Over the summer I took a graduate course titled "A Moving Body, A Thinking Brain." As a mom of two busy little boys and a first grade teacher, this course and the text book provided a lot of validation to what I see in my children at home and at school.

One of the biggest takeaways from this course is that I need to be aware of my students and their developing vestibular system. The vestibular system creates our sense of balance, using motion and gravity. The result of a developed vestibular system is the ability to sit still, listen, and learn. 

In the summer of 2014, TimberNook published an article titled, "Why Children Fidget: And what we can do about it." The author, a pediatric occupational therapist, observed and tested students. They discovered that an overwhelming majority of students have an underdeveloped vestibular system when comparing them to children in the 1980's! Therefore, our students are having difficulty sitting still and paying attention in class due to an underdeveloped vestibular system! The result is students having difficulty focusing and fidgeting through lessons. 

The fidgeting that teachers are seeing is actually an involuntary response by the student's brain. When students lose focus, the brain tries to get that focus back through moving the body (fidgeting). Essentially, the brain is trying to wake itself up through movement. Therefore, teachers who try to get students to stop fidgeting are most likely fighting a losing battle because the student is not voluntarily controlling the fidgeting. This will also result in frustration for both the student and teacher when the actions do not stop.

These findings beg the question, could some students suspected to have ADHD just not have a fully developed vestibular system?

The moral of the story is that if we want students to concentrate and focus during class time, we have to give them many opportunities to move. We need to strengthen their vestibular systems so they are physically fit to sit and learn. Essentially, children should be freely and actively playing for multiple hours each day.

You may be asking how we can do this when we are in the classroom the whole day. One of the easiest ways is by incorporating brain breaks into you classroom. You can do this on your own with counting exercises and songs, or you can use a wonderfully teacher and student friendly site called GoNoodle. GoNoodle is a free internet site that teachers (and parents) can join to get their children moving. It offers brain breaks ranging in different time lengths,and includes a wide variety of activities like yoga, Olympic events, and funny songs (with lots of moving and dancing).

We can also incorporate as much movement into our lessons as possible. Instead of clapping syllables in a word, students can hop the syllables. Instead of measuring lines on paper, take them outside and measure the length of the bars on the jungle gym. Instead of saying the counting patterns out loud, throw balls across the room in a pattern while continuing the counting pattern each time the ball is thrown. The possibilities are endless!!

While I have always been a strong proponent of movement in the classroom, I will also be handling my conversations with parents a little differently. Now, when parents raise concerns about their child's difficulty focusing and fidgeting, I am going to pose the question: "How much time each day does your child have for active play?"

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Today I thought I would share how I begin they year introducing my Raise Responsibility classroom management system in my first grade classroom. The basis of my classroom management is the Raise Responsibility model from the book Discipline without Stress Punishments or Rewards by Dr. Marvin Marshall. 

​The overarching theme of Raise Responsibility is for student ownership of their behaviors, with the goal of intrinsic motivation. I should tell you that I have never used a clip chart, color cards, or similar models in my classroom. They're just not for me. I was lucky enough to student teach at a school where they were in the first year of implementing the Raise Responsibility model, and I loved seeing our students intrinsically motivated to have positive behaviors. 

Marshall recommends categorizing and labeling behaviors so they are easily identifiable for students. I use these posters to introduce the levels to my students. We discuss these levels thoroughly, and also talk about how they relate to our classroom rules. (I mesh Raise Responsibility with Whole Brain Teaching and the WBT rules. I think they go together nicely.)

I also read books to the students that cover each level. 

As we read the books, we talk about the levels the characters are on. It is important for students to understand that just like the characters, their own levels can change throughout the day, and they are in charge of their behaviors. For example, if they are talking during a mini-lesson, they are on Level B (because they are bothering me while I'm teaching, as well as those around them.) However, if they choose to stop talking after I have asked them what level they are on, they have changed to Level C. I like to tell them that we all have moments where we forget to make the best choice, but that we have the power to change our behavior and make it better.

Of course, we all have some little friends who have difficulty making those good choices and are not always on Level C or D. If I have asked them about the level they are on, and we have talked about what they should do to change it, and they have chosen to continue with their Level A or B choice, they receive a student reflection. Here, they circle the level they were on, and then draw and/or write about what they did, and what they should do the next time.

