Ready to Get Uncomfortable?

Every day we as teachers make our students uncomfortable.  That is our job.  It is the discomfort that helps them learn and grow.

But if learning and growing means getting uncomfortable, shouldn’t we all be doing it?

It may feel uncomfortable to get your kids moving during the day.  To stop as Ms Kay did in the middle of your play rather than pushing through, can make a teacher’s day easier as well.  Ms. Kay realized she didn’t have to fight her student Charlie to get him to be still.  Rather she was able to corral his need to move into something all the children could use and she was able to redirect those innate needs into something constructive that led directly to a successful circle time.

This school year, we encourage you to get uncomfortable by adding more moving into your school day.  A minute or two here and a minute or two there can bring about outstanding results.

Are there challenges? Yes.  Here are a few along wtih some cures:

1. Space:  Space can be a big deal and lack thereof an even bigger deal.  But there are still options.
   1. Think vertically rather than horizontally.  Have you ever tried getting up and down off the floor over and over?  You will get aerobic, your heart rate will lift, and you will use multiple muscles.  Get your kids standing and sitting over and over.  They will get hot and sweaty but they will also turn on their brains and attention systems.
   2. Think multiple motor patterns: slow down the pace of moving if it gets to be too much by changing the locomotor movement.  Jump, stomp, walk backward, bear crawl, walk sideways, crab crawl.  The list can be endless, but as with Ms. Kay and bear crawling, the bang for your buck is tremendous.
   3. Furniture isn’t an obstacle necessarily, it is an opportunity.  Children need to learn spatial awareness.  Having to maneuver around classroom furniture can help them learn how much space they take up and what direction they are moving.  They need these skills to stay safe and to apply to writing skills: how much space does a letter or a word take up on the page?
2. Safety:  of course we want them to be safe!  But sometimes overthinking safety means other safety issues arise.  For example, a teacher we were working with had her students driving hula hoop cars around their classroom.  To increase safety, she asked them all to follow her and she walked in an exaggerated way around the room.  Within seconds, several of the children began slamming their hoop cars into each other.  When our trainer encouraged her to just let them run with the requirement that they run in the same direction, the slamming stopped immediately and the children ran safely in the same direction.  After a few minutes, it looked like it was about to go sideways again.  The solution?  Two good ones:
   1. Change the locomotor movement or add some other kind of governor to their speed like a red light.
   2. Run in the same direction
3. Transitioning back to learning:
   1. Much like any new experience, it can be messy at first.  When kids start the school year there are loads of new things to master in their new classroom environment.  Transitions from high energy to lower energy are just like any other transition: it takes time to master, but once mastered, becomes second nature.  Don’t give up after one or two messy ones!