Brain Bites

These are not the same students as before the pandemic.  Are you seeing disruptive behavior, lack of focus/poor attention, or lack of effort and engagement?  This often represents the next phase of this prolonged stress and trauma from the pandemic, anxiety from school violence, trauma from natural disasters due to fire and floods, and many other stressors students have experienced.

We must recapture them.  We can do that by capturing their emotional brain, cognitive brain, mind, and hearts to create connection, increase attention, and foster engagement.  This is a new talk that has been very well-received as we try to move away from a focus on anxiety and stress alone and move toward a more positive future.

In this brief article I will share with you one goal that reduces stress and improves achievement - increasing enjoyment.  A way to increase enjoyment that also raises achievement is by increasing engagement.  I will share with you three key concepts that reduce stress and increase engagement.  I call them the Three C’s.  

·       Control:  Give students some feeling of control.  No, they aren’t in charge.  What we are going for that has been shown in research studies to increase motivation and achievement is perceived control.  If the student believes that they have some control over the learning process, they do better and they learn to take control over their own learning.  When students believe that they can learn the material, they do better.  Present students with learning strategies and ask them to experiment and choose the strategies that work best for them so that they can take control of their learning.  Talk about this issue with them. Ask “how did you take control over learning this material?”  When you put them in groups, let them take control over assigning roles and how to approach the task.

·       Choice: One way to increase a sense of control is by offering learners choices.  What if you took the test that you just wrote and added some more questions and grouped them and offered them a choice of answering 4 of these 5, for example.  Of course, there will be some questions without any choice.  Can you offer them homework options?  (See my other blog on homework menus.)

·       Challenge:  When a task offers the appropriate level of challenge, it creates engagement. In fact, appropriate level of challenge is a key factor in the experience of flow¸ considered one of the most pleasurable and engaging states of mind. That is the state in which you lose all track of time.  However, it is a challenge to create the right level of challenge!  We must walk the line between boredom and anxiety. If the task is too hard for the individual, it creates anxiety; too easy, it creates boredom.  Think about when you choose a jigsaw puzzle.  Ten pieces, boring.  1000 pieces, frustrating. As skill goes up, the challenge increases.

For more about this talk go to http://www.brainresearch.us/blog.html?entry=engaging-the-cognitive-brain-the1.  To inquire about a presentation on this or other topics, go to http://www.brainresearch.us/invite.html

While the initial phase of the pandemic that gave everyone such anxiety and even trauma, has passed, conditions as serious are setting in. Faculty are struggling. 

Four 75-minute sessions over a semester or school year. *

Faculty have undergone enormous stress as they and their family have struggled with a global pandemic while redesigning lessons to teach online.  But are you aware that the effects continue for years after a natural disaster is over? And this pandemic is not even over.  In fact, faculty are finding as they return to in-person classes that student behavior has become an issue and it is getting harder for them to teach.

As a result of vaccinations many are looking toward the future.  However, to have a successful future, faculty and staff must recover from the effects of stress so that they can think more clearly, be more productive, and inspire students. It is not whether you have stress that harms you.  The issue is whether you recover from these stressful episodes. Sometimes we experience traumatic situations that could, if not addressed, cause a lifetime of problems.  Research indicates that it is important to engage in recovery strategies as soon as possible after the trauma, but it is never too late to recover, renew, reduce, and rewire!

This series is designed to support faculty throughout the semester as they recover from the stress of the past year and a half and face new challenges.  Throughout the series attendees will acquire valuable information, learn and practice many strategies, interact with each other, and develop a wellness plan that will serve them for years to come.  It ends with positive science and strategies for resilience, happiness, and joy! 

Session Description 

If you are experiencing brain fog, lack of motivation, some difficulty regulating emotions, memory issues, and anxiety, then this program is for you.

Session 1: Recognize and recover:  Learn about how to recognize signs of stress and the science of how it affects the brain and body.  Learn how anxiety and stress affect frontal lobe executive functions critical to positive personal and professional outcomes. Acquire strategies for instantly recovering from the fight/flight/freeze reaction. Participate and experiment with various methods to find the one that works best for you.

Session 2:  Renew Discover how to reduce the brain fog, lack of motivation, memory issues, and emotional reactions that are normal reactions to high stress and trauma. Get your frontal lobes back “online” and working well.  Engage in a variety of activities to reduce stress to see what works best for you personally.

Session 3:  Reduce the stress in your life. Learn to recognize and understand how stress affects your body and how it can accumulate and progress to chronic problems so that you can intervene. Understand burnout and how to prevent it.  Discover what activities offer only distraction but do not reduce the effects of stress on your health and what activities allow for recovery and renewal.

Session 4: Rewire and become resilient: For over a year you have been firing and wiring pathways of anxiety, stress, and trauma.  Learn how to create new pathways of positivity. Acquire strategies to create more happiness and become resilient.

Regrowth: Discover the secrets of post-traumatic growth.  Learn how to come out of this pandemic stronger and better than before. Create a plan for a wellness lifestyle. Finally, engage in an experiential activity to increase heart coherence and help you connect your heart energy to yourself and others.  Finish the course with lots of strategies and renewed optimism and energy.

Each session will have a recommended book to read as a follow-up.  If an attendee reads the suggested books and attends the session, it would be equivalent in content to a semester course. The institution may offer CEU’s for this program if they wish.

Reading the book is not necessary to achieve benefits of this program. Fee does not include the recommended books.  The use of the books would be up to each individual participant unless the institution wanted to pick one or more for all faculty to read.

4 sessions = 5 hours + unlimited number of attendees:  $5000

*Series is available to all faculty and staff employed by the institution providing the program. If the number of attendees is over 300, an additional fee of $150 will be added to upgrade the zoom program for the larger number of attendees.

The session may not be recorded or captured in any format. It is for a one-time synchronous workshop only at this affordable fee. 

Please contact janetzadina@gmail.com for further information.

Description

Are your students different than they were before the pandemic? Are you seeing more behavior problems? Less motivation? Trouble focusing and paying attention? These behaviors are typical responses to trauma which our students have been experiencing for some time.

Learn how stress, anxiety, and trauma affect learning and increase behavioral problems. Acquire a quick strategy for addressing that emotional state.

Now let’s take it a step further. Let’s move forward with hope and positive emotion. In fact, positive emotion can raise achievement just as negative emotion can decrease it. What can we learn from the science of positive emotion and the new field of positive education that can help us help our students? 

Description

Are your students different than they were before the pandemic? Are you seeing more behavior problems? Less motivation? Trouble focusing and paying attention? These behaviors are typical responses to trauma which our students have been experiencing for some time.

Learn how stress, anxiety, and trauma affect learning and increase behavioral problems. Acquire a quick strategy for addressing that emotional state.

Now let’s take it a step further. Let’s move forward with hope and positive emotion. In fact, positive emotion can raise achievement just as negative emotion can decrease it. What can we learn from the science of positive emotion and the new field of positive education that can help us help our students?

Discover what predicted the extent of practice in language learners. See how the brains of teachers and students can synchronize – literally get on the same wavelength. Acquire strategies for engagement and motivation.

Then go beyond the brain to the heart. Find out how hearts can synchronize and how engaging the heart can lead to stress reduction and better learning.

Learn how to synch up with your students! You will leave this keynote energized with strategies for engaging the body, the brain, and the heart to enhance and energize language instruction.

Attendees will: *