January 16, 2025 • 58 mins
Are you ready to transform the way you and your students learn?
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In this episode, we’re diving into Brain Hacks for Students that will help you unlock focus, boost engagement, and achieve flow states—the ultimate level of productivity and learning. Discover actionable tips grounded in brain-based learning, from leveraging movement and motivation to using neurochemical triggers for optimal focus. Whether you're a student, teacher, or educator, these strategies will revolutionize your approach to success in the classroom and beyond. Part 1 of this conversation is included in our sister podcast Tier 1 Interventions.
💡 What You’ll Learn:
- The science of flow states and how to access them.
- Proven brain-based learning hacks for better focus and memory.
- Techniques to create engaging learning environments.
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TIMESTAMPS
01:00 What is IMPACT Wednesday? Connections to Saturday Math
03:07 The Importance of Flow in Learning
09:42 Anatomy of Learning: The Role of the Frontal Lobe
18:37 Using Movement and Indirect Instruction
26:49 Understanding the Brain in Flow States
38:48 Neuroplasticity and Its Role in Learning
44:15 The Neurochemical Cocktail of Flow
51:22 Strategies to Trigger Flow in the Classroom
56:34 Closing Remarks: Upcoming Events and Resources
****************************************************************************
BOOKS
Handwriting Brain Body DISconnect Digital Version: https://disabilitylabs.com/courses/hwbbd
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is Cheri Dotterer,your classroom coach.
You are here at The Writing Glitch.
We've recorded this.
The night before it went live.
In January of 2025.
It's a live recording.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to Impact Wednesday.
We will do some introductionshere in a moment.
Let's give everyone a chance to jump onand then we'll share our topic for tonight
and give you a preview of what the nextcouple of Impact Wednesdays are going
(00:41):
to look like and sound like as well.
I am one of your hosts for thisevening, Cheri Zupancic, Jay Z, in
the house today for Impact Wednesday.
is impact school success.
So how do we create experiences,environments, climates, and cultures
(01:07):
in our classroom so that all studentshave access and all students All of
these have the same ability to achieve.
That is what Cheri and I callIMPACT and I'll turn this over to
Cheri Dotterer in just a moment.
Tonight we are going to connectto what we do in Saturday Math.
(01:27):
Saturday Math is a oncea month math training.
It is also free.
And IMPACT Wednesday is A connectionto Saturday math, but also an
extension of adaptations for math,writing, and reading classrooms.
(01:47):
Primarily mathematics, becausethat is what our course focuses on.
And to start us off today, thisis not our topic for today, but
it'll be our topic next month.
There is a math book calledBuilding Thinking Classrooms.
It has made a huge wave in the states.
(02:08):
It is quite an extensive movement.
And Cheri's going to give us moreinsight into the adaptations and the non
academic Accessibilities for studentsthrough this book next month, but the
reason I mention it today is in BuildingThinking Classrooms, Peter talks
(02:30):
about in Chapter 9, this idea of flow,flow comes out of building thinking.
A true focus engagement, and oftentimesin math classrooms, we never pursue
long enough on one topic, one task, oneexample, one situation, to not only get
(02:55):
the depth of the mathematics, but wealso don't pursue long enough and leave
things open ended enough to get kidsinto what we call a flow state community.
What science calls a flow state,getting them in the zone so
that deep thinking can happen.
The reason I mention that isCheri is going to talk to us
(03:18):
tonight about the anatomy of thebrain leading into flow state.
But I don't want that to sounddisconnected from what we've
been doing mathematically.
It's actually a huge connection andthe anatomy of the brain and how the
brain responds to our instructionalfacilitation has everything to
(03:39):
do with success in mathematics.
And the bottom line is getting kids fromfocus to engaged to into flow state.
So again, I'm your math specialist,Cheri Zupancic, and I will let Cheri,
Dotterer, occupational therapist takeoff with the anatomy of the brain
and how to get kids into flow state.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, hello everybody.
It is great to be here tonight.
This episode will be sent outto The Writing Glitch podcast.
We have two podcasts.
One of them is Tier 1 Interventions.
If you listened to the episode thatwas released yesterday, Tuesday, that
(04:21):
was from Last Saturday, and we didsomething we don't normally do with that.
We, we released the entirehour and a half episode.
And, I also have a second podcast, andwe're choosing This week to release this
(04:42):
one right away, right behind it, so thatyou can pull from both podcasts and we're
going to link to the opposite podcastso that you can hear the other part.
But Cheri has done something even evencooler is she has recorded a separate
(05:03):
episode, which will be aired next Tuesday.
So we're doing a lot of preparationhere as we move forward to later
on in the year, because Cheri hasan event coming up and all this
is in preparation for that event.
(05:25):
So Cheri take a moment and share theJune event before we get started tonight.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Absolutely.
On Saturday, we talked about TheScience of Math is Coming, and on
Tuesday's podcast, that intro dropped.
There's large controversy, well,there shouldn't be controversy, but
there's large controversy on how we'reresponding to the science of reading,
and We at Minds on Math have beenstudying the science of math for a while.
(05:55):
It is coming.
I don't know if it'll be here in sixmonths or six years, but it is coming.
That is guaranteed.
And we are ahead of the curve withthe collection of resources and data
and research that comes with that.
So, we are We have our 10thAnnual June Math Event this
June 2025 on Thursday, June 5th.
(06:18):
It is an in person only event rightoutside of Columbus, Ohio in the States.
And the title of the June eventis The Cognitive Science of Math.
And it is a collection of evidence,research, and brain based strategies
to begin to teach techniques inyour classroom that increase memory.
(06:42):
That increase retention ofcontent and increase scalable
achievement for mathematics.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
So, thank you so much for sharing that tonight.
I am going to share my screen and wewill get started with explaining how to
engage our students in the classroom.
Cheri, you are in charge of thechat, so if anybody If anyone has
(07:11):
anything that they are interestedin relaying my way, let me know.
I will keep glancing to those participantsand making sure that I don't miss anybody
who's waiting in the wings to come in.
So, how to transform student engagementand success with your classroom.
(07:32):
Or therapy sessions.
Can everybody put in the chat, rightnow, before we even get started
and move on from there, who in thisroom is a teacher, who is a, an
occupational or speech therapist, andshare what classroom that you are in.
So, please do that in the chatfor me, so I have an idea.
(07:57):
What kind of audiencewe're talking to tonight?
For those of you who don't know me, Iam an occupational therapist by trade.
I have now retired from direct services.
My shoulders couldn't take it anymore.
But I am now hosting the twopodcasts that we mentioned earlier.
(08:20):
I wrote Handwriting Brain Body Disconnect.
In 2019, just as I was ready to launch acourse that went with it, what happens?
But COVID.
So kind of threw me for a little bitof a loop, so I got a slow start.
So during COVID, I got toparticipate in the writing of two
chapters in two additional books.
(08:41):
The first one's BecomingYou, and it's an anthology.
It tells a little bitof a back story behind.
different folks that contributedto that particular book.
I also had the absolute privilegeto have a chapter in a textbook.
John Lee and I are currently writinga book and I know we have a friend
(09:02):
named Kirk who reminds us every timehe sees us, when is this coming out?
Stay tuned, stay with us.
You will hear more as the year goes on.
So on Saturday, John Lee talked aboutInterleaving, spaced repetition, retrieval
(09:24):
practice, and metacognitive feedback.
So if you want to hear more about whatthey are, you've got to go to Tier 1
Interventions from the Tuesday episode.
What to expect tonight?
We're going to, we're goingto go through anatomy, okay?
We're going to go do some anatomy oflearning, the anatomy of the frontal lobe.
(09:46):
We're going to stop at the frontal lobe.
We're not going to go throughthe entire brain tonight.
I am not going to go through thefrontal lobe in great detail.
I want to give you an overview ofthe frontal lobe and how it impacts
you as a teacher or a therapistin the classroom or clinic.
(10:07):
And then we're going to really zeroin on flow from Mihaly Ciencik Mihaly.
Did I say it well there, Ms.
Jonnelly?
So why does this all matter?
Because athletes get into the zone, andthat is when they win their gold medal.
