You're Getting on My Nerves: Understanding and Addressing Dysregulation Through the Lens of Applied Educational Neuroscience with Dr. Dustin Springer

A presentation from Dr. Dustin Springer titled "You're Getting on My Nerves: Understanding and Addressing Dysregulation Through the Lens of Applied Educational Neuroscience".

Dr. Springer has served the children and community in the Kansas City Metro area for nearly 25 years. He has been a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and community school liaison, and is presently the principal at Gray Hawk Elementary in Basehor, Kansas. Dr. Springer holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, MS degrees in Urban Education and Educational Leadership, and certifications in Community Schools and Applied Educational Neuroscience. He is a national presenter advocating for the implementation of trauma-informed practices and implementing the AEN framework. 
 Dr. Springer is married and has three children and a menagerie of pets. He also coaches high school girls soccer and regulates himself with LIVE music. Dr. Springer is passionate about supporting children and adults while encouraging everyone to see the beauty that exists within each of us. He shares experiences that challenge us, brings us closer together, and enable all to grow both personally and professionally.

Transcript

Guy Stephens: 0:13

Well hello and welcome today's special event. My name is Guy Stevens. I'm the founder and executive director of the alliance against seclusion and restraint. Really glad to have you joining us today. If you're not familiar with the Alliance, the alliance was an organization started about three and a half years ago, really initially to raise awareness about the use of restraint seclusion in schools across the country. What I'll say is that our mission continues to grow. We're really interested in how do we reduce the use of restraints, seclusion, suspension, expulsion, corporal punishment? How do we change the way that children are worked with in schools to really make things better for students, teachers and staff. So today, as always, we have a fantastic program for you, we've got a great guest. Very excited today to have Dr. Dustin Springer joining us. And he's got a special presentation, I love the title of this, you're getting on my nerves, understanding and addressing dysregulation through the lens of applied Educational Neuroscience. This is gonna be a great presentation today. So hold on and get ready to learn some fantastic things. I do want to let you know that as always, we are recording this event. So it will be recorded and after the fact it will be available on YouTube, on Facebook, and LinkedIn and as an audio podcast. If you have questions during the presentation, talk to us them and we're actually going to take questions during the presentation. So if you have questions that come up as the presentations moving forward, feel free to put those in the chat and I will keep my eye out and try to get through those as we're moving through the presentation. With all that said, let me go ahead and introduce you our special guests today. So I'm very pleased to introduce Dr. Dustin Springer. Dustin has served children and community in Kansas City Metro Area for nearly 25 years, you must have started very young Dustin. And he's been a classroom teacher instructional coach, Community School Liaison and is presently the principal of gray Hawk Elementary. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna get this wrong. Bass whore. Ken bass or Kansas State sir say I wanted to say it that way. But for some reason I felt that was wrong. Dr. Springer holds a PhD in curriculum and instruction, Master's degree in urban education and educational leadership and certifications in Community Schools and applied Educational Neuroscience. He is a national presenter advocating for the implementation of trauma informed practices and implementing the EY n or applied Educational Neuroscience framework. Dr. Springer is married and has three children and menagerie of pets can relate to that. My dogs are not beside me right now. Because when it's presentation time, my normal zoom events they get to stay. But during presentations, they've got to go in the other room and lay on the couch. He also coaches the high school girls soccer and regulates himself with live music. And I see that in your your Facebook feed sometimes Yeah, and I'm a little jealous that you seem to get through a lot of live shows. Dr. Springer is passionate about supporting children, and adults, while encouraging everyone to see the beauty that exists within each other within each of us. He shares experiences that challenge us, bring us closer together, and enable us all to grow personally and professionally. Dustin, thank you so much for joining us today. It's a pleasure to have you here. I'm really excited, not only to have you but for your presentation as well. One of the great things about this live series that we do is I get to talk to and learn from people that I not only highly respect, but people that I like and, you know, think the world of. And I know from having gotten the opportunity to connect with you that you're doing amazing things for kids, for teachers, for families, and really excited to have you here today.

Dr. Dustin Springer: 3:59

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it's really an honor to be here.

Guy Stephens: 4:03

So you have a presentation for us today. And as I mentioned, what we're going to do is we will start your presentation, and I'm going to stick around usually I go away if people want me to go away or stick around. We agreed that we would take questions during your presentation. So I'm going to stick around kind of quietly. And if I have a question, you've given me permission to interrupt and ask, but if our viewers have a question, they'll have an opportunity to ask those questions as well. So I'll be keeping an eye on our comments. And I might break in with some questions. I do want to ask those that are on already. So we've got a number of people already watching us live. Let us know in the comments, who you are and where you're from. Doesn't one of the great things about this live series that we do is we have people from all over the world that join us and it's always a surprise to me. But we've got a lot of people here of course in the United States, we've got a lot of people in Canada, but then we have people from Australia we have people from New Zealand In the United Kingdom, and as I say that, you know, often we start seeing the comments people that we frequently see on this. So I'll let you know in a few minutes as people begin to get on and share with us where they're from, where people are joining us from today. But with that, I'm going to hand it over to you, I'm going to bring your presentation up on the screen, and I will be quiet, but I will Oh, here we go. We've got somebody from Maryland, hey, that's a great place. And I actually know Shelly Baden from Sunderland, Maryland. She's just gotten on. But I'm going to mute myself. But I will be here if you need anything kind of like, you know, just call my name, and boom, I'll pop up. So with that the rains are handed over to you. And we're looking forward to this.

Dr. Dustin Springer: 5:40

Thank you very much. Well, before we get started, I have to make sure to give a shout out to my my buddy, Matthew Bortel, because he's the one that inspired the title. So it's want to make sure that he gets the credit for that. So thank you.

Guy Stephens: 5:56

Matthew, of course, has been on the show, and we're a big fan of, of his work and all that he's doing. And I do want to let you know, I've I've stayed true to my promise due to my friend Linda in New Zealand, we have a viewer in New Zealand, it is tomorrow in New Zealand, probably around seven or eight in the morning. And we've got somebody here from the Midwest as well, from Tulsa. So with that, and the acknowledgement for our friend, Matthew portail. Take it away.

Dr. Dustin Springer: 6:24

Awesome. Thank you so much. Well, before we get started, I I think it's really important that people know a little bit about me and kind of who that person is that you're you're going to spend some time with. So God I am looking on here. So to advance things. It's not advancing. Oh, there we go. Can you see that?

Guy Stephens: 6:49

Absolutely. Sometimes on Google, it'll take a second to advance. So be patient and don't double tap, or suddenly might be going through. But if you're use your arrow keys that will often work as well.

