Need some sensory music?

During quiet time it is good relaxation to put on some music that would allow the students (or adults) to listen quietly and center themselves in order to refocus.  This You Tube location provides for several hours of wind chimes, meditation bowls and other sounds allowin for focus and relaxation.

I believe in "distractors"!

I believe in "distractors."  That's right I said it. I confess. Distractions which are used in a positive and productive manner. Let me explain.

An elementary student, John (not his real name) enters his classroom on the very first day of school and the visual stimulation is overwhelming. There are wonderfully cute items on the tables, on the walls, hanging from the ceilings, there is music playing and there is a PowerPoint with movement being projected on the board. He doesn't know where to look first. Being a young student his eyes move from place to place, item to item. His body follows his eyes. He is trying to consume it all. Within minutes he is overwhelmed and he sees a familiar wooden puzzle in the corner, sits down with it and works on dumping the pieces on the floor, putting them back in place and repeating this practice over an over. He was overly "distracted" and yet he "self-managed" by choosing a place less distracting and less overwhelming and worked quietly.

Class begins and all of the students are directed to the carpet and begin working through the morning meeting routine which will become part of their daily activities. John, now calm, sits quietly, listening and responding according to the teacher's expectations.

Kevin, in the same classroom, has not yet learned how to self-manage. He is still overly stimulated. He faces a smorgasbord of sensory delicacies. He is unsure of what to choose. (As adults we see this at buffets, in large menu options and other places where our choices are so plentiful. It's hard to make a choice and move forward.) Kevin slowly made it the carpet, but he is anxious. His eyes are not on the teacher. His hearing is not on the teacher. His focus is not - well, not anywhere, but everywhere.

Enter the distractor. The "hook" as some call it. Some use a "hand clap," a "chime," or some other technique we are going to us to train the students to listen for or notice that will bring them all together into a single focus. Our conversations stop, our eyes are on speaker, and we are to focus on what is coming up next. That is also a distractor - the chime, hand clap, or other sound or visual meant to call us together.

That is not my room. My room according to some of my colleagues is "plain."  Yes, I agree. "Intentionally plain" I say. We have color, but nothing overly distracting - no chartreuse, primary colors. We have shapes - those which we will learn. We have blank spaces on the walls and on the bulletin boards. Intentionally vacant areas that I like to refer to as "white space". It allows the mind's eye to pause and breathe as the students enter and scan the room. Or as they look around the room there are only the "distractions" I want to them to use in learning.

My other distractors? One simple thing thing I lifted from "Teach Like A Pirate" written by Dave Burgess. (His inspiration, my implementation). I roll play dough in my hands.  There is something magical about rolling a ball of play dough around and round. I say nothing.

Simply and without fanfare I  had opened play dough and started to roll it around in my hand. As the students start to focus, watching me, wondering what it's for, we start to talk. I ask questions, they respond. "Where do we stand to line up?"  "Behind the blue line," says one, then the other, then the other and so on. As I have had sufficient time to determine that they have learned the routine with action and responses, and only then, do I pull off a piece of play dough and had it out. One by one, person by person. There is only one color and every one who has answered the questions gets a piece. The room is quiet, they are working, their directions - "please make me a line." We acknowledge the line. Then we make a circle, then a square, now on to shapes we go.

The play dough goes back onto my portion and the "adding" together is discussed. As the student adds to my ball, one by one they get paper and we start to write/draw lines, circles, squares...

It is amazing how much play dough can be used to allow us to positively "distract" the students from distracted focus and bring them into the "intentional" focus we want. (By the way, this works on all ages. Even adults. I did this in a recent summer professional development and it was amazing how the room noise level changed, the focus intensified and the focus increased.)

By the way, some of you may think that the students would get used to the play dough. Far from it. When they see the play dough in my hand, those that know me, understand that we are going to have fun, learn, and be engaged. The classroom engaged reduces the behaviors. The "thorns" aren't as sharp. Anyone mishandling the play dough does without - looses a turn. Logical consequence. It works for me. I hope it will work for you.

Yes, I believe in "distractors," but in the type which allows for " intentional focus" and not for "fracturing" or overloading our senses. Goodness knows there is enough distraction outside the classroom.

|Don|

Links for additional thinking: 
Mike Paul's blogs have several posts on his recommendations of "distractors" or "engagement hacks" as he terms them.   27 Things to do when students aren't engaged:

Top 10 Ways to Wake Up Students in Class from Michelle Doman is a 7th and 8th grade Language Arts teacher at Brandon Middle School in Wisconsin's Rosendale-Brandon School District.
Get Dave Burgess' book here. (I like it that much!)