Final Reflection: Jennifer Rogers

Q: What new professional learning did you acquire as a result of this project?

A: Learning about Self –Reg and reading Shanker’s books were very applicable to my professional learning, especially this year in my role of Behaviour Strategy Resource Teacher. As a resource teacher, I have the opportunity to connect with many students, especially those that are struggling for one reason or another each day. Actually, I have these encounters multiple times on any given day. Learning about the five domains was very helpful in naming and then in working through to reduce the stressors for the students. Quotes like ‘See a child differently, see a different child” really resonated with me. As well, Shaker talks about shifting from enforcing compliance to reducing the cause of the challenging behaviour. I feel this has positively impacted the way I approach every situation. I notice that the students sense my calm demeanor and in most cases, I can quickly de-escalate them and begin to work through the problem. It was very powerful to work along side my colleagues to problem solve and make changes throughout the school setting to support students struggling with self-regulation. It was a team approach, and I am confident our professional learning will continue to impact our student population in the coming years.

Q: What was the impact of your TLLP, if any, on your students? How do you know?

A: The impact of the TLLP was evident in our students. Working one-on-one with students who were not self-regulating was so rewarding when we were able to talk through the stressors and together identify what was the reason for their behaviour. As the year progressed, I knew it was working because I would hear the language from the students themselves, statements like “Being in a dark room calms me.” or “I can’t focus because I am hungry and my body can’t sit still”.

Q: What questions or goals do you have to sustain your learning? What are your next steps?

A: As I stated earlier, as a resource teacher, I will continue to support students with their self regulation on a daily basis. I will revisit the resources from this TLLP and hopefully will continue to refine my craft of “lending a calm lens” and being aware of my role during challenging times so that I can be the stress detective and not an additional stressor for the student. We have new staff joining us this fall, and I feel I can make an impact on demonstrating some of the strategies that we can use when dealing with a struggling student. I can be a change agent by helping my collegues reframe the behaviour and work along side them to find the stressors and work through the situation. It would be great to revisit with the TLLP team on an informal basis to help and support our students. Thank you Lisa, our team leader, for providing the opportunity for us to work and grow together!

Podcast #4

A few of us got together yesterday to work on a presentation we are going to be giving to the staff at our school soon.  We started our time together by recording a podcast!  All of us are noticing such big differences in our work with students.  We had no trouble at all talking about it.

A few people have told me they are listening to these podcasts.  Thanks!  We are uploading them to Soundcloud, and that service is blocked on our school server.  If you are having trouble getting it to work, this is probably why.  You’ll have to listen at home while you’re doing dishes, or on your phone while you run, or in your car on your way to places.

 

What is a TLLP?

Every year the Ontario Ministry of Education offers grant money to Ontario teachers to study topics that interest them. These are teacher-initiated, teacher-led projects, and could be about a variety of topics.

This year, a group of Sunset Park teachers, along with some administrators and a teacher from another school, will be participating in a TLLP project.  We’ll be studying self regulation – learning what it means, what skills are involved with self regulation, and learning how we can help our students develop these skills so they can achieve their highest potential at school, and in life.

Not sure what self-regulation is?  According to an October 2011 article in Psychology Today, “Research consistently shows that self-regulation skill is necessary for reliable emotional well being. Behaviorally, self-regulation is the ability to act in your long-term best interest, consistent with your deepest values. (Violation of one’s deepest values causes guilt, shame, and anxiety, which undermine well being.) Emotionally, self-regulation is the ability to calm yourself down when you’re upset and cheer yourself up when you’re down.”  You can read the rest of the article here.

The teachers participating in this project will be blogging regularly about their learning.  Hopefully if you follow along you will learn a few things too!

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