Dr. Dustin Springer: 6:58

Awesome. Okay, thank you so much. So as I was saying, I'm sorry, I, it's, I don't want to take up a whole bunch of time giving my backstory but you know, you're gonna hear me talking a lot today though, about being that kid. And I certainly was that kid I was, you know, that little handsome devil kindergartener there. That's me. I never had positive relationships with, with my teachers growing up all through school. And, you know, I had a very happy childhood. My parents are amazing people that instilled really strong values in me, but school just wasn't my thing. And to be here today, you know, 42 years after, after the little devil picture there is pretty amazing to me. I again, didn't didn't have the best experience in school, all I wanted to do was get out of school. And when it came time to do that, to move on from high school, I was called into the principal's office and was told the week of of graduation that I had failed. And I was not going to be graduating, I had failed two courses. That was one too many. So having that conversation with the principal, who, at the time, in my opinion, seemed like she thought that was a little funny. And it was it was hard. And all I like I said, all I wanted to do was get away. I just Just so you all know I because my parents were such strong advocates for education. I didn't have a choice. I ended up they made me go back. I repeated my entire senior year of high school for two failed classes. So I took those two classes and ended up taking a full load because that's what was expected from from my parents. So fast forward to now where I've had the opportunity to teach pre K kindergarten first grade, fifth grade is you know, guy went through all of that. It's been an amazing experience for me. So I just wanted to again before we jump in, just acknowledge the amazing folks that are on the screen, my my family, our school family, they're they're amazing teachers. And then of course, I coached I coached high school girls soccer our my my coaching career just ended in October so I had been coaching soccer girls soccer for about 15 years and we finally played our final game. So was a was a it was a difficult a difficult day, but it was time to move on. So again, I just want to say thank you again, everyone, for coming today. So I'm gonna go ahead and just jump right into this you know over the past last couple of years, during the pandemic, we've all experienced so many different things, right? We, we've experienced loss, fear, the chronic adversity, all these different things are going on that us against them, right. And now thankfully, we're coming out of the pandemic. And as educators, what are we spending so much of our time talking about? It's I don't know where everyone else is at. But for us it there's a whole lot of talk about learning loss, and returning to normal, right. So that's got to stop. And not, you know, I don't know about you. But for me, 30 plus years ago, school wasn't working, this wasn't working for us. I would, I would even argue, as a very proud educator, education wasn't working so hot, even right before the pandemic. So we have to take this opportunity to change things up and have some conversations about ways to do some things differently. I don't want to go back to the way it was, we have to change it. So recently, just this past summer, I was invited to speak with juniors and seniors that were a part of the Kansas future Teacher Academy. And these are students who are exploring, teaching as a career. And it was such an honor to be there, I was there to talk to them about the importance of social and emotional learning. And during that experience, I was just checking in with them, like, you know, you guys are in school, you're you're exploring education. So you know, something has positively influenced you in making that choice. Talk to me about what you're experiencing now. And I they were they were amazing. They're on their answers where they were very vulnerable. They spoke their truths. And some of the things that stood out to me were things like, I'm not okay, but I'm trying. And we need to have more of a focus on mental health in our schools, which 100%? Absolutely, we do. And then the one that threw me a little bit more to was schools, not meaningful to the goals I have for my life. And I really had to think about that. I don't know. You know, I talked to that that student later. And, you know, she's wanting to be a teacher for a very long time. She's, you know, she's always known that was her career path. But there's so many other things. And that's why it's so important, especially here in Kansas, we're starting to have more of a focus on personalized learning. So having those conversations about what it is that we need to change, to make our education system work, work better to serve us, is something that needs to happen immediately. And really, we need to change those systems that not, you know, just don't serve us that they're not serving our students. So after that afternoon, I did a whole lot of reflection. And what you see on your screen, is from a study that came out, maybe a few weeks ago, I started thinking about the important role that mental health plays. And it got me wondering about the accessibility of mental health services. Because I know as a principal, I get so frustrated, when I hear from parents that, you know, there may be there's a wait list of eight to nine months for students or children to be able to access mental health resources. And, you know, if a student's in crisis, you know, there are places they can go, but it has to be something significant going on for them to continue to access those those services. So when this study came out of the state of mental health in 2023, in America, you can imagine how shocked I was when I looked and saw that Kansas was 51st. And the first thing I thought about was, there's only 50 states. So I don't know, how are we 51st but then realized it was DC was was in the mix there. But you know, we're seeing more and more of our students that are in desperate need of the services. But there just aren't enough resources available further proving to me that we need to begin addressing these deficits in a much different way. So we need to refocus, right, we need to think about what we can do to address these these needs. So focusing on social emotional well being of our students in our adults, is where we need to I in my opinion, we need to begin to refocus our attention In social emotional learning is not something extra on our plates. I hear it myself as an administrator, I hear it from our teachers, that we have to stop adding more and more things to their plates. I contend that this is not something extra on our plate, it is absolutely the plate. You know, for us, when adults and students are regulated, we're able to access our prefrontal cortex, which is where life's life's going on, it's where learning is occurring, and being able to being regulated. And being okay and ready to learn is really the foundation, our plate that we're going to build everything else on, right. So I have truly seen more dysregulation in children and not only children, but children and adults, I think, in the past couple of years than ever before. And so one of the biggest problems that I felt like we've been facing was, you know that we have these amazing adults that are serving our kids. But we they're stressed, we have the stressed out adults. And what we know is when we have stressed out adults, that leads to stressed out kids, and having our kids are stressed out just continues this cycle of stressed out kids stressed out adults stressed out and old stressed out kids. And by the time the day is over, and we've we've served our students, we've served our community, we are absolutely mentally exhausted. We're done. We're fried, you know. And it's so hard because we're encountering so many more people that are coming into school, and they're carrying in these pain base behaviors. And when that's going on, that's impacting our, our stress response systems, and we become over sensitized to the environments that we're in. So we can provide experiences, positive experiences that feel safe, they help us rewire our brains for safety. But the thing is, it truly takes a lot of time. And that's okay. We've had over 100 years of a system that I think hasn't really been working, it's time to jumpstart things so that we know it's not going to be something that happens overnight. So there are three things that I want to touch on, that our brains cannot handle. And this was something that we talked quite a bit about. When I was in Dr. Laurie desta tells neuroscience excuse me, I'm so sorry. Well, this back up. So three things that our brains cannot handle. And the first one is chronic adversity, that physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse, homelessness, poverty. That's the first thing we have all those things are going on. And our students are dealing with those the other to something why I'm so very, very supportive of the alliance against seclusion and restraint is restraint and seclusion, our brains cannot handle those things. And when our brains are dealing with those, we develop those, again, that dysregulated nervous system. And nervous systems that are constantly living in that fight, flight or collapse, are making it so it's things are more challenging, we're not able to face the adversities that we're encountering during our day. So what are these three things, chronic adversity, restraint and seclusion, all have in common. It's a loss of connection, right? And that loss of not feeling safe. And again, we have an opportunity that we can change some of those things, we can't necessarily impact the adversity, that chronic adversity that our students encounter in their homes, but we can be safe and supportive when they're here. And I want you to get into restraint and seclusion. There's so so many things that we can do about that. But that's for that's for another time, I think, sorry, guy. This is all about understanding ourselves, and how we choose to either react or respond when we're facing adversities in my inner lives. So my question to everyone is what would happen if we stopped talking about behaviors and start examining what's going on beneath the behaviors? And I just love this, the mean thing on the side that, you know, beneath every behavior, there's a feeling, and beneath the feeling is a need. And when we can meet that need, rather than focus on just that surface on the behavior, we're going to begin to deal with the cause and not the symptom. And I think it's so powerful to remember that. So with all that in mind, I would argue that we need to begin to address these issues. And we need to begin to address these issues through the lens of applied Educational Neuroscience framework. I love this graphic, my friend Jody place, created this. Jody is an administrator in Virginia. She's my she's my presentation, buddy. We do quite a few presentations together. But she created this showing the four pillars of applied Educational Neuroscience. So educator, brain and body states touchpoints co regulation, and teaching neuroanatomy. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to jump right into the four pillars, and the role that each of them plays in regulation and bringing about that safety and connection. So the very first one is teaching neuroanatomy, we have to teach neuro anatomy we have to teach our students we have to teach our adults we have to learn alongside one another. neuroanatomy, we have to learn about our nervous systems, and about the connection that is occurring between our brains and our bodies. I absolutely love this video. And guy since I can't see anything, I'm going to click this. If you can't hear it, please let me know. And you can't because it won't play. But here it will maybe it will not