(10:30):
Those that don't get in the zone are theones that either don't place, or when
they get to the bottom of the slalom,they're going, I was just thinking about.
And it wasn't what they were doing.
I was thinking aboutsome extraneous thing.
Tonight, when we talk a little bit aboutflow, we have to have total concentration,
(10:52):
total absorption into the task at hand.
Does that happen at school?
Let's see if we can figure outways to help that happen at school.
And it also improves Our selfawareness and gives us some brain
based strategies to help engagement.
(11:15):
At the end, I'm going to talkto you a little bit about the
counting and writing skills.
BuilderPack.
With that pack you can get certifiedas a dysgraphia specialist.
Back in 2016, when I first decided,okay, I'm going to write this book, one
of the reasons I chose to start writingthe book was I'm sitting at home with
(11:40):
my Dotterer and my Dotterer comes in theroom about fifth grade and says, I can't.
Spell, Mom!
And I'm looking at this evaluationthat I had this learning disabilities
kid from school that day with thesame issues and I'm going, wait
a minute, where's the connection?
Is there a connection with a giftedstudent and a learning support student
(12:04):
both having trouble with spelling?
And what I discovered was, yes there is.
So, you have some homeworkthroughout the night tonight.
I want you to take notes for yourself.
What is a new experience?
And what is knowledgethat you already have?
(12:26):
So, take just a separate piece of paper.
I want you to do some homework and we'regoing to talk more about that homework
as we progress through this evening.
So for now, all I want to share with youis Experiences, and already understanding
(12:48):
and have a good knowledge base of that.
Well, look at that.
There is Denise Sherman.
How are you, girl?
It's good to see you.
So, let's look at the anatomy of learning.
In this book,
Rain Based Learning, byEric Jensen and Liesl.
(13:12):
I hope I said their names right.
They give a definition of learning.
Learning is the acquisition ofknowledge, behaviors, skills,
values, and preferences.
And it's all built on one another.
(13:33):
We have previous knowledge and we have newlearning and they have to come together at
some point and that is what flow will dois it will bring the old knowledge and the
new knowledge together and synchronize it.
The components of learning.
(13:53):
Every the typical, a typical way ofdesigning, whether it's a lesson plan
for math class, a lesson plan forliteracy, a lesson plan for social
studies, and even an occupationaltherapy session, is you have some
(14:13):
section where it's direct instruction.
And then you have this indirectsection where they kind of can
work on what they've been taught.
So those individual sessions.
What I suggest is that we take a lookat these components and find out for
(14:38):
ourselves if that is effectively bringingus into a flow state with our students.
When we get to flow, we'll learn a littlebit more whether direct instruction
or indirect instruction is better.
And I have little notes on here.
(14:59):
We have a vision, 50 percent ofwhat kids are learning is visual.
It could even be as high as 80%.
10 percent is auditory.
Now that could flip if you'vegot an auditory learner or you
have somebody with a disability.
(15:21):
So think about that as well.
But typical kids, most kids, but 40percent is learned with movement.
Cheri mentioned buildingthinking classrooms.
We're going to talk about thatnext month in Impact Wednesday.
Cheri, what's the date on that?
Can you look it up a while?
(15:43):
So, next month at Impact Wednesday,it's free, it's in the evening,
you can come live, or we will beputting it on one of the podcasts.
But,
in Building Thinking Classrooms, oneof the things he talks about in Chapter
3, I believe it is, is standing up.
(16:06):
And I thought, well, why doesthat have to be something that
we have an entire chapter on?
We do that all the time in OT sessions.
In OT sessions, we're utilizinga lot of movement throughout
our educational process.
We're already engaging in thosemovement activities, and we're
(16:28):
teaching the teachers the benefits.
So, a lot of you might see sensorypathways or sensory walkways in
your hallway to get kids moving,especially in the elementary level.
You might see a sensory room inone part of the building and it
(16:52):
might have, Slow lights, it mighthave a pit pit to kind of jump in.
Different things to create movement.
And if 40 percent of how kidsare learning involves movement,
what about sitting in a desk?
Does that create movement?
(17:14):
Just asking these questions.
So one of the things that Cheri does inall of her instruction is she flips it.
She does indirect instruction first.
And one of the ways.
that she does in direct instruction isthis technique called tell me about.
Tell me about that.
(17:36):
She could be putting up a pictureof a slant, a diagonal line.
Tell me about that.
It could be as detailed as apicture of a scene out in the woods
where there people are camping.
Tell me about that.
It's amazing what kidsmake connections to.
(18:00):
I love putting the diagonal lineup, for a couple different reasons.
I like the diagonal line because it forceskids to think about crossing midline.
When they're looking at it,they've got to shift their eyes
up and down and cross midline.
They have to think about it.
Is it a positive or is it a negative?
(18:21):
What other things coulda diagonal line be?
It could be headed uptoward the mountaintop.
So, Tell Me About bringsout all kinds of interesting
thoughts with kids conversation.
One of these areas about learningthat we don't always talk about
(18:44):
is epigenetics.
Epigenetics really is like this alongsidethe genet, genet, why can't I say genetics
at the moment, genetics of our system.
It is how we feed our diet, how weexercise, how we, what kind of disease
(19:05):
processes are around our family.
What kind of social contacts do we have?
What is our microbiome?
So looking at all of theseother areas, non academic,
really do impact how kids learn.
(19:26):
I have two children, my own biologicalchildren, who have very rare disorder
called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.
Probably I have it aswell, we're doing workups.
But they're, they just found, after 30years of research, is the chromosomes
(19:48):
in the RNA that helps Identify it.
Took a little bit of time.
I haven't had the testingat this point in time.
We're working on gettingme to that testing to find
out where I fall into that.
But one of the things about ErloStanlow Syndrome or EDS, especially
(20:09):
the hypermobility type, is yourjoints bend in very unusual ways.
For example, my Dotterer was agymnast, yet she could dislocate
her elbow and lick, dislocateher shoulder and lick her elbow.
I know, it's gross, but shecould do it, put her shoulder
(20:33):
back in joint without any pain.
You try that.
I try that.
That's why I had to retire.
I tried to dislocate it the hard way.
Before I move off this page, Ialso remember, I see lighting.
(20:55):
Lighting!
can make or break kids.
If you have the fluorescent lightson six hours out of their day, the
sound, the electromagnetic radiationcoming off of the fluorescent lights
will impact their epigenetics.
(21:16):
I suggest, and I talk about thisall the time, Have some floor
lamps in your room and use themthroughout the day at some point.
Turn off those fluorescent lights.
The other thing about learning, as we lookat the anatomy of learning, is the biggest
(21:38):
factor that's going to make or break akid engaging in learning is motivation.
Is it relevant?
Does it create curiosity?
Is there some autonomy and belonginginvolved in the way you're presenting?
The lesson, how are you empowering them?
We're going to talk a little bit lateron the challenge, stretch and non snap.
(22:05):
So, I'm going to come back to that one.
Validation, worthiness,meaning, purpose, and goals.
So,
Speaker 2 (22:13):
actually, before we do the what do you see, what do you notice, just to
preview this next part that Cheri is goingto talk about, but reflect on the strategy
that we've, that she's just talked about.
The greatest instructional tool,To motivate students, meaning
(22:34):
they have choice, they feel likethey belong, they feel like I care
about them, is that strategy thatCheri mentioned, tell me about.
So, if I am doing a therapy session,or a reading session, or a math
session, when, when Cheri said Ido the indirect instruction first,
that is to engage and stimulate thestudent's brain to trigger focus.
(23:00):
So, tell me about.
Allows the student to then engage, makechoices about what they're going to
tell me, make their own connections,relate to their past experiences in
schema, and internally, they're saying tothemselves, She cares about what I think.
(23:22):
So the reason we're going on this deepdive of the brain over the next couple
of months on Impact Wednesdays, andmuch of what we're teaching you may not
necessarily be a grab and go strategy.
The Tell Me About Is, you can use itwith anything, and Cheri's going to
show us some examples in a moment ofwhat do you see, what do you notice.
(23:42):
So, these are very simple examples thatget a great amount of depth in the brain,
deep thinking, deep reasoning, and thenultimately that leads to deep learning.
