Teaching Little Brains

The quality of our questions determines the quality of our life.  Our thoughts happen in the form of Questions and Answers.  On average, we have 60 000 - 70 000 of them a day.  It's the job of our Reticular Activating System to only allow in the things that align with what we already believe.  Happily, we get to use our conscious mind to instruct our RAS to allow in the thoughts we want.  Especially in times when things are difficult, and uncertain (like this current time with COVID-19), it is very important for us to do so.

In this episode, we explore how to identify the question(s) we ask ourselves most often, and how to choose questions that serve us better. 

Some questions that serve us ...

1. What opportunities does this time afford me? 
2. What if this is happening for me, not to me?
3. What are 3 things I’m grateful for? 
4. How can I make this moment more magical?
5. Where can I notice beauty in my day?
6. What are 3 acts of kindness I can do today?
7. What do I get to do today? (vs. What do I have to do today?)
8. What if I have puzzles rather than problems?
9. What is one thing I can do today to get me closer to my goal? 
10. What am I not seeing here?

Julia Black is an Education Changemaker and Social Entrepreneur from the UK, who helps parents empower their children to be highly motivated, self-directed, switched on learners to help them succeed in life. She is the founder of Explorium and the creator of the transformative educational framework, Lights On®, and an all-around lovely human being. She is also a fellow Neuro Coach who teaches people how to use brain-science to uplevel their learning and life potential. I am so honoured and excited to have Julia as my very first guest on the Teaching Little Brains Podcast!

JOIN US Thursday, April 2nd 2020 for the Education Evolution Summit (link also below)

LINKS to things mentioned in the episode:

Facebook page - Register for the Summit on Thursday April 2nd 2020 @ 11am EST

Lights On Jams PopUp (affiliate link)

Explorium Website

Creative Writing Digital Course - taught by Julia's daughter, Esme

Filmmaking Digital Course - taught by Julia's son, Seb

Today we discuss the science of stress, why & how it can be different for female brains, and how to combat stress during uncertain times like these. You are not alone!

LINKS mentioned in the episode

Harvard Study - 2000

Teaching Little Brains Facebook Page

Teaching Little Brains - Instagram

The Tapping Solutions

RTT - Maegan Aleece - Level Up Everyday

Did you know that simply writing down your goals and affirmations can increase the likelihood of your achieving them by up to 87%?!

Our thoughts drive our attitudes, our actions, and our behaviours. We can use this powerful chain reaction for empowerment, achievement, success, and self-actualization by writing them down. The only barrier to achieving our personal goals is ourselves and we often need to retrain our thought patterns to see the joys, opportunities, and possibilities in life rather than the limitations.

In this episode, I share some incredible benefits of writing down goals and affirmations, and practical tips in phrasing them to maximize success!

LINKS to things mentioned in this episode

The ONE Thing

Join my Teaching Little Writers Academy

Writing has been proven time and again, to be a key contributor to success in terms of goal-setting, gratitude, memory development, various cognitive and emotional therapies, increasing creativity and productivity, neural plasticity & network development, self coaching, mental well-being, thought processing, fine motor development, overcoming depression, and even fighting dyslexia and psychological disorders.  You name it.  There is evidence proving that writing enhances success all over the place - it is not simply a means of communication or expression.

Our Little Brains, need to know how to write!

In this episode, I share a model of Writers' Workshop that has proven successful in 100% of the over 30 classrooms I have coached it in.  Students are more engaged, confident, resilient, take more risks, start loving writing, and the quality of their writing drastically improves! PLUS, teachers gain hours back into their lives, rarely need to take writing home to mark, develop a deeper connection with their students, and are able to improve their own writing skills!

Intrigued?  Join me, for episode 5.

Also, register here for my Writers' Workshop Masterclass where I dive even deeper into the Writers' Workshop and get you set up for a program you, and your students, will love!

LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW

Sign Up for my Teaching Little Writers Academy

Join my Teaching Little Brains Facebook Group

No More, "I'm Done!" by Jennifer Jacobson

No More "How Long Does it Have to Be?" by Jennifer Jacobson

The Writing Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo

Make Writing and Hacking the Writing Workshop by Angela Stockman

Grateful people are healthier, happier, sleep better, make more friendships, participate in more acts of kindness, are more resilient, and are less likely to seek revenge for wrongful doings. WOW!

In this episode, we explore the physical, emotional, social and mental health benefits of gratitude, and I share some simple habits you can easily adopt, and integrate into your classroom.

Thank you for joining me today! Remember to subscribe to the podcast, so that new episodes will automatically come to you, saving you time.


Here are some handy links for this episode:

FREE Gratitude Journals and Prompts on Teachers Pay Teachers

FORBES article

Reticular Activating System (RAS) video 

If I said “You should take a trip to Hawaii this year!” or “Have you ever thought of starting a podcast?” or even “There’s a staff meeting tomorrow”, what is your reaction?  An objection, groan or eye roll?  Likely that's because of a Negative Thought that Automatically came up for you, when you thought about stepping out of your comfort zone.  It's a sign that your brain is functioning as it should, protecting you from perceived threats.

