156. Spring Fever Is Real: Managing Big Energy & Bigger Behaviors

You're listening to the Counselor Chat podcast, a show for school counselors looking for easy to implement strategies, how to tips, collaboration, and a little spark of joy.

I'm Carol Miller, your host. I'm a full time school counselor and the face behind counseling essentials. I'm all about creating simplified systems, data driven practices, and using creative approaches to engage students.

If you're looking for a little inspiration to help help you make a big impact on student growth and success, you're

in the right place.

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Hey, everyone.

Welcome back to another episode of Counselor Chat.

I'm your host, Carol Miller,

and welcome to April, my friends. Welcome to April,

because April is here. And even though if you're listening to this,

the day that this episode drops, it's only April 1st,

but with that,

I think we are already in spring fever.

And I guess I'm, I'm betting that you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Because our students, they are wiggly, they are chatty, they're distracted,

and behaviors, whoa, don't get me started.

I mean, they're popping up in ways that make teachers feel like they're constantly putting out fires.

And if you've heard this lately,

these kids, they just can't handle it or they've forgotten how to act or what's going on with them.

Let me just offer a gentle reframe today.

They're not just acting out,

they're just overwhelmed.

Now, I want to start with a quick story before we start going,

because I know that you've lived this too.

You know that class,

that one that comes back from spring break,

like they forgot how to school?

Well, I had one of those recently.

We came back and within the first 10 minutes, I thought,

whoa,

did we lose all routines?

Did we forget every expectation?

Did we just hit reset in the worst possible way?

I mean, kids, they were out of their seats, they were talking over each other.

And the teacher, you know, they had that look.

You know the one, the I can't do this for the next 10 weeks look.

And here's the thing.

It would be really easy to label that as defiance or disrespect.

But when we pause and we really look at April,

I think we start to see a different picture because this time of year is a perfect storm.

I mean, we've got test anxiety building, we have changes in routines,

we have warmer weather and more energy.

And if you're in upstate New York,

along with that, you have the we can go out today.

But the rest of the week is pouring down rain. So we're going to lock you back up inside so you can't get those wiggles out.

And we also have the end of year anticipation and all of that.

It shows up in one place behavior.

So instead of asking,

what's wrong with these students,

we can start asking,

what are they carrying right now?

And that actually came up for me in a really big way just last week. So I think you guys heard me talk about this before.

I'm on our district MTSS team.

And so I was sitting in our district MTSS meeting, and we've been spending, I mean, the last several months,

months,

reviewing, analyzing,

gathering feedback on all these social, emotional screeners.

And we finally have chosen one.

And we're getting.

We're now in the.

The phase where we're planning how to roll that out to our teachers next school year.

And so as we were talking, we started making a list of all the potential obstacles.

And, I mean, you could probably guess what was on that list. I mean, we have time buy in one more thing on a teacher's plate.

And I remember saying in this meeting,

hey, we need to think about the pain points that our teachers are actually facing.

Because at the end of the day, I mean, what's really getting in the way of teaching?

It's behavior. I mean, there's disruptions, dysregulation,

students who are overwhelmed and don't yet have the tools to manage it.

And then I went on to say, listen, if this screener helps us identify what's going on underneath those behaviors, then we can actually give teachers what they need,

interventions that help students be ready to learn.

Because I think that's what they're looking for.

That's the goal, right?

Not just to manage behavior,

but to remove the barriers to learning.

But then something interesting in this meeting happened.

Our conversation shifted into something even deeper.

I mean, we started talking about community,

about how we've been working towards building stronger connections across our entire district,

but we're not quite there yet.

And one of my teammates,

they shared a story she had just read from a new book by Brenny Brown. And she talked about how Brennie was visiting St. Jude's Hospital and was getting on an elevator where she met a woman holding a dessert tray.

And Brenna asked her what she did for a living. And this woman replied,

I cure cancer.

Freddie was surprised and asked her to explain.

She was like, tell me more about that.

And the woman said, well,

I serve food to patients and staff,

so their bodies are nourished so they can fight disease or be in their best form to cure it.

And I just thought, wow,

because that's not just about job title,

that's about purpose.

And then of course, it immediately reminded me of yet another very similar story. And you might have heard this one.

It's when President Kennedy was visiting NASA and he saw a custodian worker and he asked him what his job was.

And the custodian responded,

I'm helping put a man on the moon.

And here's why these stories matter so much for us as school counselors.

Because when people feel valued,

when they understand their role in the much bigger picture,

everything changes. Their motivation changes, their connection changes,

their behavior even changes.

And it got me to thinking the same is also true for our students.

Because when our students feel disconnected,

when they don't feel like they belong,

when they don't see their role in the classroom, community behavior becomes their language.

But when our students feel seen,

when they feel valued, and when they feel connected,

I think we start to see something different.

So let's bring this back to April,

because yes,

Spring Fever is real.

But what if instead of just reacting to behavior,

we focused on creating conditions where students feel regulated,

connected and ready to learn?

And here's the good news.

This doesn't have to be complicated.