Guy Stephens: 21:53

forward into the next slide.

Dr. Dustin Springer: 21:56

Well shoot. So I would encourage everyone to please check out Nathan, Nathan, you can find him. You could probably find him on YouTube. But it's Walnut Creek School District, they're in Texas. And Nathan talks about Dr. Perry and their and regulate relate and reason. And it's it's such an amazing video of this little kid who's like in pre K, he's like five or six. And he's talking about what it looks like and the importance of regulating, being able to be okay in order to be able to move on to learn so, so check that out. And I'm again, I'm so sorry, that that that is not playing. When we talk about when what we want to do, and laying the that foundation, some of that foundational knowledge when it comes to understanding neuroanatomy, we just focus on three parts of the brain. Obviously, there's many, many more, and you, you could hear from 10 other people and they can tell they can tell you 10 different things. But these are the three things that we focus on, we focus on the prefrontal cortex, which is where learning occurs, everything we're doing is up here. It gives, it's our time to work. It's our executive functioning, all those things are going on up here. We talk to kids about their amygdala. And that's the thing that helps keep us safe, and helps us you know, it's that that fight, flight or freeze part of our brain, and then our hippocampus. And our hippocampus is like our memory center. So we talk about those three things. And when we can get our students to understand the very basic premise behind those three parts of the brain, we begin to lay that foundation. Remember, I'm the guy that failed High School. You don't have to be a neuroscientist to do this, to understand it. We just have to be vulnerable and learn alongside of our kids. Okay. So, emotions, we have to teach our kids and maybe, maybe even teach our adults I can tell you having conversations again, growing up in an amazing house. My parents are both amazing people. We never really talked a whole lot about our emotions. So there may be some folks that think you know, emotions, emotion, like you shouldn't feel a certain emotion you shouldn't feel a certain way. emotions aren't good emotions aren't bad. Emotions just are what they are. Right? And we experienced a wide range of emotions throughout our day. And it's completely normal. It's really important for us to check in with our emotions throughout the day. So for me, I am very, very intentional in this practice. Oh, here's a polyvagal chart and I took a snap of this I snapped it right before I met with guy that This morning, or pardon me this afternoon before logging on, I use this polyvagal chart myself, every single day I check in with myself. And you can see, you know, I get out of bed and about five or so and kind of get life starts rolling for me by six. And so I check in with myself. And you can see there, I'm checking in with myself about every hour. And it's a great tool for me that I'm able to do that. And then if I'm not feeling okay, or I'm dealing with and you can see there right before we started doing some things with guy I was even though it looks like it's anger, it's actually anxiety, my anxiety shot way, way up. As we were getting closer to closer to this, this opportunity to speak with you all. It's a great tool that I use to be able to check in with myself and use that that data to kind of help me reflect like, like I said, Here's today's but like, I've got yesterday's, and I can see where I was at and what was going on. And I make notes for myself, this isn't something that I share with people. Again, it's just a tool that I use to help me be more reflective of my day and be more reflective of what's going on in my life. And we can use a tool like this for ourselves. Or we can use a tool like this and adapted for students. So this next one, it doesn't

Guy Stephens: 26:36

jump in for one quick second here a few things I want to share a couple of comments that we have. But I also found Nathan, and would love to share that if you're found on Twitter. So let me just get a couple of the things that dimension here. As I mentioned, we have people kind of joining us from all over we have Jen here from the UK that says the UK uses the term social emotional communication needs. You know, they add communication to the scope, which the US did that as well. We had Christina Marsha said it was who you are speaking my language who social worker from New York World, not the city. We had Amy who weighed in and said yes, we need to focus on relational health. Kim from Australia, good morning from Australia. And thank you for this session. Number of people kind of joining us somebody here from Missouri, from Indiana, and let me ups okay. Oh, look who's here. Oh, we have a very special person here right now. We have Jody here. You know, and when you mentioned Jodi, I thought, oh gosh, we need to have you and Jody present together here. So you're only partway through your your presentation here but I'm already planning your next event. So you know bear with me maybe Jody can join us. Let me share my screen real quick and I will share that video if you're okay with that. So give me one second. I'm just going to go to share and we will share Nathan and I believe okay it was on Twitter that I found it so we're going to share the audio here alright so I'm gonna make this big and hopefully this will play and everybody can hear

Unknown: 28:23

days is not one notice

Dr. Dustin Springer: 29:01

we need to find three or three reasons All right

Unknown: 29:35

oneness plan how our brain and body was relayed and comfortable with the reason when the brain and body are ready

Guy Stephens: 30:11

That was absolutely too good not to not to share. So I will bring your your slides back on the screen here, and then I will disappear. And I will give you one more Hello here. And that is from Ontario, Canada. So we truly have a international audience here learning from you their day, Dustin,

