Focus Through the Noise

The Friday Five

TGIF Teacher Newsletter #155

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I'm finishing this week's newsletter while sipping coffee in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Check out the game at the bottom this week. Maybe you'll be one of the winners 🤗?

I'm on a whirlwind two-day trip visiting family, a water park in Wisconsin Dells, and solving puzzles at Wizard Quest. Full disclosure: I plan on questing for some quiet time in a local coffee shop during the Wizard Quest portion.

Here are some thoughts from the adventure so far...

• Stay connected and visit family and friends whenever you can. 
• Pay attention to people who have lived a long life. They have much to teach us!
• When the snow is flying, slow down on the road.
• It's possible to eat pizza for every meal in one day 😁.
• Music is the soundtrack to a good life.

This week's Why Edify Wisdom comes from Phil Januszewski. He’s a high school chemistry and physics teacher who spreads his message with positive energy. He shares the power you have simply by being the best version of yourself.

Phil Januszewski Shares Earned Wisdom: Resilience, Sharing Your Gifts, and Real Joy

Every person has a story that teaches valuable lessons. Here’s is the Earned Wisdom of Phil Januszewski. He’s a high school chemistry and physics teacher who spreads his message with positive energy.

WHY EDIFYJeremy Jorgensen

Reflection Questions:

1. How do you currently manage your emotions in challenging situations, and what new strategies from the emotional management toolkit could you incorporate to improve your emotional regulation?
2. How can you adapt your work methods to handle interruptions more effectively, and how might these adaptations lead to professional growth?
3. Reflecting on the research about beautiful music's impact on the brain, how could you intentionally use music to enhance your well-being and professional productivity?

The Friday Five

1 - Manage Emotions

Managing emotions in children requires understanding their fundamental role while having practical tools for regulation. Children need to recognize that all emotions serve valuable purposes and are part of being human, but they can learn to control their intensity and duration.

Sensory strategies like music, touch, or scents can effectively shift emotional states.

Parents and teachers play a crucial role by modeling emotional regulation, demonstrating healthy coping mechanisms, and helping children build a diverse toolkit of strategies that work for their needs.

The key isn't to eliminate difficult emotions but to develop skills for managing them effectively when they become overwhelming.

Classroom Tips for Teachers Based on Emotional Management Research

• Create a Sensory-Rich Environment: Incorporate calming background music during independent work, use appropriate lighting, and consider setting up a quiet corner with soft textures and soothing visual elements. This can help students naturally regulate their emotions throughout the day.
• Normalize All Emotions: Explicitly teach students that all emotions serve a purpose and are part of being human. Create classroom discussions about different emotions' functions (e.g., how fear helps us stay safe and how anger can signal injustice) and avoid labeling emotions as "good" or "bad."
• Build an Emotional Management Toolkit: Help students identify and experiment with different regulation strategies that work for them individually. This could include creating personalized playlists, practicing deep breathing exercises, or using fidget tools. Remember that different strategies will work for different students on different days.

2 - Too Many Interruptions

Teachers today have to deal with many different types of interruptions that make it hard to teach effectively. The older I get, the more these distractions seem to get to me.

We face challenges like noisy construction work, unexpected teaching assistants showing up in their classrooms, and environmental problems like wildfires.

We also have to handle technical issues with computers and other devices. Teachers work hard to find creative solutions to these problems, like changing how they teach or working one-on-one with students when it's too noisy for group instruction.

While these disruptions are frustrating, teachers find new ways to help their students learn.

Teaching has changed—it's no longer just about presenting lessons. It's also about being flexible and finding ways to keep students focused despite all the distractions around them.

Tips for Handling Classroom Distractions:

• Adapt teaching methods when needed - Switch to individual interactions with students when group instruction becomes challenging due to external noise or disruptions.
• Be flexible with rules during unusual circumstances - Sometimes, temporarily adjusting standard policies can help minimize larger distractions, especially during stressful situations.
• Incorporate unexpected interruptions constructively - When faced with unplanned visitors or situations, quickly integrate them into the ongoing lesson while maintaining student focus.

3 - Beautiful Music

Scientists have discovered interesting patterns in how our brains respond to beautiful music. When people hear music they think is beautiful, different parts of their brain work together—especially the parts that handle rewards (feeling good) and visual thinking (imagining things in our minds).

This shows that enjoying beautiful music isn't just about hearing - it's about feeling pleasure and creating mental pictures.

When people listen to music they don't find beautiful, their brains mainly focus on just processing the sound and dealing with less pleasant emotions.

The researchers used special brain-scanning machines to watch these patterns happen in real-time.

They had people listen to different pieces of music while tracking how different brain areas communicated with each other. They found that when someone hears beautiful music, the reward center of their brain connects with areas that help create mental images and judge what they like.

But when the music isn't appealing, the brain mainly processes the basic sound and might trigger negative feelings. This helps explain why we can react differently to different types of music.

Takeaway: Create a playlist of beautiful music and make time to listen.

4 - Expression of Humanity

“I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.” - Billy Joel

5 - Teacher Commuter Playlist - Good Morning by Max Frost

Choose Your Own Adventure

• Check out this art lesson.
• Turning challenges into growth opportunities.
• Teacher Challenges - Teaching in Troubling Times: A Conversation with Parker J. Palmer

Why Edify Recommendations

• During each Why Edify Wisdom interview, I ask for book recommendations. I've started compiling these recommendations in my shop. Here they are.
• T-Shirt - I Turn Coffee Into Lesson Plans

Two Truths and a Lie

You made it to the end of the newsletter! You rock! Can you spot which one is the lie? Share the answer in a comment or reply. The first three responses will get a shout-out in next week's newsletter and a gift (if you include your address).

• Beautiful music simultaneously activates the reward center and visual thinking parts of our brain.
• Teachers today are dealing with fewer interruptions in the classroom compared to previous years.
• Creating a sensory-rich environment with calming background music can help students naturally regulate their emotions throughout the day.