So, we want you to push yourselvesto start to understand a little
bit more about how the brain works,because that is going to drive all of
(24:05):
these outcomes that we're looking at.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Thank you.
And all I was going to say about whatdo you see, what do you notice, is it's
another way of saying tell me about.
So I just gave you two differentIRA is two different takeaways.
Tell me about and what doyou see, what do you notice?
For those of you who haven'theard us talk about that before,
(24:31):
that's what that is all about.
It creates a discussion withthe students so that we can
embrace belonging and autonomy.
So, that is what I wanted to touchon, this little tidbit, little
tidbit of the anatomy of learning.
(24:52):
I'm going to give you a moment here tothink about what's the new experience
that you had in that last section
and what was new knowledge.
Somehow or another you candistinguish those and you may not
be able to do it now as we're goingthrough the webinar here live.
(25:14):
But take some time.
And, or if you're watching thereplay, you can pause it and you
can reflect on what you've learned.
The anatomy of the frontal lobe.
I had so much fun finding theanatomy of the frontal lobe, the
(25:39):
pictures that I wanted to use today.
So.
One of the things that I have seen for thefirst time in Canva, yes, I'm using Canva,
but I found the anatomy of a kid's brain.
I want you to take a noticeof that frontal lobe.
Look how it's shaped.
(26:00):
Look how their brain is shaped.
Look at that cerebellum.
Look how big it is.
The cerebellum is controlling movement.
It's controlling learning.
It's controlling all of the refinementof activities that we're doing.
The reason a cerebellum is so big in youngkids is they are, you know, toddlers.
(26:26):
They're on the go.
They don't stop.
The frontal lobe is.
develops around, starts toreally develop around puberty.
It doesn't finish developinguntil you're about 35 years old.
That's all the way throughcollege for most of us.
(26:49):
So.
The adult brain.
I just highlighted the different lobes.
We are, we are still sharing that.
Right.
Okay.
It, I'm getting cut off here.
I don't see, I can't see everybodyaround my, the, the screen, the, you
(27:09):
know, you can only have so many places.
Right.
Anyway, I digress.
The purple area is the areawe're gonna talk about tonight.
The parietal lobe interprets.
What we see, the occipital lobemakes it like a digital file.
(27:30):
The cerebellum I just talkedabout and the temporal lobe
is for hearing and for memory.
1800s, this gentleman died in, in 1918.
His last name was Broadman.
He, I made this roadmap of the brainthat we call the Broadman's Areas.
(27:57):
And as I was trying to find somedistinguishing areas to explain what
gets highlighted and what gets shutoff during a flow state, this was the
best way that I found to explain it.
The yellow area is the frontal lobe.
(28:21):
There's two parts.
to the frontal lobe that are in orange,and that one part that goes like
underneath the temporal lobe, it connectsthe frontal lobe and the temporal lobe.
The pink areas are the motorcortex and the sensory cortex and
the the eyelid, the eye cortex.
(28:44):
So if you notice the sectioneight there, that whole area
controls how your eyes move.
It's a huge area when you think about it.
It's huge.
So I've labeled all of the areas.
Just taking some time.
(29:04):
You don't have to remember these.
And I'm not going to go haywire into them.
But I just want you to see that they'vedone enough experimentation to find
out different sections of the brain andwhat they actually do in that section.
(29:24):
So I took them, I kept the, all the.
The labeling, those diamonds,are what stays working.
The stuff that processes
Consciousness are theones that have negatives.
(29:46):
So that stuff on that very outside ofthe bottom of the frontal lobe and the
stuff, the primary cortex, what happens inflow is The brain likes to be automatic,
so it wants to do things in repetition.
That's why spaced repetition is soessential, because it wants to know it so
(30:09):
well it doesn't have to think about it.
So the center section of thefrontal lobe allows us to do
things without thinking about them.
We lose our sense of self.
So although we talk about autonomyand we talk about belonging, that
center section of the frontal lobe
Speaker (30:37):
And Cheri, if I could
Speaker 2 (30:38):
just make a connection on that.
We think about students thathave Issues with impulsivity.
Oftentimes boys will have muchmore trouble sitting still
than girls in the classrooms.
We talk about kids that have ADHD orkids that blurt out or kids, again,
(30:58):
that kind of lack control and selfregulation because they're so impulsive.
And what education does, what ourclassrooms do, typical traditional
classrooms is We work against thosebehaviors and not with those behaviors.
So, we actually want to takeadvantage of kids impulsivity.
(31:19):
We want to take advantageof, you know, ADHD kiddos.
Some of their strengths arecreativity and hyper focus.
Not a lack of focus, but hyper focus.
We actually want to harness.
The components that these, what we thinkare struggling students, but they are
(31:40):
primed for flow state and the way thatwe're teaching them and the way that
we're facilitating our instruction andsetting up environments and experiences
for learning are working against thosebehaviors that our kids are displaying.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Thank you for adding that because those areas that
are the diamonds get shut off.
in a traditional directinstruction environment.
They get turned on in theindirect instruction environment.
The yellow section is whereexecutive function comes from.
(32:22):
So, see what's required for learning?
All of those stars.
And what did we just say?
Executive function comes out of theyellow and the executive function
stuff is quiet, but it's thathyper focus of executive function.
(32:43):
Planning.
Organizing, and those higher level, theyhave to be more of an automatic phase.
If you have to think about them,
they don't work as well in FLOW.
Welcome Trish.
(33:06):
Trish, you got here just intime for all the anatomy.
Hooray!
So, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,the function in FLOW is focus, working
memory, and task directed action.
(33:27):
And that was that, that yellow section.
The ventral lateral prefrontal cortexis impulse control and decision making.
One of the things that they havediscovered when somebody is in a hyper
flow state, They can make decisionsa thousand times faster than they
(33:50):
can when they're not in a flow state.
The pre motor cortex doesplanning and executive movements.
If we have to be planning and thinkingand processing, that's a little
different than decision making.
That's the section that gets, it'sactive, but it has to be repetitive.
(34:13):
So sometimes the premotor cortexcan turn on and off in flow
depending on what you are doing.
The anterior cingulate cortex.
This guy here isn't on that picture.
This one is underneath what you were ableto see as part of the brain and it is
(34:35):
like the big guy as far as flow states go.
Attention, allocation,and emotional engagement.
It is the one that
it says emotional engagement, butwhat happens Is your emotions get
(34:55):
so hyper focused, your jaw actuallychanges shape during a flow state.
It becomes more of a square and youfrown because you're concentrating.
You lose all that joy and sweetness.
So when I have to laugh every timethe music teacher says, Smile!
(35:19):
Because I'm trying to concentrateso hard on getting the music
correct that I am more frowning.
And now that I'm older, of course, thenwe have that added feature of all the
collagen just draining out of my face,so I don't get to smile like I used to.
But, think about that, when you'relooking at your students, the kids that
(35:46):
have the frown are concentrating more.
It may not seem that way.
They may seem mad, butthey're concentrating more.
And I just want to say Then thedeactivated portion, the prefrontal
cortex, the medial area, that partunderneath that was orange, and then a
section called the default mode network.
(36:09):
This is that allows your brain towander and daydream, and that is
all part of the frontal lobe, butthat gets deactivated and shut down.
The part of the brain that Kindof identifies Cheri as Cheri or
Terry as Terry or Cheri as Cheri.
(36:30):
That kind of goes into an inhibited state.
You can't, you don't reallyknow that you are there.
So that may have been more like the flowpart, but it's still, it's the anatomy of
what happens in flow in the frontal lobe.
(36:51):
So, take a moment, reflect.
What was new?
What was old?
What was a refresher or in between?
Before we move on to section 3,Cheri, do you have anything that
you wanted to add before we goon to the anatomy of FLOW itself?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
So, the concentration and the frowning muscles, if and
when we work with teenagers, weoftentimes will misinterpret.
Teenagers are really deep thinkers.
And so, what often happensis, what Cheri just described,
(37:33):
we see a look on their face.
