Yoga and Self-Regulation Journey

My journey with using yoga in my preschool room started in early Spring of 2018. The early childhood team along with the school counselors visited a school in Des Moines to see how yoga starts their day. It was a wonderful experience to see the growth from the young students to the older students. After that, it lead to a yoga training in August of 2018. From that training, it sparked ideas and confidence in myself to incorporate yoga into my preschool classroom!

At the beginning of the school, I began my school day with introducing various yoga poses and breaths. The breaths have lead well with our social-emotional curriculum, Second Step, to help they calm down and self-regulate themselves. Throughout the year, yoga time has transpired to be more connected to our letter of the day and/or theme in which we are discussing in the classroom.

From the school visit in the Spring of 2018, we gained an idea for our calm down spots in the classroom. Many classrooms in our building have calm down spots but what we saw was more structured. It is a red and green mat. The red mat is for students who need more time to calm down and self-regulate. Once they feel they are ready to join the class, they move to the green spot. This has really helped my classroom para and me know when to process with the child as well as allowing the child to still listen and engage. The location of my calm down spot is in a spot where they can see almost everything so they can still see what is going on but just need space alone. As you can see below, I have included some visuals for my young learners. I have the Second Step feelings chart up as well as zones of regulation to help them process their feelings.

Stay tuned for how yoga and the calm down spot have eliminated 

some behaviors that I use to see from year to year!

What Else Should a Teacher Do On a Snow Day... Reflect

Have you ever wanted a little more pizazz in your life? Has teaching gotten so systematic that you hardly think about it? Sometimes I wonder whether this is what makes us complacent. Project Based Learning, PBL, has changed that for me. By implementing PBL, students have seen success and some the reality of failure. Both are good lessons to learn. It is not the success or failure that defines them, but the reflection on how they can improve the next time. This is Project Based Learning.

One of the main factors that I like PBL so much is the authenticity of the projects. From the moment the driving question is asked, students are searching and collaborating. Our first quarter PBL project was about the perfect society. Our driving question was, “What would it take to have a perfect society?” Students were given the opportunity to delve into what their perfect world would be like. They were also given the opportunity to meet with the mayor of Nevada and ask some questions that they felt would help with the designing of their own community. They also had Barb Weigel, from Travel and Transport, come to explain the different areas of travel and how to meet the needs of travelers.

Students explored the intricacies of how our government works, problems of society, and how to meet the needs of others. They designed a community that individuals would want to visit, and then hopefully decide to place down their roots. This community needed to fit into a ecosystem of their group’s choice, and meet the needs of all age levels, gender, cultures, etc… Judges judged them on creativity, attention to detail, persuasiveness, and effectiveness on making this as close to a utopian society as they can.

PBL is not just taking fun activities and designing this after a unit. Teachers must look at their essential standards and decide how they can best meet the needs of the students through these standards. The standards below were the standards that were seen as essential.

Teaching Standards Addressed

W7.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others, including linking to and citing sources.

W7.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

R7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the

text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

R7.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development

over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

SL.7.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one–on–one, in groups, and teacher–led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

SL.7.4 Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with pertinent descriptions, facts, details, and examples; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

SL.7.5 Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points.

Outcomes

Some of the outcomes that came out of this process were various literary analysis assignments, interview questions and responses, analysis of results, website design, brochures, 3D models, 1-minute elevator speech, along with different marketing tools that students were able to acquire and utilize.

Not only were there specific language arts outcomes, but also Nevada Community Developed Learner Outcomes. These outcomes are creativity, collaborators, critical thinkers, complex communicators, flexible and adaptability and empathetic and compassionate individuals.

Some examples of this were expressed in various ways. The creativity that was shown in their expos were unbelievable. Students went above and beyond in the designing of their booths. You also saw those that were the strongest collaborators thrive. Lessons were learned as they discussed the ins and out of our government. Students were wanting equality of all individuals and were arriving at their conclusions in different ways.

So, if you are wanting to change up your teaching, PBL might be for you. You will see that students will become more independent learners while becoming world changers.

(Arlyce Kroese teaches seventh grade language arts at Nevada Middle School.)

Make it Authentic

Let’s face it, we all want fulfillment in life. Without that satisfaction our lives seem empty. This past week students, veterans, and myself have found this fulfillment. Granted there is one that fulfills me most, but that is not what I am here to talk about today. Today is all about how Project Based Learning has brought our community closer together by making connections with our Veterans.

This last year I had lost someone who made an impact on me and my daughter’s life. My uncle Dick was a child in Holland during WWII. He had shared his experience with my daughter, Brittany, who was doing a project for school. Uncle Dick spoke about how he was a school age boy when the Germans were coming into their community. Being told early on to hide if this happens, Uncle Dick and many other students ran to the church. The church only had one door. He remembered his father’s words to hide. He hid in the church organ. The soldiers came in and took the rest of his classmates. Uncle Dick had never saw his friends again.

