Author: erinnhansman

Over the past few weeks, I have been doing a great deal of reflection on how our work around Self-Reg is providing me with a new vocabulary that enhances the work I do. While working with students, it certainly shapes my approach in problem solving but being able to give students the words to sometimes validate their emotions is empowering. In age appropriate and developmentally appropriate ways, I can sit alongside our students and discuss their stressors and help them to recognize potential sources of their challenges. With staff, it has really helped guide many of our conversations. We’ve all experienced a time when a student’s behaviour has gotten the better of us or has generated personal frustration. Being able to shift from what begins with educators asking me “What are you going to do about this student?” expecting an office based solution, to a collaborative conversation around “Let’s consider where this student may be experiencing stress right now?” This approach takes away blame, provides deeper understanding to everyone involved and guides our next steps in a more purposefully and intentional manner. Finally, with the parent/guardian community, this new vocabulary only strengthens their understanding of how we as educators work to support kids. Rather than parents hearing negative comments about behaviour which can easily be internalized (parent guilt gets the best of us!), they hear us exploring the five domains as a means to help and support. Parents experience us taking the time to know their children better, appreciate our recognition that there is a difference between misbehaviour and stress behaviour, and see us explore longer term solutions. I look forward to seeing how my further learning around Self-Reg continues to deepen my professional language.

I feel incredibly fortunate to be a part of this team. Each time we meet, I learn so much about what influences my own professional work but also how this project is influencing staff members in the school. A take-away or big idea from our conversations today was that being well-versed in Self-Reg is not an add-on to all of the other responsibilities an educator has. Our days are busy! There are consistently new initiatives and programs to support the academic growth and well-being needs of our students. Sometimes we feel exhausted before we even get started, wondering how can we do it all and do it well. Immersing yourself into Stuart Shanker’s Self-Reg is about a shift in our mindset. It’s about the lens through which we look at the needs of our students; shifting from working to enforce compliance to proactively reducing the causes of challenging behaviours and teaching kids how to do this for themselves. It is NOT about carving out more time in your already busy day to run another program or curriculum. You do not need to find extra time in your day to make this happen. Self-Reg seamlessly permeates every interaction you have with students every single day.

We as a group are already seeing the benefits to this work. Positive effects that have been identified on our own lives include a calmer head space, deeper relationships with students, increased self-awareness, knowing we are better meeting the well-being needs of our students, etc. We are also really hopeful that in the long run we are going to also see increased productivity in the classroom. For our students we are also already recognizing the potential for increased self-awareness and self-advocacy, building of their personal toolboxes, a more settled and happy school experience, just to name a few. I look forward to monitoring the growth as we move forward and celebrate the successes.