As they're trying to process andinternalize and really engage, and
we perceive that look on their faceas inattentive or anger or upset, and
many times as adults, whether it's ina parenting situation or in a therapy
session or in, well, probably nota therapy session, because OTs, you
(37:57):
probably know more about respondingto this than educators do, or if
it's in a classroom with students,Oftentimes, the adult will misinterpret
and infer and then react in a way thatis the opposite of what the child's
brain is actually doing at the time.
So just an awareness of this,I think, is very important.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
So, off to the anatomy of flow.
Oh this is so much fun.
I love flow.
It is, what I found out about flow, my,my whole sessions changed with kids.
As I mentioned earlier, motivation is thekey factor to get kids into a flow state.
(38:43):
I, I Just repeated the slidethat was on here earlier.
So how do we get, how, howdo, how does flow work?
Well, it is neuroplastic.
So neuroplasticity was discovered backin the 1930s ish, 50s maybe and it, it
was the discovery that our nervous systemcontinues to grow till the day we die.
(39:10):
It continues to change.
Even people who have had aneurological Condition like a stroke.
Their neurologicalsystem continues to grow.
It just grows around the partthat died during the stroke.
So neuroplasticity is the brain'sability to organize itself by forming new
(39:33):
neurons and connections throughout life.
The dynamic process.
Enables the brain to adapt tothe changes in the environment,
learning new skills, recover frominjuries, and store new information.
It's very essential with neuroplasticityto be prevalent in the areas
(39:57):
of the brain that store memory.
Because if we don't, aren't able to storenew memories, we aren't able to grow new
neurons, we're not going to remember.
When The older person starts toforget that short term memory.
Those nerves are starting to dieand they have to create new ones.
(40:18):
And sometimes it doesn't workthat fast when they get older.
So there is the anatomyof, of neuroplasticity.
What, what is happening withneuroplasticity is we're strengthening
the synaptic connections, those,the dendrites and the axons.
(40:47):
We're strengthening those.
The ones that are getting strengthenedthe most during a flow state is
that center of the prefrontalcortex, the dorsolateral area.
There are also two others, we talkedabout the cerebellum as well, that
part in the back of the brain thathelps with movement and learning.
(41:09):
Create this really strong bond, butthen there's a section of the brain
that's in the middle of the brain in thelimbic system called the basal ganglia.
The basal ganglia are like thelast straw in refining movement.
One of the conditions when peopleare getting older that you can see
(41:34):
issues with the basal ganglia is the
Parkinson's shuffle.
So they kind of like, they can't get itgoing and then all of a sudden they start
walking and then all of a sudden theyget stuck and then they go walking again.
Those, the basal gangliaaren't working effectively.
(41:57):
People that have conditions like that havea difficult time entering the flow state.
Or when they do finally get into the flowstate, they can only be in it for short
periods of time because There's like thishiccup, especially in the basal ganglia.
The Hebbian Plasticity Theory is thatneurons that fire together, wire together.
(42:23):
I've heard that term for many years.
I never knew until today that itwas called the Hebbian Theory.
Intrinsic, the inside, the reward system.
This is where dopamine gets fired.
And we're going to talk a little bitmore about dopamine here in a minute.
This is where that dopaminereward center comes in.
(42:48):
And then that suppression of thedefault mode network that has
to do with, I shouldn't be doingthis tonight, kind of thing.
And that whole aspect, that getssubdued when you are in a flow state.
(43:12):
So, what does neuroplasticity do?
It encourages, it inspires,it helps that buy in.
One of the things that it does, andwhat Jonna Lee has proven again and
again, is it elevates that bell curve.
It integrates learning.
It builds on schema.
What a word I have there.
(43:34):
Sorry.
It's very deliberate, andit consolidates memory.
So when somebody's not having a memoryissue Like they might have after a
neurological event, then, and these kidswith ADHD, they have strong memories.
(43:56):
That flow state is building on thatpreferred task, and it's perfecting it
to the point that we get to that, andthat analogy of doing something 10,
000 times and you finally get it right.
Who was that, Cheri, do youremember who created that?
(44:20):
And I have a note here thatit is indirect learning.
And here is the neurochemical cocktail.
If you do not have all five of theseneurochemicals flowing through your system
during, you will not enter a flow state.
So you need dopamine.
You need norepinephrine, you needendorphins, you need serotonin,
(44:43):
and you need the anatomide.
And I'm going to share with youwhat they do in just One more slide.
So, what does dopamine do?
Dopamine is that reward center.
So, that's why video games onyour phone are so addicting.
They are sending offdopamine into your brain.
(45:07):
They're, they're doing, thelittle Snippets of flow.
Unfortunately, we get interrupted muchtoo often, and to be in an effective
flow state over a longer period oftime, it takes 20 minutes to get
back when, when you're interrupted.
So, for example, you're in a flowstate, You are working really well,
(45:29):
you're creating, you're doing whateverit is, even if you're sitting at
your desk and you're working there.
You get a phone call.
Totally derails your concentration,you take the phone call, and then
when you go to get back to work, youhave no idea what you were doing.
Theresa's shaking her head yes.
(45:50):
It also is the foundation of wheremotivation, how, the feeling of
motivation inside our system.
Neuroepinephrine helps uswith focus and attention.
So those kids with the ADHD, theyhave a lot of neuroepinephrine.
(46:10):
Endorphins create
euphoria and they alsoare there for pain relief.
So an EpiPen is filled with endorphins.
When you inject that EpiPen,you are killing the pain relief.
You are putting somebody into aeuphoric state temporarily so that
(46:37):
they can overcome whatever it wasthat was creating the inhibition.
Anatomy creates creativity and inhibition.
I don't have time to share ittoday, but I'd like to challenge
you to go look for On YouTube.
(47:02):
Oh, shucks.
What was the name of it?
There was a I think it was a Newsweekor 20, 60 Minutes episode where they
They used this idea of getting agroup into a flow state, and how do
(47:24):
we make the grocery store better?
And they just problemsolved for three days.
They went out to the grocery storesand talked to people, and they created
What we have today in some locations,especially at places like Whole
Foods, cause this was done out inCalifornia and kind of migrated East.
(47:49):
Grocery carts that aren't thesame as they are here in the East.
So they have different featureson them that like you can take
bins out of them and put bins inand, and hooks and things on them.
And it was all created when this group wastrying to make, grocery shopping better.
(48:10):
And I believe it was a 60 minutes segment.
Serotonin is gonna help with calm,so that's why a lot of these kids
who are anxiety driven have, areon serotonin uptake inhibitors.
They are trying to regulate the Theanxiety and the calm with the serotonin.
(48:38):
Individual flow triggers.
So, how do we get these kids into flow?
We have to find theirpassion, their purpose.
We need to create a littlebit of risk in the classroom.
Novelty is a great way of doing that.
Creating a little bit of complexity.
(48:58):
Unpredictability.
I know Janet Lane is on the call tonight.
Janet Lane has taken a coupleclasses with Cheri and I, and one
of the activities that I share withher and shared with the group was
a thing called the handstand flip.
(49:19):
The handstand flip basicallyis the handstand upside down,
so you're standing on your feetwith your arms over your head.
And the purpose of the handstand flip isto facilitate full extension of the body.
Full extension of the body is trulyconcentrating on pulling the abdomen and
(49:39):
the glutes together to try and createsome core strength in our students.
There's some other areas to it,but she does that and she also does
interlaced bilateral integration witha technique that I shared with her to
help embrace both sides of the brain atthe same time while kids are standing.
(50:04):
She says the kids laugh, they carry on.
They have a great time in her classbecause she's unpredictable and novel.
Flow triggers create patternrecognition and creativity.
Art.
The arts are another area.
(50:25):
Athletics is an area we talked about,but there's been many research studies
of jazz singers and jazz musicians thatthe creativity that happens during some
jazz sessions, they create the musicon the spot just because they know
(50:52):
There's also group flow triggers andtrying to get the group to work together.
One thing about group triggersis you need to have small groups.
Groups of three is idealto get a really good flow.
Group Flow State to happen.
(51:14):
Now, I told you, I promised you I wasgoing to share Challenge Skill Ratio.
Cheri always starts her lessons whenshe works with kids for the first time
somehow or another with the number eight.