Dr. Dustin Springer: 30:30

thank you. So when I was talking about the polyvagal chart, this is one that I really wanted everyone to see. Whitney Ballenger was a former second grade teacher here at gray Hawk last year. And she took that polyvagal chart. And she made it more accessible and more usable for her second graders. And she what she did is she tied it into the oh my gosh, I'm gonna lose the name Diane Albers little spot of emotion stories. And so she was having students go through the similar process that I go through every single day, and check in with their nervous systems. And she got great feedback from parents. And because they were noticing that these check ins, they could have calm, they can have more open conversations about the the connections that you know, hey, I'm, I'm feeling anxious or I'm feeling mad and connect that with the physical feelings and the emotions that they were tying the emotions to the physical feelings. And it was such a powerful tool that they were using. And I was just so impressed that Whitney took this on. But again, it's not something you just lay down in front of someone and say, Here, you're going to do this, or we're going to do this, there's a lot of intentionality behind it. And a lot of explicit teaching of these terms, in order to be able to utilize this as a tool, a meaningful tool for each student, when we understand the role that our brains and our nervous systems play, in our daily lives, you know, we're better equipped to meet those challenges that come up. Another thing that we did as part of her seconds, she would have this check in, but then kids would go back and they would look at where they were throughout the day. And they would do a reflection of of their day. It's powerful folks. Giving tying those emotions, to, to those physical sensations, and being able to be reflective with even our youngest learners, is an incredible opportunity to begin to change, kind of shift that paradigm from, you know, not not feeling like not accepting emotions, and, you know, certain emotions are okay, and others aren't, they just are what they are. And I should say to you, I'm gonna go back. We don't talk to our students just like I understand for myself, it's not about staying in the green, or it's not okay to be in red or blue. It's just checking in. And this is where I am accepting that validating it within myself. And knowing that this is where I am in that in that moment, and being open and understanding with myself to know where I am. So the videos won't play, which is unfortunate, because like I said, there's a whole lot of intentionality behind the work that we do. And I love it. I found that a little on purpose for a purpose because we do things on purpose. And we do them because there's a purpose behind what we're doing right. So sometimes these things seem like they can be so minor, but the video that won't play. This is Mrs. Dolman and Mrs. Dolman was a kindergarten teacher in a school I was at a few years ago. And I had invited her to an event. And she learned there was this exercise where you sit across from someone and you just share. I like a kind word with them. So in this one, this was Dolman was having students and they paired up and they loved each other. And all they had to do was say I like you. And so the kids were going back and forth just saying I like you. I like you and it's I mean it's first of all, I mean even now it gives me goosebumps just to see these little kids saying I like you. And then what you don't see in the video though, is The conversation that happens afterwards that we have with the kids about how does that make you feel when someone says I like you? How does it make you feel when you say I like you. So it really is about intentionality at its finest. giving our kids the opportunity to say those things is just a way of practicing giving kindness and receiving kindness. And it's something that I think we need to give our own students, more opportunities to do. And I honestly feel like we need to take time for ourselves to do those things. The other pictures are, you know, teaching teaching children down in the quarter, they're teaching children about their brains and these were kindergarten and pre K students. So we're talking about you know, your amygdala and when your amygdala is fired your your brain is this is what your brain looks like. So using that calming, that calming jar. This stuff this is not stuff that is too hard for kids. Kids love the big words. It's all okay to do. So, look guys, intentionality, practicing. And it seems again, it seems like such a minor thing. But that little exercise. The kids talked about how it made them feel, to hear those kind words. We have to not be intimidated. I love Dr. Perry has a quote that you don't need to be a therapist to be therapeutic. You don't need to be a neuroscientist to teach kids about their brains. I don't I don't know where we came up with this idea that because we're in education, we have to be the experts in everything we don't. We're lifelong learners, we got into learning because we got into education because we love learning. So we have to be vulnerable, and learn alongside of our kids. So our next pillar is educator, brain and body states. When we talk about better understanding educator, brain and body states, it's absolutely crucial that we're providing time for connection and regulation throughout our day. So as I said before, it's important to learn to check in with our nervous systems. And be aware that the sensations that we feel in our bodies, when we're activated or triggered are things that we need to take notice of so I have a couple of questions that I want everyone to reflect on, that I think are really important. So I want you to think about this. What activates or triggers you. And when you're feeling activated, where do you feel it in your body? So think about that for a second. And if you'd like drop in something in the in the chat that triggers you if you're comfortable doing that. And then maybe where you feel that I put mine up there. I can go from zero to 100 with if if someone spits on me, that is an yikes name calling hearing name calling and specific put downs. There are some that will will send me into not being okay. Adults raising their voices at children. That activates me bullying and targeting behavior so it has pushed me over the edge and for me those sensations that I feel I can tell when I'm getting dysregulated and I didn't use to pay attention to that. And it's again like I'm gonna you're gonna hear me say it a lot. It's really about that intentionality you have to take that pause and understand or pardon me and recognize what you're feeling inside when things going on. So for me, my ears get really hot. My stomach really hurts all clench my teeth. And some of my some of my very close friends, my family, of course, if I'm really not okay, I'll get a facial tic. And with our staff here, they use that before they're like, maybe how about we tag out here, because I think maybe you need to go for a walk or something. And we'll and we'll do this, and we'll talk about tagging out here in a second. But thinking about what activates or triggers you and where those sensations are, is a great skill to have.

Guy Stephens: 40:39

So a quick question I just wanted to bring up from the q&a here that people are asking, oops, that was not the one I meant to click on. From dawn, she says, does this work for high school students, or they're more geared towards younger ages?

Dr. Dustin Springer: 40:55

The what specifically?

Guy Stephens: 40:58

You know, I think the question came as we were kind of going through some of the regulatory activities in the previous slide with a video and in some of the things that we were doing probably into, you know, this this next slide,

Dr. Dustin Springer: 41:11

I think, I think it applies to all it applies. It applies to young children all the way up to adults. You know, you can alter those practices, having having two high school students sit across from each other and just say something kind to one another. Really can change, it changes your outlook. If you hear something kind or something nice being said to you, it makes you feel better. And I just don't think we do that enough. So I think everything that you see or hear me talk about today is absolutely something that is applicable to everyone. And this is this is actually a great this would be a great follow up because, you know Jody is Jody place is she's my she's my, my secondary, my secondary guru, she understands. That's not my world. But I just feel like, it's a great question. I think that everything we're talking about, though, is something that can be applied to to all ages. Yeah.

Guy Stephens: 42:17

Well, you know, I know. And I think, you know, I think you answered that really well. And I think it's, it really is a matter of these are things that apply to everyone, including ourselves. But they look different, right. So, you know, the goal, and what we're doing is similar, but they may look a little different. I know in the program that you were part of with Dr. Laurie Desautels, that, you know, a lot of the focus is, as is on the educator as well as the student. Yeah. So I mean, I think I think you're absolutely, you know, on target here that these things look different, but they're the same. Absolutely.

Dr. Dustin Springer: 42:55

Great question. Thank you for asking. You know, as, as we begin to serve our community, and it doesn't matter if you're an educator or a therapist, someone from a faith based organization, whatever, you know, we all have these triggers, and these things are going on. And, again, it's not good. It's not bad. It just is. So one of the things, it's one of the things really that makes us human right. So what I would like to kind of switch gears just a little bit as I want you to think about discipline. And I want you to think about discipline within a school setting. And if that's not, you know, your if that's not your area, and certainly discipline, all of these things will be applicable to different spaces. So when we think about discipline, we consider discipline, who does that begin with? Does the discipline begin with the child? Where does the discipline begin with the adults? So if you think back, and if you're in a school setting, thinking back to me talking about the dysregulation that we're seeing, that stressed out, adults lead to stressed out kids stressed out kids stressed out adults, and having that cycle, our kids are stressed out. But oftentimes, as the adults, we have those lived experiences where we're better able to cope with or maintain our regulation a little bit more because again, because of our lived experiences, but when we talk about discipline in the schools, or with our own children, discipline begins with the adults. We have to be okay to help children be okay, if that makes sense. So, when we implement a framework, like applied Educational Neuroscience, it's good for the kids and the adults because it allows us to address the importance of positive Safe, connected experiences. When we're doing this, if I'm, you know, I'm speaking to you, obviously, as an educator, but we need to give our staff tools that they need to handle those stressful situations, because we're obviously not getting away from the stress, we're not getting away from the dysregulation that we're seeing within our schools of both kids and adults. And for me, as a school leader, supporting our adults, is my primary mission, because when I can help to support our adults to be okay, then our adults are going to be able to better serve our students. So but again, we have to give them those tools and those tools that's really where discipline begins, talking to them about the importance of drinking water to flush cortisol out of our systems, having regulation stations and what those look like the importance of breathing and being able to distract our minds, you know, we use focused attention practices and brain intervals to kind of bring us down or energize us if that's what we need for our in our classrooms. But we have to again, here's that word intentionality, we have to do these things, we have to teach them and be intentional about what we're doing. So

