"BORING!!!"

Happy Sunday, hello and kia ora (many of my snackers visit from New Zealand) to you all! Thanks for peeking into the kitchen! It's just me, cooking up and passing around a plate of tasty morsels that I've learned and that are starting to work in my classroom.

Today I ask: "How strong is your gratitude game?"

I don't have too many students in my alternating daily schedule that I teach every day, but I'd briefly like to highlight two that I do. They are ensconced in my daily gratitude journal because I am grateful to them for helping me to (rapidly) become a better teacher. I have them both in one of my classes. They're buddies. And they, like their teacher, have ADHD brains. A few months ago, each would enter class, read what the first task of the day (sometimes saying how boring it was) and would then ask for a pass to leave the class without starting the activity. Since then, I've added many new ideas to my toolkit so that these and all my students could be their best learners.

Fast-forward to a few weeks ago. I had students collaboratively playing board games. These two students picked up a game they'd never played. They talked through and invented their own game with the pieces and the board! It was amazing! I went over to them, gushing about their work and asking them to write down the directions. They looked at me as if to say, "meh."

Remember from earlier posts that 50% of people diagnosed with ADHD actually have a sleep disorder; chief among them being insomnia. So, when you add all of the kiddos struggling with sleep deprivation to the children that have ADHD diagnoses, there is actually a much larger percentage of our population struggling to focus their "Ferrari engine brains equipped with tricycle brakes" (to paraphrase ADHD researcher Dr. Edward Hollowell) than it appears.

ADHD brains (I'm struggling to think of something that is more poorly named than ADHD! I have my attention on a billion different things at once most of the time--just saying.) are housed inside some of the world's most celebrated thinkers, inventors, and entertainers, but they have more difficulty storing and maintaining dopamine than others. So, what works? Here are some things I'm trying to do more of.

Our brains love novelty, particularly if it is self-directed and we think it will be challenging. Sometimes, I line the kids up in the hallway before bringing them into the classroom and lead them on a scavenger hunt by having them search the immediate area for a post-it with a particular number on it.

Our brains love physical activity. We had a crab walking "race" down the hall last week before class started. Red light, green light, or just a whole class sprint when weather permits all work well.

Our brains love to be surprised. Kids with ADHD hear a lot of negative comments and are told 'no' a lot. Over the last month, each of the students above has earned positive messages home and highly-coveted out-of-uniform passes for their excellent work.

(PRO TIP: have a crunchy snack around!)

Conversely, our brains struggle with multiple spoken tasks given at once. Checklists, clear steps, and reminders of upcoming transitions are working well.

Lastly, ADHD brains struggle with impulsivity. We will accidentally interrupt you (in our zeal to add to the conversation or in attempt to meet our dopamine deficit). We'll get up and run out of the classroom for what seems like no reason and not be able to say why it happened. We'll blurt out inappropriate things, get overwhelmed and react to redirection with seemingly disproportionate anger--and we'll overthink and feel terrible about all of these (in some cases) many years later.

As teachers, are we more grateful for the lessons we're learning from the students that need the most of our positive energy? Or, is the seemingly inevitable judgment of student behaviors ('This class was really bad today!') that we struggle with always dragging us into a spiral of negativity? More about judgment next week. Until then, keep those tanks full!

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Happy snacking!

Chef Charles

head chef

www.teacherssnacks.com