(51:34):
It adds a challenge, but it doesn'tstretch them so hard that they become
so frustrated that they just shut down.
So, challenge, The idea of thechallenge skill ratio is to stretch
their understanding so that theyget more out of it, more novelty.
(51:57):
But, not so far as to makeit so frustrating for them
that they just disengage.
So that's the idea of thechallenge skill ratio.
And this is another little technique.
This comes right outof improv, but yes and.
(52:21):
Whatever the student said,it could be, tell me about.
Your response is yes and.
Tell me about.
Yes and.
It's a way of continuing the conversation.
So, in improv, one person will saythat as they're ending, the next
(52:43):
person says yes and and moves on andsays their thing and then that, it
goes, keeps going around the room.
The word but shuts things down andI'm not talking about this back end,
I am talking about the one with one T.
But closes a conversation, yes andopens it up for further conversation.
(53:09):
So.
Is anybody willing to share some newexperiences that they've had this evening
versus old knowledge that they've had?
Think about that as I move on.
Remember I told you at the very beginningI was going to share the Counting,
(53:32):
Writing, and Skills Builder Pack?
The reason I suggested that at thebeginning is When we are, when we
are in one of the sessions, I'm goingto be going even deeper into flow.
We can only do so much in an hour's time.
What do you get with this?
(53:54):
You get four digital courses.
They are not the same as the onesfor the Mastering Math Method.
For those of you who are taking that,they are, there are some differences here.
You will come out of that understandinga lot more about literacy.
And what are some of the signs to look forfor kids who are struggling with writing?
(54:18):
Because writing affects math,and literacy, and social
studies, and music, and art.
You will get a bunch of worksheets.
You will get handouts.
We are giving some of them away.
So, the locker problem helpswith learning automaticity and
(54:41):
learning pattern recognition.
Parts of flow.
Visual motor control, spacedrepetition, and that repetition
engages kids in flow.
And then we have Fraction Sense,Time, Money, and Distance with
(55:04):
the paper folding, which willhelp with fine motor skills.
If you go to Eventbrite, you can, Ihave a little thing on how OTs can work
with kids using these three categories.
So, I have a little, I haveanother PowerPoint that I share
(55:25):
more about those three activities.
And then we have the Dotterer DysgraphiaMethod where we're really going to look
at the anatomy of reading and writingand we'll look at the neurobiology.
And we do have a certifieddysgraphia specialist in our
mix wave to the crowd, Ms.
(55:45):
Teresa.
You can share your experience with that.
There is a practicum that goeswith it, and that is monthly.
You need to email me atCheri at CheriDotterer.
com so that I can get youin the system correctly.
If you want this system, if you areinterested in learning more about
(56:10):
flow, learning more about how itworks with writing and mathematics,
that's what the Counting and WritingSkills Builder Pack is all about.
Go to Cheri at CheriDotterer.
com.
My name is in the corner there.
It's C H E R I D O T T E R E R.
(56:30):
And I can get you hookedup correctly in the system.
What did you experience?
The idea here, and we're going totalk a lot more about experience and
knowledge here over the next couplemonths in Impact Wednesdays, but I
wanted to give you a taste tonight.
We're going to delve deeper intothat over the next couple months.
(56:54):
Did I give you enough value tonightthat you is anybody considering You
can just put a note in the chat,you don't have to raise your hand.
The Counting and WritingSkills Builder Pack.
In addition to what other things that youmight be taking with John and Leigh and I.
(57:14):
And for those of you who are part ofTier 1 Interventions Workshops, we
have something on Saturday, and thennext month we will have Saturday Math.
Jonily will be sharingsomething fantastic, I am sure.
And then we will do next month,Building Thinking Classrooms and Flow.
(57:38):
So we're really going to be concentratingon that chapter in the book next month,
and how flow interacts with math.
with kids in a buildingthinking classroom situation.
So if anybody has, wants to read thebook and be prepped, there we go.
I hope you enjoyed this raw webinar.
On The Writing Glitch today.
(58:06):
Go be awesome.
Gobi.
Brilliant.
You were put here for such a time as thisis Cheri Dotterer, your classroom coach.
Have a great week.
Talk to you next week.
This is Cheri Dotterer,your classroom coach.
You are here at The Writing Glitch.
We've recorded this.
The night before it went live.
In January of 2025.
It's a live recording.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to Impact Wednesday.
We will do some introductionshere in a moment.
Let's give everyone a chance to jump onand then we'll share our topic for tonight
and give you a preview of what the nextcouple of Impact Wednesdays are going
(00:41):
to look like and sound like as well.
I am one of your hosts for thisevening, Cheri Zupancic, Jay Z, in
the house today for Impact Wednesday.
is impact school success.
So how do we create experiences,environments, climates, and cultures
(01:07):
in our classroom so that all studentshave access and all students All of
these have the same ability to achieve.
That is what Cheri and I callIMPACT and I'll turn this over to
Cheri Dotterer in just a moment.
Tonight we are going to connectto what we do in Saturday Math.
(01:27):
Saturday Math is a oncea month math training.
It is also free.
And IMPACT Wednesday is A connectionto Saturday math, but also an
extension of adaptations for math,writing, and reading classrooms.
(01:47):
Primarily mathematics, becausethat is what our course focuses on.
And to start us off today, thisis not our topic for today, but
it'll be our topic next month.
There is a math book calledBuilding Thinking Classrooms.
It has made a huge wave in the states.
(02:08):
It is quite an extensive movement.
And Cheri's going to give us moreinsight into the adaptations and the non
academic Accessibilities for studentsthrough this book next month, but the
reason I mention it today is in BuildingThinking Classrooms, Peter talks
(02:30):
about in Chapter 9, this idea of flow,flow comes out of building thinking.
A true focus engagement, and oftentimesin math classrooms, we never pursue
long enough on one topic, one task, oneexample, one situation, to not only get
(02:55):
the depth of the mathematics, but wealso don't pursue long enough and leave
things open ended enough to get kidsinto what we call a flow state community.
What science calls a flow state,getting them in the zone so
that deep thinking can happen.
The reason I mention that isCheri is going to talk to us
(03:18):
tonight about the anatomy of thebrain leading into flow state.
But I don't want that to sounddisconnected from what we've
been doing mathematically.
It's actually a huge connection andthe anatomy of the brain and how the
brain responds to our instructionalfacilitation has everything to
(03:39):
do with success in mathematics.
And the bottom line is getting kids fromfocus to engaged to into flow state.
So again, I'm your math specialist,Cheri Zupancic, and I will let Cheri,
Dotterer, occupational therapist takeoff with the anatomy of the brain
and how to get kids into flow state.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, hello everybody.
It is great to be here tonight.
This episode will be sent outto The Writing Glitch podcast.
We have two podcasts.
One of them is Tier 1 Interventions.
If you listened to the episode thatwas released yesterday, Tuesday, that
(04:21):
was from Last Saturday, and we didsomething we don't normally do with that.
We, we released the entirehour and a half episode.
And, I also have a second podcast, andwe're choosing This week to release this
(04:42):
one right away, right behind it, so thatyou can pull from both podcasts and we're
going to link to the opposite podcastso that you can hear the other part.
But Cheri has done something even evencooler is she has recorded a separate
(05:03):
episode, which will be aired next Tuesday.
So we're doing a lot of preparationhere as we move forward to later
on in the year, because Cheri hasan event coming up and all this
is in preparation for that event.
(05:25):
So Cheri take a moment and share theJune event before we get started tonight.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Absolutely.
On Saturday, we talked about TheScience of Math is Coming, and on
Tuesday's podcast, that intro dropped.
There's large controversy, well,there shouldn't be controversy, but
there's large controversy on how we'reresponding to the science of reading,
and We at Minds on Math have beenstudying the science of math for a while.
(05:55):
It is coming.
I don't know if it'll be here in sixmonths or six years, but it is coming.
That is guaranteed.
And we are ahead of the curve withthe collection of resources and data
and research that comes with that.
So, we are We have our 10thAnnual June Math Event this
June 2025 on Thursday, June 5th.
(06:18):
It is an in person only event rightoutside of Columbus, Ohio in the States.
