•  the Weekly | 10.4

     

  • For Your Head: The Hand Model of the Brain

    From Emotional Poverty in All Demographics, Dr. Ruby Payne (Chapter 1, pp 11-15)

    Payne's work in this chapter is based on the work of Dr. Dan Siegel. With his hand model in mind (see videos posted below), you can better understand - and guide students in understanding - the structure and function of the following parts of their brain:

    Palm of Hand = Brain Stem: Controls involuntary systems; controls states of arousal (hunger, sexual, awake, asleep); responsible for fight, flight or freeze response; identifies how we respond to threats; in survival mode, brain becomes reactive; fundamental to motivational systems that help us with food, shelter, reproduction, and safety; works with limbic area to get us to act.

    Wrist = Spinal Cord: Carries information between the brain and body.

    Thumb = Limbic Region: Includes the amygdala & the hippocampus; works with brain stem to create our emotions; evaluates the situation - good/compassionate or bad/uncompassionate; creates the motion we choose according to the meaning we assign to the situation (good = move towards; bad = move away from); is crucial in how we form relationships and become emotionally attached to one another; regulates the hypothalamus, the endocrine control center, so that when we are stressed, we secrete the hormone, cortisol, which mobilizes energy by putting our entire system on alert; is sensitized by trauma and then over-fires; finding a way to soothe excessively reactive limbic firing is crucial to rebalancing emotions and diminishing the harmful effects of chronic stress; helps create memories - of facts, experiences, and emotions; includes the amygdala, which is especially important in the fear response; emotional responses can be created without consciousness and we may act on them without awareness; includes the hippocampus, which puts the puzzle pieces together; it is responsible for the integration of experiences - body sensations, emotions, thoughts, facts, recollections, etc.; as we age, the hippocampus weaves basic emotional and perceptual memory into factual and autobiographical recollections.

    Back of Hand & Fingers over Thumb = Cortex: Outer layer of the brain; moves the brain beyond survival, bodily functions, and emotional reactions and into thoughts and ideas; creates its own representations - it allows us to think about thinking; in the hand model, the frontal cortex extends from your fingertips to the second knuckle.

    Two Middle Fingers = Prefrontal Cortex: In the hand model, the prefrontal cortex extends from your first knuckle to your fingertips; develops a sense of time, a sense of self, and moral judgments; it controls impulsivity, has insight and empathy, and enacts moral judgments; because this area is not as well developed in poverty, its functions of bodily regulation, attuned communication, emotional balance, response flexibility, fear modulation, empathy, insight, moral awareness and intuition are also underdeveloped. 

  • For Your Heart: Hand Model of the Brain (Dr. Dan Siegel)

    Discussion of hand model of the brain & the impact schools can have when they foster reflection, relationships and resilience.

     

    Brief introduction to the hand model of the brain.

  • For Your Hands: Trauma-Informed Strategies

    From the work of Dr. Ruby Payne, Dr. Eric Jensen, and Dr. Bryan Harris

    About Emotions & the Emotional Meltdown (Payne):

    • Emotion is processed 200-5000 times faster than thought.
    • An emotional meltdown is an unregulated, unintegrated brain response.
    • The prefrontal cortex is the regulator, without it the amygdala responds to a trigger without regulation.
    • With the hand model of the brain in mind, an emotional meltdown looks like an open hand and an in-your-face explosion.
    • If the meltdown is interpreted as disrespect and the response to the student comes out of anger instead of awareness of an unregulated, unintegrated brain, typical discipline techniques will not work.

    Responding to a Meltdown (Payne):

    • Contain the behavior so it doesn't harm others.
    • Calm the individual with an effective calming technique.
    • Teach the individual the hand model so he/she can begin to understand what's happening and name the experiences.
    • Water - have the individual drink water as it metabolizes the cortisol that has been released into the body in response to stress.
    • Future Story - work with students to create a Future Story sheet (see example below), describing what they want to do, be, and/or have by age 25, and make a plan for getting there.
    • Tapping - techniques based in traditional Chinese medicine to calm and heal; and demonstrates it effectively, it includes some verbal acknowlegements. Dr. Payne's work focuses on the tapping points without the verbal acknowledgements, but you may find them useful, as well.
    • Look Up - guide the individual to look up at a point high on the wall toward the ceiling. When eyes are up across the top of the head, the brain is processing visual information, making it difficult or impossible to access emotions. The momentary distraction can help students pause and regulate their responses. 
    • Breathing - ask the inidividual to stand up, inhale deeply from their diaphragm, squeeze their stomach muscles, and hold the breath for several seconds before exhaling. The stress response usually includes shallow breathing from the upper chest. This technique helps to calm them and slow their breathing.
    • Pat Stomach and Heart - have the individual put the left hand over the heart and rub, and the right hand over the stomach and rub - both at the same time. The gut has more receptors for seratonin (a calming chemical) than almost any other part of the body, and massage increases seratonin levels.
    • 5-4-3-2-1 - have the individual stand near you, guide them through the activity. Have them identify 5 things they see, then 4 things they can physically feel, then 3 things they can hear, then 2 things they can smell, then 1 thing they can taste or 1 emotion they feel ().

    Proactive Strategies for Building Relationships & Connections (Jensen & Harris):

    • "What I wish my teacher knew...", "What I wish my teacher would do...", "If you knew me, you'd know..." - have students use the sentence stem to write a note or letter to you.
    • Beware of "should" statements.
    • 2x10 Strategy - spend about 2 minutes a day for 10 days in a row in a non-academic conversation with the same student.
    • Get some feedback - engage students in course evaluations or surveys to show you're interested in their perspective, to demonstrate a growth mindset, and to build community.
    • Greet students at the door.
    • Use more "start" than "stop" statements - communicates and reinforces positive expectations.
    • Positive calls home - pick a few students each week (maybe those with whom you're struggling to build a relationship) and make a positive call home. Find something about that student to praise and make the call - even if you just leave a message.
    • Learn students' names.
    • Create a ME Bag - a bag you prepare and share with students as a model, filled with small objects or items that tell them more about you.
    • Share an everyday problem - a real-world model of how to live as an adult, a small piece of your world, a small problem and how you solved it or options you are considering for solving it.
    • Share progress on a goal - share a personal goal, the steps you're taking to achieve it and your progress (successes and challenges) along the way.
    • 50/50 rule - split class time equally between 'social' (collaboration, peer support, discussion, etc.) time and individual time.
    • Cooperative groups and teams
    • Study buddies - semi-permanent
    • Student mentors - partner students with older students to provide guidance, encouragement, and leadership.
    • Temporary partners - short-term pairs for specific activities.

    futurestory