Feeling overwhelmed is a common experience for educators and students alike, often leading to a cycle of unfinished tasks and increased stress. In this video, Ginger Lewman and Eric Nachtigal from the ESSDACK Resilience Team discuss practical mindfulness strategies to break this cycle and regain focus.

Learn how to identify the physiological signs of overwhelm and implement simple, effective tools to ground yourself during a chaotic school day.

Key Topics Covered:

• Understanding Overwhelm: Recognizing how "running at breakneck speed" can lead to half-finished projects and a self-diagnosis of being unable to focus.
• Combat Breathing Techniques: A step-by-step guide to a breathing method used to physically slow your heart rate and calm the nervous system physically.
• Sensory Grounding: Using your five senses—such as counting specific colored objects or noticing the sensation of clothing—to bring your mind back to the present moment.
• Finding Your Practice: Exploring different mindfulness outlets, from silence and classical music to movement, power walking, or stretching.
• Classroom Application: Strategies for introducing these tools to students and creating space for them to use mindfulness autonomously rather than through mandated breaks.

Are your students bouncing off the walls or struggling to stay engaged with traditional worksheets? In this episode of Resilience Team Quick Bites, Ginger Lewmen and Eric Nachtigal explore why "letting them play" is the most effective tool for classroom management and academic success in early childhood education.

Discover how purposeful play transforms the learning environment:

• Neuroscience of Learning: Research shows it takes approximately 400 repetitions to create a brain synapse through traditional instruction, but only 12 repetitions when learning occurs through play.
• Emotional Regulation: Play is a primary tool for building emotional regulation, allowing children to practice managing feelings and stress in a safe, low-risk environment.
• Stress Reduction: Play naturally balances the body's stress system by decreasing cortisol and releasing feel-good endorphins and dopamine.
• Academic Integration: Learn how to meet state standards and district expectations for reading, math, and science through sensory tables and dramatic play areas rather than worksheets.
• Trauma-Informed Care: For children coming from tough situations, play provides a necessary path for processing trauma and physical discharge of built-up energy.

Whether you teach Pre-K, Kindergarten, or even older grades, incorporating a "purposeful play block" can eliminate dysregulated behavior and foster a joyful, high-expectation classroom.

Are your classroom refocus rooms actually helping students, or are they just a temporary fix for behaviors? In this episode of Quick Bites, Ginger Lewman and Eric Nachtigal from the ESSDACK Resilience Team dive into the science and intentionality required to make calm spaces truly effective.

Why Some Refocus Rooms Fail

Many interventions are considered "late" because they address the behavior (the top of the iceberg) rather than the underlying unmet need or unsolved problem. To move beyond just responding to behavior, educators must focus on solving problems with the student rather than for them.

The Brain Science of Regulation

Drawing on the research of Dr. Bruce Perry and Dr. Ross Greene, this video outlines the essential steps to help a student move from their "downstairs brain" back to their "upstairs brain" where learning can happen.

Key Takeaways for Teachers:

• Give Time to Regulate: When a student enters a refocus room, avoid immediate questioning. Allow them time to use tools like music or drawing to calm down first.
• Prioritize Co-Regulation: The supervising adult must remain regulated themselves to help the student find calm through proximity and shared breathing.
• Follow the Sequence: Use Dr. Bruce Perry's model: Regulate, Relate, and Reason. You cannot reason with a student until they are regulated and feel safe.
• Repair and Restore: Use restorative questions to discuss how to repair harm to the classroom community before the student rejoins the class.
• Prepare the Receiving Teacher: Success depends on the mindset of the staff member accepting the student back. A welcoming, regulated reception is critical for long-term change.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Kids Who Aren’t Okay by Dr. Ross Greene
• The work of Dr. Bruce Perry on brain-based regulation

The book by Dr. Ross Greene that Eric references is called, "The Kids Who Aren't OK." Here's a link to resources you might like as you read this highly recommended resource. https://livesinthebalance.org/tkwaok/

Join the Conversation:

Does your school use refocus rooms? What strategies have you found most helpful for co-regulation? Let us know in the comments!

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