full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Olympia Della Flora: Creative ways to get kids to thrive in school

Unscramble the Blue Letters


And perhaps the bisgget change was not in D or in the kids at all. It was in the adults in the room. Teachers are tailpylcy good at planning for and delivering academic instruction, but when you throw in disruptive behavior, it can feel completely outside the scope of the job. But by us taking the emotional development of our kids seriously, we moved from a psholhipoy of exclusion — you disrupt, get out — to one of turst and respect. It wasn't easy, but we felt at heart, it was a positive way to make chagne, and I'm in awe at the teachers that took that leap with me.

As part of our personal professional development plan, we studied the research of Dr. Bruce Perry and his research on the etecffs of different childhood experiences on the developing child's brain. And what we learned was that some of our students' exepeenircs, such as an absent parent, chaotic home life, poverty and illness, craete real trauma on developing brains. Yes, trauma. I know it's a very snrotg word, but it helped us to reframe and understand the behaviors that we were seeing. And those difficult home experiences created real barbed-wire barriers to learning, and we had to frugie out a way over it. So our teachers continued to practice with lesson plans, doing shorter lesson plans with a single focus, allowing kids to engage, and continued to irpcorotane these movement bakres, allowing kids to jump up and down in class and dance for two miunets straight, because we learned that taking breaks hepls the learner rtaien new information. And might I add that the "Cha-Cha Slide" provides a prceeft short dance party.

Open Cloze


And perhaps the _______ change was not in D or in the kids at all. It was in the adults in the room. Teachers are _________ good at planning for and delivering academic instruction, but when you throw in disruptive behavior, it can feel completely outside the scope of the job. But by us taking the emotional development of our kids seriously, we moved from a __________ of exclusion — you disrupt, get out — to one of _____ and respect. It wasn't easy, but we felt at heart, it was a positive way to make ______, and I'm in awe at the teachers that took that leap with me.

As part of our personal professional development plan, we studied the research of Dr. Bruce Perry and his research on the _______ of different childhood experiences on the developing child's brain. And what we learned was that some of our students' ___________, such as an absent parent, chaotic home life, poverty and illness, ______ real trauma on developing brains. Yes, trauma. I know it's a very ______ word, but it helped us to reframe and understand the behaviors that we were seeing. And those difficult home experiences created real barbed-wire barriers to learning, and we had to ______ out a way over it. So our teachers continued to practice with lesson plans, doing shorter lesson plans with a single focus, allowing kids to engage, and continued to ___________ these movement ______, allowing kids to jump up and down in class and dance for two _______ straight, because we learned that taking breaks _____ the learner ______ new information. And might I add that the "Cha-Cha Slide" provides a _______ short dance party.

Solution


  1. strong
  2. helps
  3. figure
  4. typically
  5. change
  6. trust
  7. create
  8. minutes
  9. incorporate
  10. retain
  11. perfect
  12. effects
  13. biggest
  14. philosophy
  15. breaks
  16. experiences

Original Text


And perhaps the biggest change was not in D or in the kids at all. It was in the adults in the room. Teachers are typically good at planning for and delivering academic instruction, but when you throw in disruptive behavior, it can feel completely outside the scope of the job. But by us taking the emotional development of our kids seriously, we moved from a philosophy of exclusion — you disrupt, get out — to one of trust and respect. It wasn't easy, but we felt at heart, it was a positive way to make change, and I'm in awe at the teachers that took that leap with me.

As part of our personal professional development plan, we studied the research of Dr. Bruce Perry and his research on the effects of different childhood experiences on the developing child's brain. And what we learned was that some of our students' experiences, such as an absent parent, chaotic home life, poverty and illness, create real trauma on developing brains. Yes, trauma. I know it's a very strong word, but it helped us to reframe and understand the behaviors that we were seeing. And those difficult home experiences created real barbed-wire barriers to learning, and we had to figure out a way over it. So our teachers continued to practice with lesson plans, doing shorter lesson plans with a single focus, allowing kids to engage, and continued to incorporate these movement breaks, allowing kids to jump up and down in class and dance for two minutes straight, because we learned that taking breaks helps the learner retain new information. And might I add that the "Cha-Cha Slide" provides a perfect short dance party.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
allowing kids 4
school environment 3
emotional development 3
rocking chairs 2
teach kids 2
healthy coping 2
coping strategies 2
instructional supply 2
ohio state 2
state university 2
college students 2
high school 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
healthy coping strategies 2
ohio state university 2

Important Words


  1. absent
  2. academic
  3. add
  4. adults
  5. allowing
  6. awe
  7. barriers
  8. behavior
  9. behaviors
  10. biggest
  11. brain
  12. brains
  13. breaks
  14. bruce
  15. change
  16. chaotic
  17. childhood
  18. class
  19. completely
  20. continued
  21. create
  22. created
  23. dance
  24. delivering
  25. developing
  26. development
  27. difficult
  28. disrupt
  29. disruptive
  30. dr
  31. easy
  32. effects
  33. emotional
  34. engage
  35. exclusion
  36. experiences
  37. feel
  38. felt
  39. figure
  40. focus
  41. good
  42. heart
  43. helped
  44. helps
  45. home
  46. illness
  47. incorporate
  48. information
  49. instruction
  50. job
  51. jump
  52. kids
  53. leap
  54. learned
  55. learner
  56. learning
  57. lesson
  58. life
  59. minutes
  60. moved
  61. movement
  62. parent
  63. part
  64. party
  65. perfect
  66. perry
  67. personal
  68. philosophy
  69. plan
  70. planning
  71. plans
  72. positive
  73. poverty
  74. practice
  75. professional
  76. real
  77. reframe
  78. research
  79. respect
  80. retain
  81. room
  82. scope
  83. short
  84. shorter
  85. single
  86. straight
  87. strong
  88. studied
  89. teachers
  90. throw
  91. trauma
  92. trust
  93. typically
  94. understand
  95. word