In this episode, we learn how to squash those ANTs, (Automatic Negative Thoughts), and replace them with more positive thoughts that serve you.  As always, I offer the neuro, and evolutionary explanation for these ANTs, and some teaching resources, references and tools for the classroom.

Thank you for joining me again - remember to subscribe to this podcast so that you don't have to search for the episodes, they will come to you!





Links to things mentioned in the episode:

Dr. Daniel Amen - https://www.amenclinics.com/

Dawson Church - https://dawsonchurch.com/

Kathrin Zenkina - https://manifestationbabe.com/blog/

EFT - Tapping - https://www.thetappingsolution.com/

The 8 Step ANT Squashing process - Thank you, Kathrin Zenkina:
1. Identify the limiting behaviour  (or belief, or thought)
2. Isolate the underlying belief (write it down)
3. Identify the source - where did this belief come from?
4. What have the benefits been to holding onto this belief?
5. What have the consequences been to holding onto this belief?
6. Is there any ultimate truth to this belief, or is it just a story you've been telling yourself?
7. What is the actual truth about this? (refute) Find evidence to dispel the belief
8. Replace with a new belief.

Practice repeating the new belief over and over, acting as if you believe it. Your subconscious doesn't know the difference between reality and make belief. It only listens to what you tell it.

This episode is all about how our thoughts create our feelings, which drive our actions, which produce our results.  This is actually scientifically observable on a brain scan!  

Our super efficient brain wants to automate as much as possible, to save energy.  So, it takes the thoughts x feeling combinations we repeat over time, and stores them in our subconscious. 

While this can be a good thing, because it allows us to focus on the tasks that require concentration, like lesson planning, driving on the highway, and solving super fun brain teasers in our Facebook group, it also means that 80-90% of our daily choices and actions are being run by our subconscious.  Unchecked, our thoughts can inadvertently lead us to negative actions and results.  

The GREAT news is that we can choose our thoughts.  We don't have to believe everything that passes through our brain!  

My call to action for you this week is to notice the 3 most frequent feelings you have during the day, and then write down the thoughts that are creating those feelings.  Are they serving you, or hindering you in some way?

I've also included a FREEBIE Plan for a lesson you can do with your students. 

Teaching Little Brains came about because I feel like this is the important stuff of life that we should be teaching our kids in school (and at home).  These are the lessons, tools and strategies that will serve them, and benefit their mental health and well-being, no matter what they do, or where they go.

Thank you for tuning in!

LINKS mentioned in the episode:

FREEBIE Lesson Plan - Choosing Your Thoughts

Join the Teaching Little Brains Facebook Group

https://www.teachinglittlebrains.com

Kwik Brains podcast hosted by Jim Kwik

The Life Coach School Podcast by Brooke Castillo

Dr. Shannon Irvine - The Epic Success Podcast

Hello, and Welcome to Episode 1 of the Teaching Little Brains Podcast!

Today I am celebrating the launch of my podcast - And I'm so excited you're here. Thank you for joining me!

Did you know that celebrating is actually good or your brain? Your brain LOVES reward!  It’s wired for it.  And celebration is an exceptional form of reward.  When you do something, and celebrate it, that fires off feel-good chemicals (dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin), and endorphins, like fireworks!  It lowers damaging levels of cortisol, and calms your amygdala.  This burst of reward information, signals to your brain, to do more of whatever it is that caused the reward. If these words sound foreign to you, worry not.  We will be exploring all kinds of enchanting neuro vocabulary and concepts in this, and future episodes. 

Dopamine gets fired when there is a reward sensation - you check something off your to-do list, and/or have positive conversations with others during celebration time. It accompanies a feeling of accomplishment and positivity. The benefit of dopamine is that it communicates with various areas of our prefrontal cortex (that’s our conscious, thinking brain, the part that makes us human - the part that allows us to choose our words and actions, think about our thinking).  So, when dopamine is released, it allows us to pay attention to important tasks, ignore distracting information, and access our working memory during problem-solving tasks.

The second chemical released during celebration is Oxytocin - also known as the “bonding hormone”, “cuddle hormone” or “love drug”.  It gives us a sense of closeness, intimacy, well-being and safety.

Serotonin helps change your mindset.  Amongst other things, it increases motivation and innovation, helps people become more focused and determined to change, and can reduce stress. 

And here’s the beautiful thing about this:  When we celebrate something, the brain does not know the difference between you celebrating for yourself, or for someone else.  It only experiences the positive chemical reaction, and links it to what you think caused it. For you, as the teacher, it could be helping a student. And, for the student, it could be using the strategies she’s learned to solve tricky words. Now both your brains want more of that, so you will be more likely to help students, and your student will be more likely to apply her reading strategies to try to solve new words with increased resilience, confidence and risk-taking.

In other words, celebrating with someone else, like say….someone who is launching their first ever podcast episode has brain benefits for you as well as them!  How AWESOME is that!?!?

So….what are you celebrating today?