Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Why Modeling Co-Regulation Can Lower Stress As The School Year Comes To An End

Do you have enough water left in your pitcher to continue to fill the cups of others as we approach the end of this school year? I hope the answer is yes, and that you have conserved enough water to fill your own cup over the next few weeks. If not, what are the quiet spaces, the activities, the people, the music, the books that you can dip into to refill your pitcher?  The end of the school year is a time that requires the ability to model co-regulation skills. 


Everyone feels the stress that comes with end of year -- relationship shifts, as colleagues announce retirements,  administrators make moves to new buildings and districts, students graduate, younger students begin to look toward the next year, the next school, and new opportunities while finishing their projects and lessons in their current classes, and collaborative time with colleagues feels rushed or finite.  It is time to reflect on how you are feeling about the end of the year. Check in with yourself.  Then check in with your colleagues and students. 


According to Cathy Papp from the Lorain County ESC, one component of co-regulation is creating warm, responsive relationships. After spending a year learning alongside one another, in the safe environment of your classrooms, some students may be looking at a summer of adventure while others may be facing a summer of uncertainty. As a school or district, what safety nets are in place to maintain positive relationships with the students over the summer?  So many educators refer to their colleagues as their school families, and talk about the importance of the friends they work with. What can you do to maintain those friendships over the summer? Are there colleagues who may need your support?  


Another co-regulation component is to structure the environment.  How can you think about intentional end of the year routines to help students celebrate their successes and recognize their learning, while beginning to think about goals for next year? How can leading with empathy help us plan inclusive end of year activities that take into account student voice, and the impact of living with chronic trauma has had on our students, and our colleagues? What formal and informal summer learning opportunities can be put in place for students, and educators, to explore their own interests, and build expertise?


Finally, Cathy Papp shared that teaching and coaching self-regulation is important.  The end of the year is emotional. It is a good time to remind students about the self-regulation skills they learned and practiced throughout the year and identify situations at the end of the year, and through the summer, when applying those skills will help them to avoid frustration, and achieve a positive outcome. Many of the pictures/symbols/reminders of self-regulation strategies that we have posted in our classrooms and buildings are not going to be on the walls of student rooms at home (or on our walls at home either).  A good end of year activity might be having students create their own system for reminding themselves of the strategies that work for them.  As I was looking for resources to spark your thinking around this week’s topic, I found a number of resources that point to the power of positive self-talk.  It was interesting that one article included research that showed the effectiveness of self-talk in the second person - as in “You’ve got this” vs “I can do it”.  How will you talk to yourself in a positive way as you navigate the end of the school year?  You can do it, take a breath, focus on really listening to your friends and students and what they have to share with you as the year wraps up.  



Resources To Spark Your Thinking

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