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 do not even [...]
Friday. My teaching partner was away for an appointment, and I had duty and period 5 prep. We also wanted to have students help us switch around our building space and begin to create a school in our dramatic play space. In order to get everything done and the class cleaned [...]
The more I learn about Self-Reg and the brain/body science of stress, the more I have been struck by the same thought over and over. Self-Reg explains things I’ve sort of known for years, but couldn’t articulate very well. So often I’ve watched children, including my own, act in ways [...]
As many people know, I'm a strong advocate for play-based learning. Real, authentic, student-driven and led play. Free play. I've called this play many things over the years, including "free exploration time" and "work time" -- for play is a child's work -- but this year, my teaching partner, Paula, and I switched to [...]
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. "When all our jobs are done?" [...]
This is my 19th year of teaching. I've taught at 8 schools in our Board, and worked with hundreds of students. But sometimes, no matter what previous experiences you may have had, a child's comment stops you. It makes you think differently. This is one of those times. Yesterday, our school [...]
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 Argentina. He [...]
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 behaviour? I like to think that I [...]
As we go back into the classroom this week to get ready for school, I'm doing some thinking around a phrase that I hear quite frequently in educational circles: the need to "prepare children" for the next grade. Recently, I started to look at this phrase through a Self-Reg lens, and this [...]
In this vlog, Susan Hopkins applies the Energy-Centred Teaching (ECT) model that she first developed with Dr. Stuart Shanker in 2017 to offer a fresh way of thinking about priorities for the start of the school year. Susan outlines the four frames of ECT--protECT, connECT, collECT, and detECT-- and shows [...]