Raw Notes From Learning and the Brain 2021 - Friday

Each year, I used my blog to take notes.  What you will find here are raw, including a mix of the presenter's thoughts mixed with my own responses as I mentally process.  They will make sense to me, but they may or may not make sense to you.  I usually process all of this in the following week and post things that make actual sense, so check back in if you are interested.

Dr. David Daniel - Chair of Conference - Introducing speakers, but he also reminded us that not all students handled the pandemic the same way.  Some thrived.  Some had learning loss.  Some had social deficits.  In any given room, there are many things going on, so pay attention to all of the speakers because they are all speaking about the experience of at least one of your students.

Keynote I: Unwinding Our Anxiety in the Brain During a Pandemic - Judson A. Brewer, MD, PhD

• Much therapy is focused on willpower.  The problem is that, as Einstein said, "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.  
• If we understand how our brains work, we can better use their tools to help treat them. (I know I found this to be true during lockdowns.  Using what I knew about the brain helped me cope better.)
• Environmental cue -> Behavior -> Result - The prefrontal cortex uses this pattern to predict the future based on past, similar events.  This is necessary to get through the day, but it can also lead to wrong predictions, so we need to be careful of relying solely on it.
• Social contagion - When a large number of people behave in a certain way, especially when it is based on anxiety, a lot of people can take on certain behaviors (toilet paper hoarding, stock selling, etc.)
• You can't will-power your way out of panic, and you can't think your way out of it by just telling yourself that your fear is illogical.  The pathways for fear and logic aren't connected well enough for that.  Fear is often about survival.  
• Worry makes us feel like we are in control, so it establishes a pattern of negative reinforcement.  Then, anxiety becomes a habit.  The research on habits can be informative in helping to treat it.
• Habit loop - Trigger -> Brain response -> Memory (Do that behavior any time that trigger happens)
• Anxiety habit loop - Trigger -> Behavior to distract from unpleasantness (drinking, eating, social media, NetFlix) -> Brain response -> Memory (Distract yourself any time you don't like what you are feeling) -> Problem isn't solved, leading to more anxiety
• There reaches a point where you are no longer choosing the behavior because it has become automatic.
• Our brains REALLY don't like uncertainty, so we try to resolve everything (even when it doesn't make sense).  
• Our sense of self is sometimes just a pattern of habits.
• Mindfulness doesn't have to mean yoga or meditation. - It means paying attention to the present moment, on purpose, non, nonjudgmentally.
• People who know they are highly anxious benefit from mindfulness training because they are more introspective and aware.  People who avoid experiences don't benefit as much because they tend to avoid thinking about things.
• Anxiety affects sleep.  Your head hits the pillow, but your brain says, "Okay, my turn.  Let's go through everything for tomorrow and think about what we wish we had done differently today."
• Worry activates the Default Mode Network (what you do unconsciously).  Experienced meditators decrease activity in this area, so they don't get caught up in automated loops.
• Three Steps of Habit Change
• Become aware that you are caught up in a habit loop
• Notice what you are thinking. 
• Notice how you are feeling. 
• Notice the behavior.
• mapmyhabit.com 
• Explore the results (ask, "What do I get from this?")
• The orbitofrontal cortex compares the reward value of certain behaviors.
• Just the act of paying attention can change the reward value.  (e.g. notice how bad the cigarette tastes)  
• Ask what you are getting from action.  Some part of it is good or you wouldn't be doing it, but there are possibly some negatives you haven't been paying attention to.  This will make then benefit it less enchanting.
• Step out of the habit loop.
• You can replace worry with curiosity.  It replaces fear and dread with "Hmm, that's interesting."  
• "Curiosity will conquer fear more than bravery will."
• Look at what you are feeling rather than why you are feeling it.  That will diffuse the panic.  It helps you get out of your own way.
• Instructions for living - Pay attention.  Be astonished.  Tell about it.

Keynote II: Reestablishing Attention and Synchronicity in Children Exposed to Trauma - 

Bessel A. Van der Kolk, MD
This one is going to be missing some stuff because my computer battery died in the middle of it, and I lost what I hadn't saved.  This is mostly from memory, except after I lost battery when I took some notes on paper.