Guy Stephens: 46:24

just then, if I can break in for one more second, we had a couple of other comments and questions, I think they're really good ones. We have a comment here from moats, place the page. And it's back to the kind of the video and what you were talking about with the the exercise you should wonder about being in for social interactions. And having a person refocus gaze, as demonstrated in the video would likely increase this regulation in some neurodivergent people. And somebody else asked a very similar question, which is, what about the child with special needs? Who can articulate how they feel? Or what is triggering to them? So can you talk about, because I know that a lot of this work is, is really highly individualized and trying to identify an individual's, you know, what is challenging or difficult or stressful? Or dysregulated? for them? But how do you, you know, and really great point, I mean, again, you know, if you're autistic and, you know, direct eye contact is not only uncomfortable, but can be connected, it should be painful. How do you adjust the approach to account for individual differences and neuro divergence?

Dr. Dustin Springer: 47:36

I mean, it's going to, it's going to kind of sound like a cop out answer, and I'm sorry, but for me, it's, it's about sitting beside each person. So, you know, this is this is the exercise that we're doing. But if it's not something that's going to work for you, then we're going to what is it that we can do to adapt it to, to fit you and your individual needs. So it's just like you said, I think for me, you know, we have an amazing, oh, it's, it's where I find joy. But we have a structured learning classroom here at my school. And it's our students that have autism. And, you know, some of those exercises, first of all, aren't appropriate because of, of their individual needs. But we can still choose to sit beside someone, let them know, you know, be that calming presence, let them know where they're with them, and still share kindness, and demonstrate kindness and what that sounds like, and have those conversations and experiences of sharing kindness. So does that. I don't know if that helps. I wish I had a better answer than that.

Guy Stephens: 48:55

No, I think it does. And I you know, I think too, that, you know, this work is really about. I mean, really, a lot of this work in applied Educational Neuroscience is about understanding individual differences and process. I mean, going back, you know, going back in your presentation, kind of in the polyvagal realm of things and thinking about kind of states, you know, what we're hopefully learning through this process is where individuals are having a difficult time, where things may be challenging, and building those relationships and rapport in such a way that we're going to know more about a child's individual differences, and how to support them from going through this process, right. So it's not a matter of exercise. It's not just a matter of, here's a one size fits all exercise is going to work for everybody. But in this process, you're really learning more about the individual. And you know, because we all have like a different baseline right? baseline for stress might be different due to trauma due to disability due to a lot of other things. So I mean, I think this whole journey that you're talking about is part of the answer to that question, which is, it's that upstream piece as well, right?