And the title of the June eventis The Cognitive Science of Math.
And it is a collection of evidence,research, and brain based strategies
to begin to teach techniques inyour classroom that increase memory.
(06:42):
That increase retention ofcontent and increase scalable
achievement for mathematics.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
So, thank you so much for sharing that tonight.
I am going to share my screen and wewill get started with explaining how to
engage our students in the classroom.
Cheri, you are in charge of thechat, so if anybody If anyone has
(07:11):
anything that they are interestedin relaying my way, let me know.
I will keep glancing to those participantsand making sure that I don't miss anybody
who's waiting in the wings to come in.
So, how to transform student engagementand success with your classroom.
(07:32):
Or therapy sessions.
Can everybody put in the chat, rightnow, before we even get started
and move on from there, who in thisroom is a teacher, who is a, an
occupational or speech therapist, andshare what classroom that you are in.
So, please do that in the chatfor me, so I have an idea.
(07:57):
What kind of audiencewe're talking to tonight?
For those of you who don't know me, Iam an occupational therapist by trade.
I have now retired from direct services.
My shoulders couldn't take it anymore.
But I am now hosting the twopodcasts that we mentioned earlier.
(08:20):
I wrote Handwriting Brain Body Disconnect.
In 2019, just as I was ready to launch acourse that went with it, what happens?
But COVID.
So kind of threw me for a little bitof a loop, so I got a slow start.
So during COVID, I got toparticipate in the writing of two
chapters in two additional books.
(08:41):
The first one's BecomingYou, and it's an anthology.
It tells a little bitof a back story behind.
different folks that contributedto that particular book.
I also had the absolute privilegeto have a chapter in a textbook.
John Lee and I are currently writinga book and I know we have a friend
(09:02):
named Kirk who reminds us every timehe sees us, when is this coming out?
Stay tuned, stay with us.
You will hear more as the year goes on.
So on Saturday, John Lee talked aboutInterleaving, spaced repetition, retrieval
(09:24):
practice, and metacognitive feedback.
So if you want to hear more about whatthey are, you've got to go to Tier 1
Interventions from the Tuesday episode.
What to expect tonight?
We're going to, we're goingto go through anatomy, okay?
We're going to go do some anatomy oflearning, the anatomy of the frontal lobe.
(09:46):
We're going to stop at the frontal lobe.
We're not going to go throughthe entire brain tonight.
I am not going to go through thefrontal lobe in great detail.
I want to give you an overview ofthe frontal lobe and how it impacts
you as a teacher or a therapistin the classroom or clinic.
(10:07):
And then we're going to really zeroin on flow from Mihaly Ciencik Mihaly.
Did I say it well there, Ms.
Jonnelly?
So why does this all matter?
Because athletes get into the zone, andthat is when they win their gold medal.
(10:30):
Those that don't get in the zone are theones that either don't place, or when
they get to the bottom of the slalom,they're going, I was just thinking about.
And it wasn't what they were doing.
I was thinking aboutsome extraneous thing.
Tonight, when we talk a little bit aboutflow, we have to have total concentration,
(10:52):
total absorption into the task at hand.
Does that happen at school?
Let's see if we can figure outways to help that happen at school.
And it also improves Our selfawareness and gives us some brain
based strategies to help engagement.
(11:15):
At the end, I'm going to talkto you a little bit about the
counting and writing skills.
BuilderPack.
With that pack you can get certifiedas a dysgraphia specialist.
Back in 2016, when I first decided,okay, I'm going to write this book, one
of the reasons I chose to start writingthe book was I'm sitting at home with
(11:40):
my Dotterer and my Dotterer comes in theroom about fifth grade and says, I can't.
Spell, Mom!
And I'm looking at this evaluationthat I had this learning disabilities
kid from school that day with thesame issues and I'm going, wait
a minute, where's the connection?
Is there a connection with a giftedstudent and a learning support student
(12:04):
both having trouble with spelling?
And what I discovered was, yes there is.
So, you have some homeworkthroughout the night tonight.
I want you to take notes for yourself.
What is a new experience?
And what is knowledgethat you already have?
(12:26):
So, take just a separate piece of paper.
I want you to do some homework and we'regoing to talk more about that homework
as we progress through this evening.
So for now, all I want to share with youis Experiences, and already understanding
(12:48):
and have a good knowledge base of that.
Well, look at that.
There is Denise Sherman.
How are you, girl?
It's good to see you.
So, let's look at the anatomy of learning.
In this book,
Rain Based Learning, byEric Jensen and Liesl.
(13:12):
I hope I said their names right.
They give a definition of learning.
Learning is the acquisition ofknowledge, behaviors, skills,
values, and preferences.
And it's all built on one another.
(13:33):
We have previous knowledge and we have newlearning and they have to come together at
some point and that is what flow will dois it will bring the old knowledge and the
new knowledge together and synchronize it.
The components of learning.
(13:53):
Every the typical, a typical way ofdesigning, whether it's a lesson plan
for math class, a lesson plan forliteracy, a lesson plan for social
studies, and even an occupationaltherapy session, is you have some
(14:13):
section where it's direct instruction.
And then you have this indirectsection where they kind of can
work on what they've been taught.
So those individual sessions.
What I suggest is that we take a lookat these components and find out for
(14:38):
ourselves if that is effectively bringingus into a flow state with our students.
When we get to flow, we'll learn a littlebit more whether direct instruction
or indirect instruction is better.
And I have little notes on here.
(14:59):
We have a vision, 50 percent ofwhat kids are learning is visual.
It could even be as high as 80%.
10 percent is auditory.
Now that could flip if you'vegot an auditory learner or you
have somebody with a disability.
(15:21):
So think about that as well.
But typical kids, most kids, but 40percent is learned with movement.
Cheri mentioned buildingthinking classrooms.
We're going to talk about thatnext month in Impact Wednesday.
Cheri, what's the date on that?
Can you look it up a while?
(15:43):
So, next month at Impact Wednesday,it's free, it's in the evening,
you can come live, or we will beputting it on one of the podcasts.
But,
in Building Thinking Classrooms, oneof the things he talks about in Chapter
3, I believe it is, is standing up.
(16:06):
And I thought, well, why doesthat have to be something that
we have an entire chapter on?
We do that all the time in OT sessions.
In OT sessions, we're utilizinga lot of movement throughout
our educational process.
We're already engaging in thosemovement activities, and we're
(16:28):
teaching the teachers the benefits.
So, a lot of you might see sensorypathways or sensory walkways in
your hallway to get kids moving,especially in the elementary level.
You might see a sensory room inone part of the building and it
(16:52):
might have, Slow lights, it mighthave a pit pit to kind of jump in.
Different things to create movement.
And if 40 percent of how kidsare learning involves movement,
what about sitting in a desk?
Does that create movement?
(17:14):
Just asking these questions.
So one of the things that Cheri does inall of her instruction is she flips it.
She does indirect instruction first.
And one of the ways.
that she does in direct instruction isthis technique called tell me about.
Tell me about that.
(17:36):
She could be putting up a pictureof a slant, a diagonal line.
Tell me about that.
It could be as detailed as apicture of a scene out in the woods
where there people are camping.
Tell me about that.
It's amazing what kidsmake connections to.
(18:00):
I love putting the diagonal lineup, for a couple different reasons.
I like the diagonal line because it forceskids to think about crossing midline.
When they're looking at it,they've got to shift their eyes
up and down and cross midline.
They have to think about it.
Is it a positive or is it a negative?
(18:21):
What other things coulda diagonal line be?
It could be headed uptoward the mountaintop.
So, Tell Me About bringsout all kinds of interesting
thoughts with kids conversation.
One of these areas about learningthat we don't always talk about
(18:44):
is epigenetics.
Epigenetics really is like this alongsidethe genet, genet, why can't I say genetics
at the moment, genetics of our system.
It is how we feed our diet, how weexercise, how we, what kind of disease
(19:05):
processes are around our family.
What kind of social contacts do we have?
What is our microbiome?
So looking at all of theseother areas, non academic,
really do impact how kids learn.
(19:26):
I have two children, my own biologicalchildren, who have very rare disorder
called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.