So let me give you a few Quick Tier 1 strategies you can use right away.

And these are things that you can share with your teachers tomorrow.

So first we want brain breaks with purpose.

Not just random movement,

not just okay, we're moving around just because,

but real intentional resets.

Things like stand up if games that build connection or try some quick movement tied to focus.

Like those cross body movements,

those are great for that. You know the ones where you raise your right knee and your left hand and then you raise your left knee with your right hand,

right? Or we cross our body with our right hand to our left knee.

Right? We're doing those cross body movements to the opposite side.

Or we can have some really great 60 second resets where students just breathe,

stretch and reset their attention.

This is really great if they've been outside for a while and you could just say, okay, we're going to come down and we're going to read.

I really think that the energy that you bring to the room is the energy that you're going to get back.

So if your kids are all woo,

really amped up and you want a focus, calmer classroom,

you gotta bring the energy down so that they come down there with you.

And here's the other Thing.

Movement also helps regulate the nervous system.

And well regulated students,

they're more available for learning.

So it's kind of really like a win win.

The second thing is to reset routines after transitions.

And one of the biggest triggers for behavior right now it is transitions.

You know, coming back from lunch or recess or specials or even going to specials.

So instead of expecting students to just come in ready,

sometimes we need to just build a reset.

Even when I go into a classroom,

even though I'm going into their classroom,

they're already ending one particular assignment and I'm bringing something new to them.

So we have to do a quick little reset too.

And this could be a two minute quiet entry routine.

If they're coming in from lunch, maybe it's a breathing or a grounding exercise.

Maybe it's a simple check in question on the board.

I like to do touch your nose, touch your shoulders, touch your knees, touch your nose, touch your shoulders, touch your knees, touch your head, moose ears.

Just a little something to give them a little movement,

let them know that I'm here and I get them going a little bit and then I'm like, all right, and now we sit down and then now they know and we're ready.

I mean, we just really can't skip that transition and expect kids to automatically focus on regulation.

I mean, we have to teach this.

The third thing is to provide calm down spaces that actually work.

And I say actually work because we've all seen the corner that's more of a timeout than a support.

I mean a true calm down space.

It should be taught and not just available.

And it should include tools students know how to use.

And the focus should be on regulation and not on punishment.

Your calm down space should have visual breathing prompts,

fidgets with a purpose,

simple reflection choices.

I like timers,

I like the instructions of what to do when you're in there, step by step by step.

And most importantly,

students really need to practice and using these tools when they're calm,

not just when they're already overwhelmed. Because if you throw em in when they're overwhelmed,

that's not the ideal situation.

And for our school, we don't really have too many calm down spaces. Cause not every room in our building is fortunate to be that large where we have that extra space.

So I've made a lot of calm down kits and these are just something a kid can go and grab, take to their seats,

open it up,

set their timer, read what to do, use the cards, use the fidgets, use the little spiky Rings, whatever.

But it is step by step. This is what you need to do.

And we're going to check in with you in a minute.

So now that we've talked about some strategies,

here's the bigger picture.

All of these strategies that I've just mentioned, they're not just about behavior.

What they're really about is building a classroom community where students feel supported,

where they understand their role, where they feel like I belong here.

Because just like that woman at St. Jude's or like that custodian at NASA,

when people feel like what they do matters, they show up differently.

And really, our students, they're no different.

Now, if you're sitting there thinking, this all sounds great,

but I need something ready to go,

my friends, that's exactly why I created my behavior intervention toolkit and my Calm down resources.

Because sometimes we don't have the time to build everything from scratch. We just need tools that work,

tools that help us move from reacting to behavior to actually supporting what's underneath it.

So I'm going to drop some links in the show notes,

the Calm down kit that I was telling you about.

It's a freebie.

I mean, all you have to do is press print and you're going to have some of the things that go inside of it as,

as well as the instructions and some breathing exercises and some little coloring sheets.

But in terms of the other things that I stack in there, you're going to get a little picture of it and you're going to get a list of those resources so that you don't have to spend an hour searching for those either.

Because I have like fidgets,

a fidget ring in there and a fidget bracelet and little copper thing.

It doesn't have to be complicated,

but I'm going to give you the link to that and also for the behavior toolkit. So if you need some,

oh my gosh, I need some more strategies.

Like I said, I've got you covered.

So, my friends, as you head into the rest of April,

I really want to leave you with this.

Spring fever isn't just about energy.

It's really about unmet needs showing up in louder ways.

And when we shift from asking how do I stop this behavior?

To asking,

what does a student need right now?

That's where the magic happens.

So as we move through April,

I hope you have really a very Hannah event filled month.

I know that's asking for a lot and I don't have a magic wand for you.

But until next week, my friends,

you are doing amazing work and I hope you have a really great week.

Bye for now.

Thanks for listening to today's episode of Counselor Chat. All of the links I talked about can be found in the show notes and at counselingessentials.org podcast. Be sure to hit follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast player.

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Until next time.

Can't wait till we chat. Bye for now.