Dr. Dustin Springer: 50:07

Absolutely. Absolutely. It is. Thank you for that question. Let's see, you know, a few years ago, I was fortunate kind of actually, it all started when I began, really becoming more interested in more focused on changing things. And knowing like positive relationships were always very important to me, because I didn't have those with my teachers. So when I became an educator, that was something I was focused on. But about 2017 2018, I was very fortunate to do a three day training with s DAC here in in Hutchinson, Kansas. And Jim's poor leader was there was the first time I'd ever met Jim, and I met James Moffat, and I think James has been on before. James is an incredible, he's a he's a great friend, and incredible mentor. And James was talking a lot about, you know, this is kind of what the model for good instruction looks like, right? You know, we have all these things going on, where we're planning, we're reflecting, we're collecting data, and we're analyzing it and then making some instructional decisions, right. But we do that with instruction. But do we necessarily have something that does the same model work? When it comes to behavior? Are we doing that? Or does it tend to look more like this where we see a behavior? And when that behavior occurs? There's a reaction to it? And then what comes next from that reaction? Is the punishment, right? And so do we get the same results we want? Or do we have those same problems persists, where it's just behavior, reaction, punishment, behavior, reaction punishment, we have to change things up. And we have to begin to really look at what it is that we can do to address the root cause of some of these behaviors and dysregulation that we're seeing. So something of an activity that I love facilitating, and it's really quick, is the anchor act as anchor activity, you know, it's I think, reflectively powerful. And all it is if you're looking at your what anchors you, you know, what are those things that when you're not okay, they can help you kind of get back to your baseline, they can help you feel safe and feel connected. So I put mine up this sheet, this anchor sheet is right over here on my wall. And it's something that I can refer back to when I'm activated, or I'm triggered during the day. So like, focusing on who my people are, you know, my kids, my wife, Jodi, my parents, some of our staff and a couple of other friends places that I feel safe and comfortable. You know, there's there's some there's some buildings, some specific places there that I can think back to my dad's recliner, you know, it's one where I even now I can go sit in it, and you just, it's kind of molded to him. And that's a comforting feeling for me. You know, guy you mentioned earlier, I, you know, for me regulating life, live music for me is very regulating. So that's something that anchors me, it makes me feel like I'm okay. And then just other things. So, I would encourage anybody to think about your anchors, write them down, keep them somewhere, because because sometimes when we're so dysregulated and we're in the moment, we're not we don't necessarily remember what those things are. And just having this visual reminder, has saved me a couple of times. You know, I think I mentioned earlier the importance of being vulnerable. And for us, you know, for me as a leader and working with our our staff and our community. We have to continue to have that attitude of gratitude and give our students opportunities for intentionality and being able to provide them opportunities where they can help others I absolutely love our take our take what you need wall it's something where the kids made cards, and you know what, sometimes during throughout our day, you're just we're just not okay. And, you know, walking by or take what you need wall and see and, you know, one of these little notes that jump out at you, you know, like, stay strong or I love you. Take that note take Get off the wall and like I stick them on my door. And it's a constant reminder, when I come back that there is somebody thinking about me, you know, I am doing, I am doing good things I am serving others, you know, I'm following my own my own purpose, my own why. And there's there's cards on here too, that are just as simple as you've got this. And so we encourage our students to, you know, if you see something that jumps out at you take it, and they'll take it, and they'll put it on their desk, and they'll keep those little notes on their desk. It's also really important as leaders, that we find time for our, our staff, our adults, they do so much for our kids during the day. So, so much, we all know that, but giving them opportunities to come together. So the picture of the people that are eating, eating lunch there, that's our resource team. So our special education, parents, teachers, and then our structured learning classroom, parents and teachers, giving them time to sit down together. That's something that they don't have time to do. And so being intentional with our schedule, as often as we can to allow them that time to grow together. And fellowship really makes a difference because they lean on each other so much. And quite frankly, we lean on them to, to have that and give them that time, I think is precious, we also have to encourage silliness. Those two teachers, they're running in the sprinklers, they wanted to go run in the sprinklers, and I'm like, he then go run and they're like, No, we can't do that. We're not gonna go run in the sprinklers. That's not what adults do. And I'm like it is what adults do go out and do it. And they did it. And it was great to see them because it was a tough day that day. And sometimes you have to act like a kid. And it made all the difference in the world for them. being intentional areas. Again, being intentional, and loving the people you're with, can really help us get through those super tough days. I'm one that I love writing notes, alright, notes, all right posters and hang them up in the lounge, like, I know how hard you all are working. And I want them to recognize that. And so just things as simple as your loved. Again, it's, it's it's three little words, but it really does go super far. And it I think our staff at first when, you know, we I opened gray Hawk, or we actually we opened gray Hawk together was a brand new school last year. They didn't know me, I had introduced myself, but they didn't know who I was or what I was about. And but I'm always one that I'll tell our kids, I'll tell ourselves like, I love you guys, you know, you're you're doing the hard work, and being able to say that and hear that. I will send out text to them. You know, just wanted to let you know, I think you're amazing. You're doing great things. And we're like, oh, that's like he's he's legit. Like he's really sincere when he's saying that. And so now, I've got a couple of my teachers that are that are actually on my anger list that they recognize when I'm not okay. They're coming in, they're sitting down in my office, and they're just checking in. So it's great to have that, that back and forth. But again, you have to be vulnerable, and you have to let people really see who you are. So the third pillar is CO regulation. And I love this slide. This is actually a a Jodi play slide. She and I didn't I wanted to use this one. Again, we had use this when we did a presentation together about CO regulation. And I just love the graphics and everything about it. Jody introduced me to big panda and tiny dragons, his children's book, and I just love this page because it really does sum up what co regulation is, it's I can't find my way out of this hole. So tiny dragon and big panda smiled, then I'll come and I'll sit in it with you. Kids don't like the dad, not even just kids. We don't we need to be able to regulate ourselves. And when we were able to do that we do that within that presence of felt safety, right. So we have to it's that biological need and we have to be able to do that and it's achieved without language you know we have to go we you know when we'll talk about dysregulation here in a second where we need to be super super language light when we're dealing with with people who are dysregulated and when we can do Sit beside someone amazing things can happen. And I want you to think about this. So our nervous systems. And this actually comes from Dr. Laurie on on her website, revelations and education.com. But our nervous systems are always searching for faces and bodies that are able to hold a safe, safe and connected presents. You know, I'm one of those people that I love watching other people. So I enjoy watching, like mannerisms. So think about this, when you go into a room, you enter a room, what's the first thing that you do? And maybe you're you don't even do it? Because I didn't realize I was doing until I started becoming more aware and more conscious about it. But when we walk into a room, we're immediately scanning the room. And why are we doing? So you know, we're doing that because, first of all, we want to make sure that it's it's a safe place for us. But we're looking for another person that we can connect with because that connection. And again, that safety is what our brains are craving. So when we speak to educators, we talk to educators a lot about how our emotions are contagious. And this idea behind, would you rather be a thermostat or a thermometer? And so what's the difference? So if you're a thermometer, all you're able to do is just tech check, pardon me just check the temperature in your room. Right? You, you see that guy is not okay, today. I don't know what's going on with guy but guys not okay. But if we're a thermometer, and we're thinking or pardon me, if we're a thermostat, and we're thinking about oh my gosh, I recognize that guy's not okay, today, I can do some things, introduce some regulation strategies from regulatory practices, I can introduce those things, and I can alter what's going on in my classroom and that temperature, I can do something where we can create some of that community togetherness, and hopefully, get it to where guys, guys, okay. And we're able to do that and CO regulate together. And I was thinking about looking for some pictures of that show co regulation within our spaces. And I came up with these, and these are some of my favorites. You know, we've got the picture on the left, there is our custodian, Mr. Jacob, he's an amazing guy. But I had a student that that just needs some time, he needed some he needed a break, he needed some time to come out. And Mr. Jacobs saw him playing with Legos, and just sat down on the floor and didn't even talk to him, just sat down next to him, and just started building. And this was a this was a friend who was coming out of a very difficult, difficult time during his day. And just, he knew the student knew that Mr. Jacob was somebody who was safe that loved him and cared about him, and was just going to be there with him. The picture in the middle is my first grade teacher with a student. I just love pictures like that, where you can see the genuine trust and love that our students have for our teachers and vice versa. You know, sometimes what our kids need, they don't need our words, they don't need our stickers, or our little tchotchke things. They just need us to sit next to him on the floor. And let them know that we're there for them. And I think sometimes that's even more powerful than some of the other things that we try to do. So I don't know for how many of you this is a familiar scene, but in thinking about safety and connection, Does this look familiar? I'm willing to bet it probably does. You know, it's scary. When a student experiences so much overwhelm. You know, it's it's traumatic for that student. It's traumatic for the other students that witness that it's traumatic for the adults that are kind of embroiled in that experience with the students. And it's a lot and you know, a few years ago, I, we I didn't see a whole lot of this. And now. And I think