Now fast forward years later. The war had ended and my uncle was grateful to the United States for all that they had done for them. He told his mother that he wanted to go to the United States. His new journey had begun. After entering Ellis Island, Uncle Dick was off to NW Iowa and met the Hofmeyer family. It was then that he and Bob had joined the military.

Everyone’s stories on how and why they joined the military are different, and each of these stories are important to our history. This is how our new PBL project came to fruition. I wanted students to be able to answer the question, “Why is it important to preserve our history?” and my desire was for students to honor our military men and women in the process.

As many of you may already know, in PBL, it is the entry event that stirs the excitement. The entry event that was developed was a letter from the “Veterans Affairs” asking for assistance to help honor our veterans in our community. Students were onboard from the start, and the questions commenced.

Now, lining this up is no easy challenge. My advice to you is “Don’t give up!”. This task may seem daunting, but is well worth it in the end. I had started made connections with one of my last year’s student’s father. He was so excited that he allowed us to use some of his podcasting equipment and came in on a snow day to show me how to use the equipment. Then, after speaking to a member of the American Legion, he started lining up veterans to come and help us out. I also reached out to other community members that were veterans. Our community is amazing, and the level of participation is remarkable.

Still, this participation didn’t come at a cost. These men and women gave up their lives to serve our country. They had family they left behind. Whether in a time of conflict or peace, each person sacrificed to give us the freedoms that we now have. I can’t thank these men and women enough.

Interviews are about completed. After the interviews, students are then given the task to make a documentary or video podcast. Research will need to be completed, analysis of the interviews to find the important information done, and they will have search out how to make video podcasting or documentaries. This will be both challenging and rewarding.

Once the documentaries are developed, they will present at the American Legion. Community members, Veterans, and parents will be invited to view their work. Once completed, these documentaries stories from these men and women will help preserve history and display their passion toward their country. Emotions were expressed and students were able to see, first hand, what it means to truly love their country. In the end, the goal of students understanding the importance of preserving history will be understood.

(Arlyce Kroese teaches seventh grade language arts at Nevada Middle School.)

Engaging, Exciting, and Encouraging

Undeniably, the best professional development that I have taken was PBL World. Educators from all over the world came together for one reason, our kids. The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) is dedicated to bring high quality education through project based learning. This dedication was evident throughout the three day training I attended.

On our first day there, we were treated with music. What a fantastic way to start off the workshop. This set the tone for how upbeat the rest of the week would go. Teachers and administration were divided up into our grade level sections. Emily and I went to the middle school session. Our trainer, Chris, was passionate about PBL and dedicated to helping us in whatever way we needed assistance.

The first aha moment was when I realized that I liked to be in control too much. I needed to let go of the reins and let the students’ inquiry drive the outcome. No, this does not mean that I will not teach to the standards given to me by the Iowa Core. By allowing students to be actively involved, they will generate further questions. Once they have generated these questions, they will driven to find their own answers.

There were many other exciting moments of learning and sharing with other teachers, but I am not going to go into that today. It would be too overwhelming. Today I am going to focus on how to get started with PBL. Hold onto your hat, you are in for quite an adventure.

Getting started:

There are four elements that are part of the planning process of PBL.

1. Develop an idea for your project
2. Specify your goals for learning
3. Figure out the complexity of the project
4. Write your driving question

The first step would be to download the following form. It is from the BIE website. This form will be the planning sheet that will help you plan your project.

Project Overview Form

1. Develop an idea

• If you are struggling with an idea, you can go to the BIE website and look for some examples. You do not have to use these ideas, but it may become an idea generator.
• Figure out what your essential standards are that you want to teach
• Is there an issue in your community that get students excited?
• What is happening in students’ lives or current events that they are interested in pursuing?

2. Specify your goals for learning

• These are your essential standards.
• What essential standards do you want students to know at a deeper level
• BIE recommends that you start with just the collaboration and presentation PBL standard. Don’t overwhelm yourself.
• With your first project, work on the PBL standard of creative thinking and problem solving. However, don’t explicitly teach and assess it. Slowly work this in after you have the collaboration and presentation piece down.

3. Figure out the complexity of the project

• The world is your oyster, but know your limits
• Less complex project takes 2-3 weeks and more complex takes longer
• You do not have to have this cross curricular
• Figure out what adults will be involved
• Where will this take place?
• What technology is used?

4. Write your driving question

• Students need to know why they are doing this
• Question needs to be challenging, open-ended and linked to the core

There are materials out there to help you design your driving question. It takes a while to get the driving question down, but the joy of finally getting exactly what you want is so rewarding.

There you have it. The first steps to designing a PBL unit. I’m sure your head is spinning. Stop by my room. I would be happy to help you with this. You can also watch it in action if you would like. I would love to have you visit.

Until next time,

Arlyce
(Arlyce Kroese teaches seventh grade language arts at Nevada Middle School.)