• We are wired to imitate movement of other people.  Babies as young as 5 hours old can mimic facial expressions of adults.  This is why we tend to take on the mannerisms and speech patterns of those we spend time with (and why we must be careful who we spend time with).
• We are meant to move in rhythm with others with whom we have relationships.  Trauma interrupts those rhythms.
• Starting each day with some sort of activity where students move together will put them in sync with those around them, giving them a greater sense of security.  
• Mindfulness doesn't really work with traumatized children because their tendency is to avoid looking inward since that is where the pain is.
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder is a bogus diagnosis (He didn't say bogus.  He said another word.)  
• Most of a traumatized kid's behavior is due to fear.  They are hypervigilant of all potential signs of danger.  This makes them react very differently to stimuli than other students.  
• Teachers should learn to recognize the behavior as an expression of an unmet need and try to meet that need.
• Traumatic memories are not recorded the same way other memories are.  They are more likely to be recorded as sense memories, which is why a sound or smell might trigger a freakout.  It may trigger the fight or flight response.  
• We sometimes have competing survival responses.  Fear makes you want to run toward another person, but it also makes you want to run away from danger.  If the person you are running toward is the source of the danger, it can create a freeze response because the two instincts are at odds.
• A child cannot learn while in fear.
• When people are afraid, they tend to run (think about the images of people running after 9/11).  When people can't move, the feeling of being trapped increases anxiety.
• They tend to run home, but if home is the source of the trauma, they run toward a pseudo home, somewhere predictable and safe.  This could be your classroom.  
• One of the best treatments for traumatized kids is imagination.  The ability to imagine alternate outcomes to a situation allows their brains to prevent locking into the fear-based worst-case scenario.  The brain is trained in imagining alternative outcomes by imaginative play, theater, dance, storytelling, and movement with others (sports or simply everyone doing the same motion).  It builds self-regulation.
• The traumatized child is often reluctant to join the very activities that might help them.  Becoming frustrated with their lack of participation will only make it worse because your frustration will be an additional trigger.  The key is to create a way to make participating safe.
• Bad news - Trauma dramatically damages the developing brain.  Good news - With the right tools, the brain can rewire.  
• One new tool is a neurofeedback video game.  The game is controlled by electrodes attached to the child.  They learn to control their mental state in order to control the game.  This causes them to be aware of their mental state and able to regulate it better. 

Session A - Option 2 (4-12): Creating Caring, Trusting, Just Schools During Challenging Times - Richard Weissbourd, EdD

• We have a rhetoric gap - Parents say they rank their child's caring higher than their achievement or their happiness, but they make decisions based on their child's happiness.
• In surveys, they assume other parents care only about their child's achievement.
• Teachers say they rank caring the highest.
• Students report that they think their teachers care more about academics and their parents care mroe about achievement.
• When a kid wants to quit a team or a dance group, the decision is often made based on whether the kid is having fun or if it makes them happy (or if it will look good on a college transcript).  It is rarely considered whether they have a responsibility to the group.  Do they care that they are letting their teammates down?
• Religions have rites of passage in which kids are asked to think about their place in history.  This makes them think about their ancestors and their descendants to be.  Is there a non-religious equivalent?
• When immigrants move here, they often come from cultures with values of family and ancestry.  After they have been here for a few years, they tend to care more about their individual rights.  We often view immigrants as a threat to American moral culture, but in some ways, the opposite may be true.

Four Failures of Moral Education

• We focus heavily on performance character (Grit, perseverance through challenges, growth), but those can be used for good or evil (Dictators have a lot of grit.)  We do not focus on moral character (honesty, patience, compassion).
• SEL (Social Emotional Learning) is big right now, but if we are only teaching them to be aware of other people's emotions, we are not including any moral development.  Con-men are aware of other people's emotions and use that awareness well, but it is obviously immoral.
• Basic ethical principles are not taught.  We have bought into the idea of moral relativism to the extent that we don't believe there are basics of right and wrong in how we treat people.  Human rights and justice have to be based on some kind of moral absolutes.
• We don't teach kids to constructively interact with people who do not share their religious or political views.  (In surveys, kids express concern about this.  They bring less political baggage and want to be taught ways to respectfully disagree.)  Do we teach kids that each of us is responsible for all of us (No man is an island)?