I think this is true nationwide, it we're seeing it more and more in our classrooms. And before we can do anything, we have to be able to support children through this dysregulation. The very first thing that's most important for us is we have to make sure that we're what we're regulated ourselves, right? So in order for us to be most effective, we have to be regulated. And then we're able to support the child. So if you think back to what Nathan and Nathan was talking about regulate, relate and reason. It was funny when his teacher I was talking to him like, and she was like the peanuts teacher that Womp womp womp womp womp. And he's just covering up his his ears and he's shaking his head like I don't get it. I learned it was just they blew me away, I learned in our cohort with Dr. Laurie, about this, the PDS muscle is this is tiny, tiny muscle within your ear. And when you're activated or your trigger, you're dysregulated, you've got all these things going on that that the PDS muscle engages, and it makes it so that you can't take it and you're not able to process what's going on and what you're hearing. And so I wish I would have known things like that growing up as a dad, because when my kids would do something, the first thing I'm doing is like, why are you doing that? Hello, why are you doing that? Why are you doing and I'm just all I'm doing is making it worse. And it's not a choice. Like, I don't know why I'm doing it, I'm not hearing you. Our kids are experiencing big feelings. And it's up to us to sit beside them, and help them through those. So our calming presence really helps them to be okay to know that they're safe. And one of the things that I talk to our teachers, our staff a lot about is, you know, sometimes we feel like, you know, I've done something, as the adult, I've done something to make a kid act this way and folks out there that we have to quit taking it personally. First of all, it's not about us. They're not doing it, because you're an easy target. They're doing it because they trust you. And they trust that you're not going to abandon them. Is it okay that this is the result of their overwhelm? No, it's not. But we have to be able to accept that sometimes this is what we're going to see. And, of course, we'll we're going to go back and students are going to be held accountable like this, this room, I'm not picking this up, the classroom teacher isn't picking this up, we're going to sit beside the student, and when they're regulated, we can have a conversation about what was going on when they were experiencing those big feelings, and what it is that we need to do to fix what was happening. And we focus on three questions. What is it that you need? How can I help? And then what can we do to make it better? And I think the we part is really, really critical. Because it's not that we do things for kids, but we certainly do things with kids. And we do it because we need to make sure that we're being unconditionally by their side when they're not. Okay. So, at gray Hawk, and I know, I know Jody has a place in her school as well like this. But we have, you know, co regulation is so important, as it is everywhere, obviously. But we have a designated space. This is our Zen Den. And it's a place where our adults can go when they need to regulate. So you know, if you see down there on the shelf, we've got little bottles of water to flush cortisol when we're when we're super stressed out. We have different fidgets, aromatherapy, coloring books, things like that. And last week, it was really cool. I was refilling, we have men's in there as refilling the men's, and making sure everything else was was okay in there. And I saw a mirror, and a mirror was added to the top of the cabinet. And I was like, where did that come from? And I found out that one of our amazing para educators put that in there. Because she was like, you know, it's so important. It was such a great reminder that we have to check our face, right? We have to check that when we're dysregulated even though we think we might be okay, we still might have like that grimace or if you're like me, you know, and I'll have a facial tic like, check yourself to make sure that what you're conveying through the that nonverbal communication is okay, and not something that's adding to the dysregulation and so, that awareness, that awareness is so very, very important. I mentioned I know I've mentioned Jodi quite a bit. I just wanted to give a plug to this because we use something that Jodi Jodi discussed discusses in this Jody wrote supporting emotional regulation in the classroom through ASCD. And part of this is an emotional regulation plan. And this emotional regulation plan is something that we use with our staff. And it's great you can see on there like when, you know, we experience things in our lives, and we don't feel our best, which is again, validating them totally normal. And so when I feel this way, I You need to and there's some choices there. So this is, again, this is a staff, one, that person on our staff needs to go for a walk. And then we talked about how long is that something that you know, you know yourself, you know, your body, you know, what's going on? is, you know, how long is that something that you need. So for this, this person, it was, you know, going for a 10 or 15 minute walk. And then who are the people, the adults that you trust to help you? And so for this one, it's, it was myself or our counselor, and then identifying your triggers, and the things that activate your nervous system. And so you can see what the person put there. And I think, excuse me, it's really important. You know, Are you a person that you you go from from zero to 60, in the blink of an eye? Or is it something that it takes a while, and then noticing what those sensations are within our body. So this person, her face gets red. So having that, and knowing that regulation isn't a one size fits all kind of helps drive those conversations. And this is actually something this year that we began using with our fifth grade classes as well. And that's something no one else knows it. I have access to this. Of course, the classroom teacher does and our counselor, but these are things if we have a student in our fifth grade, who's not okay, we can look back at that, because again, we have to remain language light. We're not going to ask a kid who's who's activated in the moment, like, what is it that you need right? Now? Do you need to and then give them a big list of things. If we know it ahead of time and they filled something like this app this out? When they're at their baseline or their you know, when they're okay, then we can use that to kind of help guide us in what we're going to do next for them or with them, are we not for them. So, in thinking about CO regulation and CO regulation is about sharing your calm I love this little video, Eris is one of our third grade teachers, and one of her students, and he just needed a couple of moments to go on the teeter totter. And being able to go on the teeter totter was what kind of helped him get back to being okay. Other friends, I've got a sixth grade friend from my former school and when he was facing some some challenges in his day, he wanted to come and lounge in the chair in my room and he would sit there for 10 or 15 minutes and he would blow bubbles. And having that time I we're not having a conversation, I'm doing something in my office, but he has that and he's I mean he's practicing is breathing and it would get him back to where he felt calm enough where he could have a conversation with me if he needed to or if he wanted to. And it continued to strengthen our relationship. Again, there's there's a picture of our staff doing yoga with our some of our younger learners. Having some opportunities to do some of those regulatory practices is huge. This past summer, in June, we invited Meg Baldwin to come down from like the the Wichita area and she came and she trained our staff on valid physics I'm going to see hopefully this will work I don't know if it will or not it will 30 seconds of valid. Sao Paulo visits is pattern repetitive rhythmic motion and we'll use beanbags or we'll use some of our some of our classes will use balls like the these bouncing balls. And it's it's this this series of of different exercises. And that rhythm that's created through those exercises and crossing the midline and doing those different things really has become very regulating and we'll use that when a class is like way way like flying high. We'll use it when we just need to refocus our brains and it's been a really powerful, powerful tool for us to use within our school. The final the final I wanted I'm going to speak about our touch points, you know, at, at our, at our core at our very cellular level, our brains are social, right? We're the way our brains or social organs. And I love this. I love this quote that, you know, touch points provide that psychological air, you know, why would we think that not having those opportunities to connect would not be beneficial to all of us, right? So we need to make that certainly a priority. One of the things that we did was again, and there's that word intentional, one of the things that we did was relationship mapping. And that was something that we did last year, around October, what we did was, we listed every single student in our school on an on chart paper, and our staff went around, and they had a green marker and a red marker. And what they would do is they would look at each kid's name, and they would put a mark, if there was some kind of connection that they have, or something they knew about the kid that was meaningful, they would give them a little a little green check. And if they had concerns or didn't, they're there, they felt like maybe something was going on, they would put a red mark. And so what we did in doing this exercise is we gathered all of this data, and we looked at it. And what we noticed was that we had 38 students of our 252 students 38 didn't have a green check, and didn't have a red check. And those 38, those 38 kids, those are the 38 that are going to fall through the cracks. So we were really, really intentional about making sure that we assigned an adult to them. And they began building a very genuine relationship with that student. I think it's really important when we're doing this, while we're doing these, you know, implementing some of these strategies and doing some of these things, that we really focus on three important questions. How for us for reflective purposes, like how are we intentionally connecting with our kids? How do we connect with not only our kids, but our staff and our community as well? And then how did those that you serve, know that you love and care about them? We do a whole lot of positive office referrals. My friend over here on the right was walking around and giving notes to different people that just said I love you. Love. There's a love is a foundation of what we do in education. Right. And so it's so great to get a little note and I love you note down there in the corner. They they put this big assembly on and it was just as as a way of saying thank you. And then we had this big they had this big banner that I love you Dr. Springer, and it was so amazing to feel the sincerity behind what they were doing. So, back to relationship mapping, though. So we we do this relationship mapping. And we have 252 Gray hawks, 52 staff members, that includes teachers, Perez, our custodial staff 38 had no connections, so no pluses or minuses, no greens or reds. We assigned adults adults can sign up to begin to build that intentional relationship. And by the end of the year by May 100% of our gray hawks could identify at least one adult besides their own classroom teacher that love them and that they trusted, which to me was super huge. Another part of touchpoints are things like daily affirmations. We have this daily affirmation that they hear every single day and hopefully it'll play. It's very brief.