Once students have reflected on their behavior, we talk about it together. I like the discussions about what they can do the next time, because they are now prepared for what they need to do the next time a similar situation arises (and it will!). Marshall recommends that the reflections get sent home to parents if a student has reflected two or more times each day. This rarely happens in my classroom. From personal experience, I have found that some parents want to know each time their child reflects, so when I go over the Raise Responsibility model at back to school night, I have them complete the parent confirmation form, where they choose whether they want to see every reflection or if they prefer to be informed when their child reflects twice in one day.

Students can also have personal rings with the levels to keep track of their own behavior. During random times throughout the day, I may do a "level check." At that time, my students take out their level ring (from their toolbox/desk/chair pocket and flip to the level they believe they are on. I take a quick walk around the room to see if their self assessment matches my view of their behavior. I give quick quiet feedback to them as I walk around, and have some short conversations with those whose opinions of their behavior may differ from my own. While these level cards are part of my Raise Responsibility packet, you can also find them as a freebie here!

I love using the Raise Responsibility system in my classroom. It has really helped my students understand that they are in control of their own behaviors, and they need to own their choices. We work together to improve those behaviors they struggle with, and celebrate our accomplishments. The rewards in my classroom are not planned, but when I see a lot of students working together on Level D, or when a student who struggles with behaviors makes a Level C choice, we celebrate with a surprise GoNoodle break, or earn extra recess time. If you would like to learn more about Raise Responsibility, be sure to check out Dr. Marshall's book! You can also check out my Raise Responsibility packet to help get started with raising responsible learners in your own classroom! 

I like projects. The next step is getting my learners to like "a project". Over the past few years, I've found success in building big idea projects and allowing learners to take control. Since the Spring of 2014, we've held a film festival, community awards ceremony, and a music showcase. Colleagues have asked, "How do you plan such a big project?" or "Aren't you running out of ideas?". Preparing for these projects doesn't happen over night. And if you're like me, many of my best ideas come at the most random times. So, I thought I'd share how I keep my project planning organized.

You first need to ask, what do you want your final product to look like? For our most recent project, I had always wanted my learners to hold a concert. The only problem - I teach social studies, not music. A lot of questions arose - 1. How do I get a bright group of social studies students to "do music"? 2. How can I tie this project to the standards? 3. How do I make it about the ideas and not the music? I needed to sort out my ideas to determine the big connectors and direction of the project.

Once I figured out that I wanted to make the project more about the community and its relevance to greater world issues, things fell in place.

I like to build my projects in to three stages. (Quick side note: The entire project, from stage one through the end of stage three, takes approximately 14 weeks.) Each stage is independent in its final product, but the learning/knowledge base builds from stage to stage (to stage). Not only does the information build, the depth of thinking also increases within each stage. That doesn't necessarily mean more content, it just means that I'm asking the learners to engage with their information more closely.

For Stage 1 of our Spring project, my students completed a timeline that analyzed a global issue that matched their interest. They researched the past 50 years of the issue to build a contextual understanding of the topic.

Throughout the 14 weeks, students intermittently work on the project. Here's the thing - I recognize that I am not an expert in every topic. I encourage students to seek help outside the classroom. The second stage "strongly encourages" students to gain assistance from professionals - nationally or in the community. 

At first, students are unsure about this component. But they've gotten some pretty amazing results. Some of my students most notable connections were a professor from Columbia, a prominent expert on Olympic history, and a well-respected surfing historian. AND all it took was a simple e-mail! (There were students who also never heard back from someone they attempted to contact. We had some candid discussions about that - and they were okay!)
These connections don't have to be as grand - they can happen within your building or district. Find people that might be willing to buddy up on a project. The art department at my high school is fabulous and usually willing to team up with enough advance notice. For our project last Fall, one of our art teachers worked with my students on the development of an award and the symbolism involved in the process. This was their final product:

And with my assistance, Stage 3 usually has students directly working with local professionals. These connections are built in to the process. For the Spring project, my students worked with local musicians to write songs about global issues. This picture is from an early collaboration session. 

Honestly, there is a lot that goes in to a great project. My students and I have pulled off things that I never imagined were possible. It took a lot of planning, time, and leg-work to pull off these ideas. 
Here's the thing - YOU CAN DO IT! I put together a planner with questions and organizers to help you with the process. Many of the questions are ones that have crossed my mind countless times! Best of luck planning your own project and please let me know if you have any questions!

By the way --- Our entire store is on sale tomorrow and Tuesday! Please be sure to check out the planner and all our other products that are on sale!