by Noel Foy | Apr 15, 2020 | Resources
Teaching stressed students and those with executive function deficits and anxiety disorders places additional demands and challenges on teachers. By equipping teachers with information and strategies to decrease classroom stress and boost executive function, teachers have an awesome opportunity to shape students’ brains in the best possible ways. Stress was once a topic associated with adults, but with the spike in anxiety among children, stress levels are increasing in the classroom, making it more challenging for teachers to teach and students to learn. More and more kids are acting out or zoning out in class, causing their stress response to activate and executive function skills to go offline. First, let’s clarify what executive function is. Think of it as your brain’s GPS system, a set of self-directed cognitive, social and emotional skills that tells the brain what, where and how to do something. This “system” cues and coordinates skills such as: Task initiation (i.e. getting started on an assignment and knowing how to organize/prioritize) Setting goals (i.e. making goals achievable…not too high or too low) Working memory (i.e. remembering directions or applying steps to a math problem) Self-monitoring (i.e. checking work and making improvements) Effort and Focus (i.e. sustaining the effort and focus needed to complete a task) Self-regulation (i.e. keeping emotions in check, particularly when obstacles occur) Cognitive flexibility (i.e. shifting gears or perspectives and transitioning from one task to another) Executive function is regulated in the prefrontal cortex and continues to develop throughout life. Since the brain is not fully developed at birth, children are not born with these skills needed for success in school and life...
by Noel Foy | Mar 19, 2020 | Resources
With very little warning, many parents or caregivers have a new role they didn’t anticipate filling on such short notice: Homeschool Teacher. Globally, schools are shutting down — some for a minimum of 30 days, others indefinitely. With very little warning, parents and children are adjusting to a whirlwind of new homebound changes and routines, many of which are adding high levels of stress to their daily lives. There is one new role many parents or caregivers didn’t anticipate filling on such short notice: Homeschool Teacher. While the thought of taking on this role may be initially overwhelming, take comfort in knowing you have been your child’s first and most important teacher all along. However, transforming your kitchen or dining room table into a classroom is another story. As you step in and support your child’s learning, a certain amount of stress is to be expected. Your child’s well being is a priority, and so is yours. Since parents don’t leave the hospital with their newborns and a parent toolbox in tow, allow me to equip you with a crash course of information, tips, and strategies about the science of learning and managing stress. If there was ever a need for a parent toolkit, it’s now. How Stress Works It all starts with a trigger. Worried thoughts follow, which activate a part of the brain called the amygdala, the brain’s alarm. It sends a “Mayday!” message to the brain indicating a threat, releasing stress chemicals which produce physiological changes throughout the body — rapid heart rate, sweaty palms, body tightness, headache and/or stomachache — and turn on the Fight,...
by Noel Foy | Jan 19, 2020 | Resources
My evolution from educator to neuroeducator has been a process of connecting the dots. It began with a love of learning and a passion to empower my students throughout the learning process, particularly the underperforming and those with ADHD or learning disabilities. As a mom and life-long educator, you can imagine my dismay when by 4th grade, my sons said they hated school. The spark they once had for school was barely a flicker. When asked, “How was school?” “Boring” was the daily refrain. “What did you learn?” “Nothing” was the typical response. I found this particularly frustrating because I was a teacher. A special educator to boot. Yet, I was unequipped to get to the root of the problem and felt I had fallen short as a parent and educator. I wanted to know why my sons, who loved learning, hated school. Over the years, I discovered they weren’t alone. In my classroom visits to schools across the country, I observed an increase of students in negative emotional states — anxiety, frustration, anger, boredom and lack of relevance to subject matter, causing them to act out or zone out — the same emotions my own sons were experiencing. And it wasn’t just me noticing these behaviors. I found myself in numerous conversations with teachers, coaches and parents who expressed frustration that their students, players or children lacked focus, motivation, resilience, self-regulation and self-direction, despite best efforts to instruct them. What was going on? It wasn’t until the diagnosis of a family member with Post-Concussion Syndrome that I started to get some answers. I became a regular participant at...
