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!

Final Reflection

I have been working on the final report for our TLLP.  This is our report to the Ministry of Education about our learning.  I was expecting to have a lot of space to share my learning, but it’s a rather short form.  Thankfully I can write as many words as I want here!  🙂

One of the questions asked was, “What new professional learning did you acquire as  a result of this project?”

This is what I wrote: “The learning in this project has given us the skills that we need as adults to support our students in a productive way. Learning Stuart Shanker’s “Five domains of stress”, has helped us recognize how to effectively support a student who is showing signs of stress, and help them get back to a calm state where they can return to their learning. We are proactive instead of reactive.”

That barely scratches the surface.  Anyone who has been reading this blog all along can tell you that I personally learned a lot about self-regulation and how to manage stress – my own, as well as the stress that is evident in my students and colleagues.  I shared in a few different presentations this year that I have not had to evacuate my class all year.  Last year I evacuated every day in the month of October, and quite a few more times after that.  The big difference here is that I have learned to be a stress detective. I can identify the domain in which a student might be feeling stress, and then I can help resolve or remove the stress.  I have learned to recognize the warning signs of an impending melt-down.  I have learned to anticipate a problem before an event (such as an assembly) and have learned what I can do to make sure that the child who may struggle is supported so his/her stress level doesn’t get out of control.  I am proactive instead of reactive.

As we have all shared at various points this year, the biggest change has been in me.  I feel like I have always known to be understanding of the difficulties a child might be facing in and out of the classroom.  But I haven’t always been as aware of how my personal stress is carried over into my classroom.  I have found myself many times this year recognizing that I feel stressed, taking some time to identify the stressors in my life and working to resolve them.  Walking my students through some of these same steps has changed things for us in class as well.  It was so great to see that when we were working on our One Page Profiles many of the students were articulating self-reg strategies they need to use in order to be successful.

Finally, I have loved learning alongside my colleagues.  We came together around a common problem and had a common goal:  we wanted to support our students emotionally, not just academically.  We shared some laughs. We disagreed about a few things.  The experience of being able to work so closely with the women in this group is everything I had hoped it would be last year when I was applying for the TLLP.  Each brought a different perspective to the group which helped me in my learning journey.

I am sorry this project has to end.  I am looking forward to my own personal path forward as I continue to use and learn about Self-Reg.  In the past few months we have had to stop presenting because of a supply teacher shortage.  I am sorry the project ended this way because it feels undone.  However, I’m hopeful that none of us is going to move on to other things and wander away from our Self-Reg journey.

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