...
By: Brigid Berry Recognizing stressors can be tricky. We are not mind-readers nor can we memorize a list of possible stressors and access them immediately. Time constraints, distractions and expectations can hamper our ability to readily identify and...
By: Lindsay Hayes, Program Assistant Mentor, Pembina Hills School Division I love my job, but this week was hard. Really hard. Like so many people around me, the load is feeling heavy. We have a lot going on right now in our professional and personal lives with budget...
By: Arlene Robinson Rules, rules rules... we expect all to comply to the rules of school. This is for the best of everyone right? Sometimes the rules support, but not all of the time - particularly when the rules are not accessible in the moment. Sometimes they...
By: Lisa Cranston, EdD Jenni and her mother pull up in front of the school. Jenni started kindergarten two weeks ago and every day when her mother drops her off, the separation is marked by tears and screaming. Jenni’s mom reminds her, “Remember – no tears...
By: Heather Bredin I was standing by the fence, holding a child’s hand. He was crying. Loudly. And he’d been crying loudly for the last 3 hours. “I miss my Mommy!” He choked out for the millionth time. “Mommy is coming soon,” I said flatly. ...
By Lisa Cranston, EdD Just like children, adults have emotional storms and we need that feeling of safety and security found through interpersonal relationships so that we can return to calm. One time this truly hit home for me was when my husband and I were living in...
By Sonia Gregory, Teaching Principal, Chief Paul Niditchie School Dr. Stuart Shanker says, “See a child differently, see a different child.” This is such a beautiful concept in Self-Reg. It seems so simple, but what does it really mean to reframe a child’s...
By Melissa Raine During a recent ski holiday in Japan, I had the opportunity to experience an onsen, a hot springs pool where the venerable Japanese tradition of communal bathing is practiced. Bathers are often but not always segregated according to sex. Strict codes...
By: Alison Cass Ronald,* age five, is an empathetic and hard working child. His parents have taught him love, kindness and compassion. Each day he works harder than most children in my kindergarten class. Ronald comes to school with a smile on his face—and one of...
By: Tiffany Goulet The first day of school… For some it’s exciting, for others terrifying. For some it’s long awaited, for others it arrived too soon. For some they feel ready, for others not at all. No matter how differently we all feel about this transition, we can...
By: Lindsay Hayes As I reflect back on the past couple of months supporting our wonderful students and staff across our school division, I find myself using one particular line over and over, “It’s you, you are the strategy.” This sentence resonated so much when...
By: Nancy Niessen I thought I knew what Step 5 of Shanker Self-Reg was all about. As I delved into Step 5 more deeply in the Level 2 Facilitator Program, my understanding became fuzzy before becoming clear again. Step 5 is about restoring balance in all five of...
By: Vicki Parnell Lost papers…missed meetings…kids showing up at school without the right supplies… I have been “that parent,” and I often wonder what our lives looked like to the educators who worked with my family! I’m the mother of two young people with multiple...
By: Jessica Chisholm I would like to acknowledge the elders for their teachings as I share and continue to learn on our journey of Self-Reg. As an ECE, I’m able to provide support to children with many developmental approaches, however the most successful approaches...
By: Louise Lamont We live in a world of duality where we use the language of opposites to describe our experiences and phenomena. In its essence and simplicity, the duality paradigm is endless in its descriptions of light/dark, good/evil, black/white, right/wrong,...
By: Nancy Niessen As I was pondering writing a post about Step 4 of Shanker Self-Reg, I began to reflect on stressors in the different domains for both my mother and I on the days she goes to medical appointments, when there are many stressors for both of us. This got...