"The CATDC Buzz" Issue #32

As we move into the fall, our energy wanes and we're triggered more easily. Learning to be in the present moment enables us to cultivate awareness of our emotions and make choices that foster our resilience.

-- Elena Aguilar, Onward

On a clear day, the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the Manson Room at the Bay School, where so many CATDC workshops take place, is spectacular. I often speak to the symbolic resonance of this structure for educators engaged in professional development, reminding us of what is possible with thoughtful design and hard work, and signifying movement between where we are and where we want to be.

I am not sure how one could be in the field of education without holding out hope for human progress. Even as meet our students where they are, we hold a vision for what they will become. Then we get down to the evermore challenging endeavor of designing and delivering the learning experiences they need to be creative thinkers and compassionate problem solvers while also building the school communities that support them to thrive.

These days, we also need to do double the work to boost our reserves of resilience. More than ever, we need practices and perspectives that sustain us as as well as our students, the focus of this month's Buzz.

Cultivating Mindfulness for Educators from The New York Times is full of ideas for "bringing mindfulness into your life both inside and outside the classroom to support your own well-being and, in turn, the well-being of the young people in your care." Teaching Self-Regulation in the Early Grades from Edutopia, outlines more creative approaches for helping bring calm and focus to our students, especially those who may have ACE (adverse childhood experiences). The CATDC is delighted to be offering another Mindfulness Workshop for Teachers, Staff, and Administrators facilitated by Kate Munding, founder of The Heart-Mind Education Project. Join us in the Manson Room for this retreat-like workshop to learn and practice mindfulness, regenerate, and recharge.

Learning with educators beyond your school site is in itself a practice that can be nurturing and sustaining as Lori Cohen, Dean of Faculty at the Bay School and CATDC Facilitator Coach writes in Playing on the Same Team: Building a Bigger Community Across Schools. CATDC's Ongoing Programs offer an especially rich avenue for building networks of collaboration and support. While several groups are already underway, there is still a chance to join our new professional learning community centered on History and the Social Sciences in Southern California, our Gender-Sexuality Professional Alliance Group in the Bay Area, and many others.

Broadening the lens can also be helpful when we find our energy or hope waning. In this inspiring TED Talk, Daring Classrooms, Brené Brown makes important connections between her vulnerability research and resilience, acknowledging the difficulty of this profession and the pivotal role educators can play in the lives of their students. As she puts it, "teachers are working on the hardest edges of love," a key perspective as we endeavor to stay in the present moment, or take the long view.

Playing on the Same Team: Building a Bigger Community Across Schools

By Lori Cohen, The Bay School of San Francisco

I recently visited a peer school in the Bay Area, a place where a few of CATDC's Teaching Foundations "alumni" worked and a place where one of my colleagues was teaching a class for the first time. I thought it would be fun to do a site visit and see teachers in their element. I also knew that taking a day away from the busy demands of my job would require shifting a lot in my schedule, prioritizing one way of spending my time over another. While blocking out a day for site visits required me to reschedule and shift my calendar, I'm so glad I did it. I left my site visit more energized, inspired, and hopeful about the future of our young people. I had the privilege of spending my day rooting for my colleagues, and that moment solidified the cause I've committed to: the core belief that in this endeavor we call education, we're all on the same team.

Read online...

Teaching Self-Regulation in the Early Grades

By Lori Desautels, Edutopia

For children who have adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), co-regulation is at the heart of teaching-and of discipline. These children need assistance regulating their nervous system before they can learn new coping strategies and understand the consequences of their choices and decisions.

We don't hesitate to teach our students the reading or math skills they need to be successful, and emotional and behavioral skills should be no different. Students with ACEs may come to school having little experience with impulse control and emotional regulation. They may struggle with paying attention. These are executive function skill sets our students need to be academically, socially, and emotionally successful.

The strategies described here are Tier One strategies in a Response to Intervention model for discipline and engagement. Co-regulation is beneficial for all students, and these brain-aligned preventative strategies aid all students in regulating their responses and developing relationships. They can be a part of our procedures, routines, morning meetings, and bell work, easing all transitions throughout the day.

Read online...

Cultivating Mindfulness for Educators

By Alison Cohen and Michael Gonchar, The New York Times

Teaching can be a stressful job - and so can being a principal. Practicing mindfulness can serve as a valuable antidote to the stress many educators experience in juggling the competing demands common during the school day. Patricia A. Jennings's study on the CARE for Teachers program, published this year, suggests that mindfulness-based interventions can "increase teacher social and emotional competence and the quality of classroom interactions." Mindfulness practice has also been shown to alter the brain structure of practitioners in positive ways, improve concentration and emotional self-regulation, and decrease burnout symptoms, among many other benefits.

In addition, this study , published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, suggests that practicing mindfulness can result in a decrease in implicit biases and the negative behaviors they can lead to. This Times video shows how implicit biases are thought processes that happen without us even knowing it - little mental shortcuts that hold judgments we might not agree with. Sometimes those shortcuts are based on race, ethnicity or gender. These biases can cause educators to engage with students, colleagues and other school community members in destructive ways that are misaligned with their conscious values . Mindfulness can help us act more thoughtfully in the moment and rely less on those automatic shortcuts.

Read online...

STAY CONNECTED