Seven Ways to Help with Moral Development

1. Determine your key focus areas for promoting caring and justice  
• Every kid should be anchored to at least one adult.
• Teach gratitude
• Ask what is valuable about someone else's point of view.
2.  Utilize data
• What gets assessed gets addressed
3. Use small strategies with big impact.
• Greet kids by name
• Connecting with a students' interest.  
• Small connections can be life-changing
• Have kids interview someone with a different point of view for their writing.
• Have kids read stories from different points of view.
• Make art projects from a variety of cultures or ones that express a justice issue you care about.
4.  Intervene when injustice is happening in any part of the school (It isn't just about curriculum).  Model the correct interaction.
5. Focus on relationships and adult development.
• Relationship mapping (Who doesn't have a relationship with an adult?)
• Identify 3 character strengths in every child.
• Have teachers assess if students see them as a moral role model.  What can be done to become a positive moral role model?
6. Mobilize the energy and wisdom of youth.
• Use their observations of injustices.
• Put them in leadership positions to affect change.
7. Engage parents in a caring moral community.
• Cultivate a sense of "we."  Do parents care about all kids in the school or just their own?
• School-parent compacts
• Expect more from fathers (We expect too much from mothers.  We don't even ask to speak to fathers if there is a mother in the home.  We throw a parade if a dad brings a kid's lunch to school, but we expect mothers to bend over backward every day.)

We cannot pursue shared moral purposes without a shared reality.

• Credible sources of information matter.
• Superficial unity is meaningless without justice.
• The common good is good for everyone.

Keynote III: Helping Students With Concerning Behavior Before and After the Pandemic - Ross W. Greene, PhD

Moving from Power and Control to Collaboration and Problem Solving.

Website - livesinthebalance.org, ALSUP (inventory to help determine a student's lagging skills) - It's not intuitive to use, so watch the videos and take the tour on the website.

• Parents of kids with behaviorally challenged kids are feeling the most stress and are coping by lowering their standards and expectations.  They are less optimistic.
• Teachers are feeling fried.  The pandemic took an emotional toll, and so has the return to school.  We sacrificed some of our physical and mental health to do what we thought was best for students.
• Because people are tired of the pandemic, they are choosing to pretend it is not happening.  Ignoring it has not made it go away.
• Collaboration and problem solving is more important than ever.

Five Major Paradigm Shifts to Implement Collaborative Problem Solving

(Personal note:  I mostly agree with this, but obviously a worldview that contains the sin nature modifies my view somewhat.)

1. Rather than trying to modify the students' concerning behavior, look for and solve the problem that is the source of the behavior.  Behavior is a signal of an unsolved problem (It's a symptom in the same way a fever is.)  They don't need rewards and punishments; they need us. (Did you know that corporal punishment is still be used in public schools in 19 states?)
2. Problem-solving is a collaboration with the kid, not something you do to the kid.  This builds responsibility in them and makes them accountable to both the adult and themselves.
3. Problem-solving is proactive, not reactive.  If you understand why they act out (lack of adaptive skills) and when they act out (when there is an expectation they struggle to meet), you can predict when a meltdown is likely to happen and handle it proactively by teaching them adaptive skills
4. Kids will do well if they can.  Ignoring the behavior doesn't help if the behavior is meant to communicate the lack of skill in meeting an expectation.
5. Doing well is preferable.  It doesn't make sense to believe a kid might have the skills to do well but chooses not to.  It's not like it makes their life easier.

They are lacking:

• Executive skills
• Communication/Language processing
• Emotional Regulation
• Cognition

Using the assessment tool allows you to identify the skill they lack help them develop it.  Since it is not adversarial but a partnership, it helps them develop the skills they lack.

Options in problem-solving:

• Plan A - Unilateral (Based in power, causes conflict, usually doesn't work because you are guessing about the problem)
• Plan B - Collaborative (Cooperation brings people together, usually does work)
• Plan C - Set the problem aside for now (This is not giving in.  It's prioritizing.  If a student has 40 expectations they cannot currently meet, you can't tackle them all at once.  Choose the most disruptive, dangerous ones to solve first.)

Steps to Collaborative Problem Solving

• Empathy Step - This is just listening to the kid while they tell you what the source of the problem is.  Ask them what is hard about meeting the expectation.  What you think is in his way may not be the thing in his way.
• Define Adult Concern - The adult explains why the expectation matters and why they are concerned the child isn't meeting it.
• Invitation - "Might there be a way to accomplish (insert expectation) while taking care of (insert child's concern).  Allow child to make suggestions first, but the solution must be both realistic and mutually satisfactory, so there may be some negotiating.