NeuroLogic by Lakeside

Looking for a great book to add to your summer reading list? We recommend this book by Dr. Bruce D. Perry as an essential stepping stone in understanding the impact of trauma on children. In it, Dr. Perry recalls the cases of child trauma he has worked on throughout his career & the strategies he learned for rehabilitating children. This book is a fascinating look at the brain’s capacity for healing and the ways in which children can be helped.

Thanks to everyone who entered our Teacher Appreciation Week Giveaway! We have chosen our winners! Sheila Hlibichuk & Lindsey Tregenza let us know your contact information to receive your posters!

NeuroLogic can help with trainings and strategies designed for teachers by teachers! We provide trauma-informed training that explores a brain-based understanding of trauma and stress while delivering practical strategies that can be immediately implemented. Through live and virtual offerings, providing short-term or ongoing support, we can make a plan that works for you! We offer: Intensive Training, Small Group Coaching,... Leadership Consultation, & Professional Development. Click here to learn more! https://lakesidelink.com/training/neurologic/ See more

Did you know that music can be regulating for all areas of the brain? In fact, research has shown that songs with 60 beats per minute, mimicking a natural heartbeat, are especially calming for our brains. Need help finding these types of songs? Click here for our Regulation Resource site! https://sites.google.com/lakesidelink.c/regulationresources

As the school year ends & students face yet another schedule transition, some of them may be experiencing more stress than usual. Schedules help to provide comfort & consistency to students during the school year as well as during the summer months. As parents & caretakers, sticking to a consistent schedule can help to alleviate stress & prevent dysregulation.

This Brain Break does a great job focusing your students and helps make them aware of one another as they zero in their focus. Try it today!

Calming corners are small, designated spaces within classrooms that can help students gain the skills to emotionally regulate. Implementing calming corners can lead to students forming life-long habits of self-regulation & self-care. Helpful things to have in calming corners are: stress balls, puzzles, coloring sheets/ drawing paper, and weighted blankets.

If you missed last week’s Wednesday Workshop session on Harnessing Brain Change, you can watch the entire recording here http://ow.ly/ef4Q50F2WOE

In honor of June being Pride Month, we'll be sharing tips on how educators and caretakers can help to support their LGBTQ students. Tip #1: Place value on representation. Include LGBTQ people in your classroom curricula. An easy way to start is by checking the books in your classroom- are LGBTQ folks represented in the texts? If not, begin to introduce them to your class. Even a small act like this can make a difference in helping to lift up the voices of this community.

As the school year comes to a close, we want to honor the work that all of you have done, both teachers and caretakers at all levels. Our team has been endlessly inspired by your persistence, strength, and resilience during these difficult times. We thank you for becoming masters of new learning tools, finding new ways to connect, advocating for the needs of your students, and for keeping the magic of learning alive in your classrooms. As we approach the summer, our hope is that we remember the power that stillness has in allowing us to integrate our experiences; as well as the healing that can come through connecting through our senses. May we make space for rest, restoration, time with our loved ones, time with nature, and connection.

Young brains are constantly changing, and as adults, we have the amazing opportunity to help support positive brain change. This session will discuss the basics around how the brain changes, and what we can do to create environments where positive brain change is more likely to occur.

Last chance to join us for Session 3 of our new Wednesday Workshop Series: Harnessing Brain Change! This session will discuss the basics around how the brain changes, and what we can do to create environments where positive brain change is more likely to occur. Join us tonight at 8:00 PM ET. You can sign up (and watch the replay of Session 2!) here http://ow.ly/iHh250EVGJh

Stress affects our bodies in physical ways. Paying attention to physical cues from students can help identify what they may be dealing with internally. (Source: letstalkscience.ca)

This focusing Brain Break is a good exercise in paying attention and communicating with others. It's also a great opportunity for students to cross their midline & use large muscle movement.

The end of the school year can be a time of both excitement and stress. Students, as well as teachers and caregivers, may need extra time given for regulation. Here are some helpful tools to aid students in regulation: drink water, make time for Brain Breaks, take deep breaths, stretch their hands, and have students perform independent activities. Picturing a safe place, focusing on breathing, relaxing the body, and repeating a positive statement can benefit teachers and caregivers as they regulate themselves.

Thank you, Dr. King. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Try this focusing Brain Break to activate students’ midbrains. This exercise lends itself well to both virtual and in-person learning.

Increased isolation can interrupt our healthy brain patterns and stop brain growth. During periods of isolation, we may find it harder to retain information and interact in healthy ways. We may also become harder on ourselves and operate more regularly from the lower regions of our brains. By maintaining healthy and supportive relationships with students and peers the effects of increased isolation can be mitigated.

Vital caregivers who become affected by vicarious trauma can start functioning from their lower brain regions and become dysregulated. To prevent this from happening, it is important for teachers and school staff to have support plans that can help them adequately process their own experiences and regulate.

Being a part of positive relationships with others will activate the limbic system, the part of the brain responsible for emotional regulation and forming relationships with others. Having safe and supportive relationships will help students to better access their cortex for learning and reasoning, as well as allowing for the physical calming strategies needed for the brainstem and midbrain to regulate. Once a student is regulated, they are then able to focus on their relationships.