by Noel Foy | Dec 30, 2018 | Resources
This blog post by Noel Foy was featured in Keys to Literacy’s November 2018 Newsletter and its Literacy Lines Blog. Noel is an expert on learning and the brain and has just published a children’s book about anxiety titled “ABC Worry Free.” In her post, Noel discusses how stress affects learning literacy skills. Stress is a topic typically associated with adults, but with the increase in anxiety disorders among children over the last ten years, its impact on their ability to learn literacy skills is worrisome. Neuroscience research reveals the brain can experience stress as feelings of anxiety, anger, frustration, boredom or lack of personal relevance. Unfortunately, many students in classrooms across the country find themselves in at least one of these negative states on a chronic basis, causing the amygdala, the brain’s personal watchdog for potential threats, to activate the stress response. Why is this a problem? When students are in the throes of flight, fight or freeze, it blocks information from reaching the “thinking” parts of the brain and inhibits learning, memory and critical thinking. The lesson a teacher just gave on how to syllabicate, use a comprehension strategy or write a complete sentence never entered that child’s brain for processing or later retrieval. This is sobering news, especially for a country that spends more per student than most other advanced, industrial nations but ranks around the middle of the pack in Reading and Science and below average in Math, according to the most recent results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). What does fight, flight or freeze look like in the classroom? Students in...
by Noel Foy | Oct 21, 2018 | Resources
What story do you tell yourself? Our thoughts, feelings, language, experiences and physical sensations activate thousands of neurons to form neural networks, which in turn influence how we think of ourselves as learners. In 1949, Canadian Neuropsychologist Donald Hebb first used the saying, “The neurons that fire together wire together” to reinforce what happens in the learning process. When we learn a new skill—academic, athletic, musical, social or otherwise—neural pathways form. The more we practice, the more we stimulate and strengthen these neural networks. We often experience “emotional” moments—positive or negative—that lay the foundation for healthy or unhealthy narratives about ourselves as learners. For example, students with negative learning experiences may lack interest in a skill, avoid challenges, feel frustrated while learning or fear making mistakes. On the other hand, learning that prompts positive thoughts, emotions and multi-sensory experiences develop efficient networks that can boost retrieval of information and build confidence and resilience. Good news! It isn’t too late to reframe old, adverse patterns. By reframing thoughts and taking more productive actions, new neural networks form, which can result in the development of skills you never thought possible. For example, if you have a history of repeated failures in Math, perhaps you think to yourself, “I’ll never be able to do this math problem! I’ve always hated math. This teacher is horrible.” You might feel irritable or tense, which leads you to put your head down on your desk, distract others with off task comments, or escape to sharpen your pencil multiple times. Your behaviors may be misinterpreted as signs of laziness or reluctance, when in fact your stress...
by Noel Foy | Jul 6, 2018 | Resources
The disturbing rise in stress among children is wreaking havoc in the classroom and inhibiting their ability to learn. Neuroscience research reveals that the brain experiences stress as feelings of anxiety, anger, frustration, boredom or lack of personal relevance. Unfortunately, many students in today’s classrooms find themselves in one or more of these negative emotional states on a daily basis. When in these states, the amygdala, the brain’s personal watchdog for potential threats, activates and floods the bloodstream with stress chemicals. Before students can say “no brainer,” they’re in the throes of flight, fight or freeze. When this happens, it blocks information from reaching the “thinking” part of the brain and won’t be available for processing and later retrieval, which explains why some students don’t remember the subject matter they were just taught. This is sobering news, especially for a country that spends more per student than most other advanced industrial nations but ranks around the middle of the pack in Reading and Science and below average in Math, according to the most recent results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Eric Jensen, author of Teaching with the Brain in Mind reminds us, “The human brain loves to learn. Our very survival, in fact, is dependent on learning.” Similarly, our stress response system is designed for our survival. Even though saber tooth tigers no longer chase us, our stress response can kick into overdrive when faced with modern day stressors such as school. For example, when children are anxious to raise their hands in class, frustrated by repeated mistakes, bored by monotonous worksheets or worried about being...
