The first graders I visit are so eager to please and strive to do their best work. There are children in my school who wish to improve academically without the burdens of triggered anxiety, fear of failure or behavioral dysregulation. Imagine how difficult learning would be under those conditions.
I envision first graders bringing the know-how of 'self-care' into the years ahead and applying everything they know about the brain to every challenge they face.
Over the last few years, I've started to teach students in all grades how to calm their minds so that they have as much access to their prefrontal cortex as possible. This year I'd like to bring in an expert to work with the first graders. Students will learn to quiet their minds through EFT or tapping to have greater access to their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for thinking, self regulation and executive functioning.
My Project
Suzanne will help students understand that they are not at the mercy of their emotions. She will help students understand that they can turn off the alarm in their brain giving them greater access to learning. The first graders I visit are already learning about how the brain works and they can tell you what the amygdala does, what the hippocampus is for and why they need a prefrontal cortex. Suzanne can provide a strategy, called tapping that can turn off the alarm that is activated when they are sad, mad or scared returning the student to a state of mind conducive to learning.
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