What does firing pottery have to do with teaching? Everything!
When you work with firing pottery, you are in the zone, you listen to the person in charge of the kiln, you are dealing with pottery fired to over 1000 degrees! You must remain grounded, quiet, and observant, even when you are full of excitement, disappointment, or other emotions.
When you are working with dysregulated students you are in the zone, you must follow the plan, you must listen to the student or the person running the plan. Learning ProAct deescalation techniques have helped me return to my breath and ground in high stress situations. The techniques presented have allowed me to better interact with students who might be angry and lashing out. By learning deescalation techniques, and my personal triggers, I have been better able to assess situations, remain calm, and follow plans. ProAct techniques have helped me when faced with particularly challenging classroom moments too. The techniques I learned from ProAct about the importance of co-regulation helped me keep my class moving along and calm while a student might be extremely mad or sad.
ProAct also has helped me learn about the escalation cycle. The knowledge about how our brain works while our “lids are flipped.” Knowing about the escalation cycle has helped me know when and how to communicate with students and how to support them too. This has helped me give students the space they need and try to understand their big feelings.
Teaching often feels like you are standing by a big fire, especially when you are faced with the varied needs of young learners, but, thoughtful grounding, co-regulation, and thoughtful space and time taught through ProAct.
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