Probably I have it aswell, we're doing workups.
But they're, they just found, after 30years of research, is the chromosomes
(19:48):
in the RNA that helps Identify it.
Took a little bit of time.
I haven't had the testingat this point in time.
We're working on gettingme to that testing to find
out where I fall into that.
But one of the things about ErloStanlow Syndrome or EDS, especially
(20:09):
the hypermobility type, is yourjoints bend in very unusual ways.
For example, my Dotterer was agymnast, yet she could dislocate
her elbow and lick, dislocateher shoulder and lick her elbow.
I know, it's gross, but shecould do it, put her shoulder
(20:33):
back in joint without any pain.
You try that.
I try that.
That's why I had to retire.
I tried to dislocate it the hard way.
Before I move off this page, Ialso remember, I see lighting.
(20:55):
Lighting!
can make or break kids.
If you have the fluorescent lightson six hours out of their day, the
sound, the electromagnetic radiationcoming off of the fluorescent lights
will impact their epigenetics.
(21:16):
I suggest, and I talk about thisall the time, Have some floor
lamps in your room and use themthroughout the day at some point.
Turn off those fluorescent lights.
The other thing about learning, as we lookat the anatomy of learning, is the biggest
(21:38):
factor that's going to make or break akid engaging in learning is motivation.
Is it relevant?
Does it create curiosity?
Is there some autonomy and belonginginvolved in the way you're presenting?
The lesson, how are you empowering them?
We're going to talk a little bit lateron the challenge, stretch and non snap.
(22:05):
So, I'm going to come back to that one.
Validation, worthiness,meaning, purpose, and goals.
So,
Speaker 2 (22:13):
actually, before we do the what do you see, what do you notice, just to
preview this next part that Cheri is goingto talk about, but reflect on the strategy
that we've, that she's just talked about.
The greatest instructional tool,To motivate students, meaning
(22:34):
they have choice, they feel likethey belong, they feel like I care
about them, is that strategy thatCheri mentioned, tell me about.
So, if I am doing a therapy session,or a reading session, or a math
session, when, when Cheri said Ido the indirect instruction first,
that is to engage and stimulate thestudent's brain to trigger focus.
(23:00):
So, tell me about.
Allows the student to then engage, makechoices about what they're going to
tell me, make their own connections,relate to their past experiences in
schema, and internally, they're saying tothemselves, She cares about what I think.
(23:22):
So the reason we're going on this deepdive of the brain over the next couple
of months on Impact Wednesdays, andmuch of what we're teaching you may not
necessarily be a grab and go strategy.
The Tell Me About Is, you can use itwith anything, and Cheri's going to
show us some examples in a moment ofwhat do you see, what do you notice.
(23:42):
So, these are very simple examples thatget a great amount of depth in the brain,
deep thinking, deep reasoning, and thenultimately that leads to deep learning.
So, we want you to push yourselvesto start to understand a little
bit more about how the brain works,because that is going to drive all of
(24:05):
these outcomes that we're looking at.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Thank you.
And all I was going to say about whatdo you see, what do you notice, is it's
another way of saying tell me about.
So I just gave you two differentIRA is two different takeaways.
Tell me about and what doyou see, what do you notice?
For those of you who haven'theard us talk about that before,
(24:31):
that's what that is all about.
It creates a discussion withthe students so that we can
embrace belonging and autonomy.
So, that is what I wanted to touchon, this little tidbit, little
tidbit of the anatomy of learning.
(24:52):
I'm going to give you a moment here tothink about what's the new experience
that you had in that last section
and what was new knowledge.
Somehow or another you candistinguish those and you may not
be able to do it now as we're goingthrough the webinar here live.
(25:14):
But take some time.
And, or if you're watching thereplay, you can pause it and you
can reflect on what you've learned.
The anatomy of the frontal lobe.
I had so much fun finding theanatomy of the frontal lobe, the
(25:39):
pictures that I wanted to use today.
So.
One of the things that I have seen for thefirst time in Canva, yes, I'm using Canva,
but I found the anatomy of a kid's brain.
I want you to take a noticeof that frontal lobe.
Look how it's shaped.
(26:00):
Look how their brain is shaped.
Look at that cerebellum.
Look how big it is.
The cerebellum is controlling movement.
It's controlling learning.
It's controlling all of the refinementof activities that we're doing.
The reason a cerebellum is so big in youngkids is they are, you know, toddlers.
(26:26):
They're on the go.
They don't stop.
The frontal lobe is.
develops around, starts toreally develop around puberty.
It doesn't finish developinguntil you're about 35 years old.
That's all the way throughcollege for most of us.
(26:49):
So.
The adult brain.
I just highlighted the different lobes.
We are, we are still sharing that.
Right.
Okay.
It, I'm getting cut off here.
I don't see, I can't see everybodyaround my, the, the screen, the, you
(27:09):
know, you can only have so many places.
Right.
Anyway, I digress.
The purple area is the areawe're gonna talk about tonight.
The parietal lobe interprets.
What we see, the occipital lobemakes it like a digital file.
(27:30):
The cerebellum I just talkedabout and the temporal lobe
is for hearing and for memory.
1800s, this gentleman died in, in 1918.
His last name was Broadman.
He, I made this roadmap of the brainthat we call the Broadman's Areas.
(27:57):
And as I was trying to find somedistinguishing areas to explain what
gets highlighted and what gets shutoff during a flow state, this was the
best way that I found to explain it.
The yellow area is the frontal lobe.
(28:21):
There's two parts.
to the frontal lobe that are in orange,and that one part that goes like
underneath the temporal lobe, it connectsthe frontal lobe and the temporal lobe.
The pink areas are the motorcortex and the sensory cortex and
the the eyelid, the eye cortex.
(28:44):
So if you notice the sectioneight there, that whole area
controls how your eyes move.
It's a huge area when you think about it.
It's huge.
So I've labeled all of the areas.
Just taking some time.
(29:04):
You don't have to remember these.
And I'm not going to go haywire into them.
But I just want you to see that they'vedone enough experimentation to find
out different sections of the brain andwhat they actually do in that section.
(29:24):
So I took them, I kept the, all the.
The labeling, those diamonds,are what stays working.
The stuff that processes
Consciousness are theones that have negatives.
(29:46):
So that stuff on that very outside ofthe bottom of the frontal lobe and the
stuff, the primary cortex, what happens inflow is The brain likes to be automatic,
so it wants to do things in repetition.
That's why spaced repetition is soessential, because it wants to know it so
(30:09):
well it doesn't have to think about it.
So the center section of thefrontal lobe allows us to do
things without thinking about them.
We lose our sense of self.
So although we talk about autonomyand we talk about belonging, that
center section of the frontal lobe
Speaker (30:37):
And Cheri, if I could
Speaker 2 (30:38):
just make a connection on that.
We think about students thathave Issues with impulsivity.
Oftentimes boys will have muchmore trouble sitting still
than girls in the classrooms.
We talk about kids that have ADHD orkids that blurt out or kids, again,
(30:58):
that kind of lack control and selfregulation because they're so impulsive.
And what education does, what ourclassrooms do, typical traditional
classrooms is We work against thosebehaviors and not with those behaviors.
So, we actually want to takeadvantage of kids impulsivity.
(31:19):
We want to take advantageof, you know, ADHD kiddos.
Some of their strengths arecreativity and hyper focus.
Not a lack of focus, but hyper focus.
We actually want to harness.
The components that these, what we thinkare struggling students, but they are
(31:40):
primed for flow state and the way thatwe're teaching them and the way that
we're facilitating our instruction andsetting up environments and experiences
for learning are working against thosebehaviors that our kids are displaying.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Thank you for adding that because those areas that
are the diamonds get shut off.
in a traditional directinstruction environment.
They get turned on in theindirect instruction environment.
The yellow section is whereexecutive function comes from.
(32:22):
So, see what's required for learning?
All of those stars.
And what did we just say?
Executive function comes out of theyellow and the executive function
stuff is quiet, but it's thathyper focus of executive function.
(32:43):
Planning.
Organizing, and those higher level, theyhave to be more of an automatic phase.
If you have to think about them,
they don't work as well in FLOW.