Video: 1:19:14

Good morning, Grant. This is mad. Today is Thursday, November 4 2021. We want to remind you that you're strong, you're smart and you're a leader. The world is better because you are in it. In case you ever heard it today. We love you. Believe in yourself friends, every day is the new beginning. Take a deep breath and smile because a great hug. We are a family.

Dr. Dustin Springer: 1:19:39

Every morning every single child deserves to hear I love you every single day. They deserve to hear how much that they are valued and appreciated for who they are. And our daily affirmation coupled with making sure that we're there to greet them That picture on the left there is our counselor, Miss Hubbard, she and I greet the kids every morning. So they see us when they get dropped off in the Coraline, then we have teachers that are waiting right inside our Fourier. And they're saying good morning. And then they're going to their classrooms, and they're seeing teachers at their classroom doors, greeting them. So they're having 5678 positive interactions even before they walk inside of our classroom. And it's those daily micro doses of attachment that really make a huge difference in the lives of our students. Another thing that I'm really proud of, are our nests. So our nests are bi weekly. So every two weeks on Monday, we will have will mix up all of our kids. And so if you're these the kids, they're in the middle or are in my nest, and you stay with your nest the entire time you're in school. So you know you come in as a kindergartener, you're going to be in your, your lead teacher, your lead persons nest the entire time, you're with us. And it's a way for us to combine our K through five students into smaller families. And then we focus our attention on things like teaching empathy, kindness, we had one about food scarcity, and what that looks like. And then we have an activity that we tie into it, where we have our children do something for the betterment of the community. And doing that, again, teaching our kids, the importance of helping others really ends up helping ourselves. And I'm just so incredibly proud of the things that our kids do. And what they've become, when we implement strategies like this. Implementing this framework is not a catch all. It's not a magic cure. There are no programs or specific strategies that can fix a child. And by the way, people aren't broken, kids aren't broken, they don't need to be fixed, we're always going to see dysregulation, we will always, dysregulation will play a role in all of our lives always because it's just a part of being human. But when we can begin to teach children, about what's going on with their brain, connecting what's going on with their brain to what's going on inside their bodies, providing that CO regulation, those micro doses of attachment through those different touch points, were able to see a shift that we've needed for quite some time, maybe not just in school, but maybe, maybe in our world. So remember that programs, there's no programs or specific strategies that fix a kid. It takes a lot of love, a lot of support. And we can do it all, when we can provide people with safety. And we can provide them with that sense of connection. And that's it for me, I don't mind at all, sharing my contact information. So it's all there on the screen for you to love phone calls. I love emails. I'm on Twitter. As a matter of fact, that's how I got connected with so many folks that have played such an important role in my life is through Twitter. So please check that out. And just guy, thank you so much for providing me this opportunity to speak with folks today.

Guy Stephens: 1:23:53

Dustin, thank you, this has been fantastic. You know, I've had a lot of thoughts throughout your presentation. One is, you know, I find you very regulating, so I need you to be one of my anchors here Dustin, you just really do a fantastic job. And, you know, the other is, although I'm not inspired to have any more children. If I did, I think I want them to be gray Hawks. You know, the work that happens in an elementary school is so critical to the future outcomes. And you know, very often in the work that we do, you know, we find kids that are having really poor experiences in elementary school where we're seeing, you know, restraint and seclusion suspension, expulsion, corporal punishment, and the way that that changes the the path for someone is just incredible. So really value the work that you're doing. The photographs that you shared, you know, just make me want to come come visit and I'm going to have to look for an opportunity to get myself over there. Yeah, absolutely. But you're You're doing amazing work. I have a question for you. And, you know, look at the points here as well. But I had a question for you, your journey. So, you know, we talked a lot about kind of where you are and what you're doing and, you know, all of the things that you've brought together through your career and your ongoing education, because, uh, you know, I think, I think the, the people that are doing this work that are making so much of a difference are lifelong learners, right? So we're always learning and trying to do better, but But tell me a little bit about kind of your early journey. I mean, the applied Educational Neuroscience, I know, you did that a few years ago. You know, I'm going to assume, and maybe I'm wrong, but I'm gonna assume that this was a journey for you. And that, you know, early on that you may have been doing things differently, or, you know, may have run across things that weren't really working for you. Tell me a little bit, and you don't have to go through the whole story. But what was your journey? Like? And how did you get in this direction of really, not only applied Educational Neuroscience, but kind of the philosophy that you have and bring into your school and your community?

Dr. Dustin Springer: 1:26:18

I mean, it's such a multi level answer. I mean, the, the, the short version, I guess, is not having those positive relationships, getting into education, and seeing the impact of that one person, I think, you know, Jim sporulating, calls with the power of one that one person was always beneficial to me and showing me like, oh, hell, that's what school is supposed to be like, very early in my career, you know, I was teaching very young learners, I was I was kindergarten, first grade, and relationships were the key to what we were doing. But when kids would, as they should make decisions that aren't the best. I was kind of the guy like, you need to go sit in the corner, you're not listening to me, you need to you need to move, because I'm in charge. And look, there, there absolutely is a piece of that we have to, we have to learn as people, we have to learn that, you know, there are going to be things that, you know, we have to respect authority, we have to, but we're not all there. And we're certainly not all there at the same time. And some of us may never get there. But we have to have that, that connection piece and build those skills, you know, fill in that missing skill, right? Things things I think started changing for me, truly, probably that 2017 2018 and working with the amazing folks at s stack. And meeting Jim, and Jim's poor leader and James Moffat and Rebecca Lewis packrats, and all those folks. And things, I think were deep within me that I'm like, it doesn't feel good to, you know, when it does something that clearly I was doing all the time, why am I why am I not okay with it, I'm looking at that and understanding that there's something beneath those behaviors. And so that when I realized that sometimes I felt like I was I was doing more harm than good and being reflective of that lit a fire for me. And, you know, watching if you haven't seen Paper Tigers, it's absolutely a must watch. And that that helped. Change change. Not hell. I mean, it changed me. And that's a great one for folks who are dealing with high school or working with high school students. But it all kind of started there. And I went to the learning and the brain conference in 2020. It was a month before COVID shut everything down. So Brian Tracy and I are walking through San Francisco. And this was like the, the, the unicorn of of conferences because Dr. Perry was there and Mona della hook was there. Wow. Wow. It was the first time I met Dr. Laurie, I sat in on one of her talks and I'm like, I just I'm gonna apply and she's like, that will take Yeah, we love you. And it was a it was a life altering experience. I'm trying to think who else was there on? Oh my gosh. So I'm planning I'm sorry, my my brain is switching off. But it was a group that those people came together. And it was I think it was also at that time, too, that I realized these these are folks that make themselves have vailable to, to us to meet right. I'm, I'm just some some schmo on the street and be here, these decision makers and these movers and shakers. And they're genuine, like they want to, they want to help. It's the same way with foretell, you know, he's, he's an approachable guy, a great friend, I love the man. But beforehand, I would have been like, I'm, I shouldn't even be talking to this guy. He's, I don't know, it's so weird