Coweta's Professional Learning

This semester is flying by! Since the start of this school year, you have learned numerous strategies to engage students in new ways, adapted technology tips to support virtual learners and built your digital skills as a dual modality teacher. You have done an amazing job and should feel great pride in what you have accomplished. Be sure to take time to celebrate your success because you have definitely empowered students for success.

Executive Functioning:

At times, we all struggle with getting organized, remembering what we need to do, and getting things done. Executive functioning is made up of a group of brain-based skills that develop as our frontal brains mature.

We all need to be taught these skills and practice them…..and know that when we are stressed the amount of mental energy we have declines and we might need to rely on some helpful strategies.

Some basic ways to develop these skills and strategies to accommodate for deficits include:

• Playing games with kids that require attention, turn taking, matching, strategizing, listening, and inhibiting impulses (e.g., board games, card games, freeze tag, dodgeball, puzzles, etc.).

• Writing down the steps for lengthy directions and putting it someplace visible (post its)

• Freeing up some working space memory by chunking the information & using mnemonics

• Encouraging reluctant students (or yourself) to try something for a few minutes and increasing the amount of time engaged. Charting the amount of time engaged or small goals.

• Breaking down tasks into manageable parts & spending a certain amount of time on each part. Build in breaks!

• Taking pictures of information

• Teaching ‘whole body listening,’ proofreading skills, note taking strategies, self checking, graphic organizers, concept maps, etc.

• Using technology: 30/30 app, timers, smart pens, Forest app, mindfulness, Evernote

• Using fidgets, activity breaks, stretching, and working while standing or on the floor

• Focusing on growth mindset and teaching what we want the students to do (versus telling them what not to do)

• Teaching “3 before me” (use three resources before asking someone else a question) and self advocacy skills (I learn best by…..)

• Build up emotional vocabulary, model coping strategies, let students know that we all make mistakes and use “error analysis” so they don’t make the same mistake again.

• Make sure the student knows where “home base” is for all items and teach that “everything has a home”.

• Use highlighters, larger graph paper boxes, color coded folders, note cards to organize ideas