Mindfulness Training

Students in grades 1-4 will be participating in a mindfulness training program offered by the Center for Mindful Learning. We will be implementing their mindfulness curriculum, Modern Mindfulness, which teaches skills for improving academics, behavior, and wellbeing.

These mindfulness skills include:

• ●  focusing in order to improve attention;

• ●  relaxing in order to calm down and decrease stress;

• ●  listening in order to improve learning and following directions; and

• ●  setting and achieving clear and realistic goals in order to improve motivation.

  The curriculum includes fiveminute mindfulness exercises which help students to build these important skills and get them ready for learning.

  We are excited to be able to offer this curriculum to support your children’s social, emotional and academic growth. It is our hope that you will see an improved ability to focus, relax, listen and achieve goals in your children.

  You can visit the Center for Mindful Learning’s website, www.modmind.org, to learn more about the program and even try it out at home!

  As always, if you have any questions, you are welcome to contact MaryAnn Fisher (marfish@gisu.org) or your child's teacher.

PAX Good Behavior Game

The PAX Good Behavior Game

The PAX Good Behavior Game is a well researched classroom strategy for helping students learn self management.  Students learn that PAX behavior is expected, kind, safe, and responsible behavior for the classroom environment in which the game is played. Unexpected behavior is called a Spleem. The PAX Game might occur during math or reading, during transitions or any activity likely to challenge the students’ ability to stay focused and positive. Teachers ask students to predict what the PAX and spleems might be for the upcoming activity. The class is divided into teams of 3-5 students and for the duration of the game, the teacher announces and records each team’s spleems on a chart (without mentioning any individual student’s name). The teacher also points out PAX behaviors.  At the end of the game time, every team that has three or fewer spleems is rewarded with a “prize” activity such as a minute of dancing around or a 10-second giggle fest.

PAX Games are brief at first — a few minutes — then increase in length as students consistently “win” 4 out of 5 games  (equivalent to 80%). Eventually, students will be able to play the Good Behavior Game for 30 to 45 minutes, greatly increasing their fully engaged learning time. Older children can learn to play for even longer. The active, fun, intrinsic reward activities teach children two related skills: how to self-regulate under conditions of excitement and how to self-regulate when one doesn’t “win” or achieve a desired goal immediately. These are lifetime skills, involving different neural circuits than paying attention to learning.

To learn more about the PAX game and the related research on its impressive results go to: goodbehaviorgame.com 

paxis.org/content/goodbehavior.aspx

www.hazelden.org/HAZ_MEDIA/gbg_history.pdf

Zones of Regulation

The Zones of Regulation is a curriculum to help students gain skills in the area of self regulation.  Self-regulation can be defined as self control, self management, and impulse control.  It is the best state of alertness of both the body and emotions for the specific situation.  A higher state of alertness can be beneficial when a student is on the playground or in a competitive game, while a lower state is required for the classroom.  The lessons in the Zones are designed to help students recognize when they are in the different zones as well as learn how to use strategies to change or stay in the zone they are in.  Students will increase their emotional vocabulary, gain skills in reading people’s facial expressions, perspective about how others see and react to their behavior, insight into events that trigger their behavior, calming and alerting strategies, and problem solving skills. 

Students will learn the skills more quickly and apply them in many situations by doing the following:
*use the language and talk about the concepts of the Zones.  Make comments aloud so the student understands it is natural that we all experience the different zones and use strategies to regulate ourselves.  For example, “This is frustrating and getting me into my yellow zone.  I need to use a tool to calm down.  I will take some slow breaths.”
*Point out observations of the zones to help gain awareness of their zones. 
*Talk about what zone is “expected” in different situations or how a zone may be “unexpected”. 
*Show interest in learning about a student’s triggers and zone tools. 
*Reinforce students frequently for being in the expected zone, rather than only pointing out when the zone is unexpected. 
 
It is important to note that everyone experiences all of the zones – the Red and Yellow zones are not “bad” zones.  All of the zones are expected at one time or another.  The zones of regulation are intended to be neutral and not communicate judgement.