Welcome Trish.
(33:06):
Trish, you got here just intime for all the anatomy.
Hooray!
So, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,the function in FLOW is focus, working
memory, and task directed action.
(33:27):
And that was that, that yellow section.
The ventral lateral prefrontal cortexis impulse control and decision making.
One of the things that they havediscovered when somebody is in a hyper
flow state, They can make decisionsa thousand times faster than they
(33:50):
can when they're not in a flow state.
The pre motor cortex doesplanning and executive movements.
If we have to be planning and thinkingand processing, that's a little
different than decision making.
That's the section that gets, it'sactive, but it has to be repetitive.
(34:13):
So sometimes the premotor cortexcan turn on and off in flow
depending on what you are doing.
The anterior cingulate cortex.
This guy here isn't on that picture.
This one is underneath what you were ableto see as part of the brain and it is
(34:35):
like the big guy as far as flow states go.
Attention, allocation,and emotional engagement.
It is the one that
it says emotional engagement, butwhat happens Is your emotions get
(34:55):
so hyper focused, your jaw actuallychanges shape during a flow state.
It becomes more of a square and youfrown because you're concentrating.
You lose all that joy and sweetness.
So when I have to laugh every timethe music teacher says, Smile!
(35:19):
Because I'm trying to concentrateso hard on getting the music
correct that I am more frowning.
And now that I'm older, of course, thenwe have that added feature of all the
collagen just draining out of my face,so I don't get to smile like I used to.
But, think about that, when you'relooking at your students, the kids that
(35:46):
have the frown are concentrating more.
It may not seem that way.
They may seem mad, butthey're concentrating more.
And I just want to say Then thedeactivated portion, the prefrontal
cortex, the medial area, that partunderneath that was orange, and then a
section called the default mode network.
(36:09):
This is that allows your brain towander and daydream, and that is
all part of the frontal lobe, butthat gets deactivated and shut down.
The part of the brain that Kindof identifies Cheri as Cheri or
Terry as Terry or Cheri as Cheri.
(36:30):
That kind of goes into an inhibited state.
You can't, you don't reallyknow that you are there.
So that may have been more like the flowpart, but it's still, it's the anatomy of
what happens in flow in the frontal lobe.
(36:51):
So, take a moment, reflect.
What was new?
What was old?
What was a refresher or in between?
Before we move on to section 3,Cheri, do you have anything that
you wanted to add before we goon to the anatomy of FLOW itself?
Speaker 2 (37:13):
So, the concentration and the frowning muscles, if and
when we work with teenagers, weoftentimes will misinterpret.
Teenagers are really deep thinkers.
And so, what often happensis, what Cheri just described,
(37:33):
we see a look on their face.
As they're trying to process andinternalize and really engage, and
we perceive that look on their faceas inattentive or anger or upset, and
many times as adults, whether it's ina parenting situation or in a therapy
session or in, well, probably nota therapy session, because OTs, you
(37:57):
probably know more about respondingto this than educators do, or if
it's in a classroom with students,Oftentimes, the adult will misinterpret
and infer and then react in a way thatis the opposite of what the child's
brain is actually doing at the time.
So just an awareness of this,I think, is very important.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
So, off to the anatomy of flow.
Oh this is so much fun.
I love flow.
It is, what I found out about flow, my,my whole sessions changed with kids.
As I mentioned earlier, motivation is thekey factor to get kids into a flow state.
(38:43):
I, I Just repeated the slidethat was on here earlier.
So how do we get, how, howdo, how does flow work?
Well, it is neuroplastic.
So neuroplasticity was discovered backin the 1930s ish, 50s maybe and it, it
was the discovery that our nervous systemcontinues to grow till the day we die.
(39:10):
It continues to change.
Even people who have had aneurological Condition like a stroke.
Their neurologicalsystem continues to grow.
It just grows around the partthat died during the stroke.
So neuroplasticity is the brain'sability to organize itself by forming new
(39:33):
neurons and connections throughout life.
The dynamic process.
Enables the brain to adapt tothe changes in the environment,
learning new skills, recover frominjuries, and store new information.
It's very essential with neuroplasticityto be prevalent in the areas
(39:57):
of the brain that store memory.
Because if we don't, aren't able to storenew memories, we aren't able to grow new
neurons, we're not going to remember.
When The older person starts toforget that short term memory.
Those nerves are starting to dieand they have to create new ones.
(40:18):
And sometimes it doesn't workthat fast when they get older.
So there is the anatomyof, of neuroplasticity.
What, what is happening withneuroplasticity is we're strengthening
the synaptic connections, those,the dendrites and the axons.
(40:47):
We're strengthening those.
The ones that are getting strengthenedthe most during a flow state is
that center of the prefrontalcortex, the dorsolateral area.
There are also two others, we talkedabout the cerebellum as well, that
part in the back of the brain thathelps with movement and learning.
(41:09):
Create this really strong bond, butthen there's a section of the brain
that's in the middle of the brain in thelimbic system called the basal ganglia.
The basal ganglia are like thelast straw in refining movement.
One of the conditions when peopleare getting older that you can see
(41:34):
issues with the basal ganglia is the
Parkinson's shuffle.
So they kind of like, they can't get itgoing and then all of a sudden they start
walking and then all of a sudden theyget stuck and then they go walking again.
Those, the basal gangliaaren't working effectively.
(41:57):
People that have conditions like that havea difficult time entering the flow state.
Or when they do finally get into the flowstate, they can only be in it for short
periods of time because There's like thishiccup, especially in the basal ganglia.
The Hebbian Plasticity Theory is thatneurons that fire together, wire together.
(42:23):
I've heard that term for many years.
I never knew until today that itwas called the Hebbian Theory.
Intrinsic, the inside, the reward system.
This is where dopamine gets fired.
And we're going to talk a little bitmore about dopamine here in a minute.
This is where that dopaminereward center comes in.
(42:48):
And then that suppression of thedefault mode network that has
to do with, I shouldn't be doingthis tonight, kind of thing.
And that whole aspect, that getssubdued when you are in a flow state.
(43:12):
So, what does neuroplasticity do?
It encourages, it inspires,it helps that buy in.
One of the things that it does, andwhat Jonna Lee has proven again and
again, is it elevates that bell curve.
It integrates learning.
It builds on schema.
What a word I have there.
(43:34):
Sorry.
It's very deliberate, andit consolidates memory.
So when somebody's not having a memoryissue Like they might have after a
neurological event, then, and these kidswith ADHD, they have strong memories.
(43:56):
That flow state is building on thatpreferred task, and it's perfecting it
to the point that we get to that, andthat analogy of doing something 10,
000 times and you finally get it right.
Who was that, Cheri, do youremember who created that?
(44:20):
And I have a note here thatit is indirect learning.
And here is the neurochemical cocktail.
If you do not have all five of theseneurochemicals flowing through your system
during, you will not enter a flow state.
So you need dopamine.
You need norepinephrine, you needendorphins, you need serotonin,
(44:43):
and you need the anatomide.
And I'm going to share with youwhat they do in just One more slide.
So, what does dopamine do?
Dopamine is that reward center.
So, that's why video games onyour phone are so addicting.
They are sending offdopamine into your brain.
(45:07):
They're, they're doing, thelittle Snippets of flow.
Unfortunately, we get interrupted muchtoo often, and to be in an effective
flow state over a longer period oftime, it takes 20 minutes to get
back when, when you're interrupted.
So, for example, you're in a flowstate, You are working really well,
(45:29):
you're creating, you're doing whateverit is, even if you're sitting at
your desk and you're working there.
You get a phone call.
Totally derails your concentration,you take the phone call, and then
when you go to get back to work, youhave no idea what you were doing.
Theresa's shaking her head yes.
(45:50):
It also is the foundation of wheremotivation, how, the feeling of
motivation inside our system.
Neuroepinephrine helps uswith focus and attention.
So those kids with the ADHD, theyhave a lot of neuroepinephrine.
(46:10):
Endorphins create
euphoria and they alsoare there for pain relief.
So an EpiPen is filled with endorphins.
When you inject that EpiPen,you are killing the pain relief.
You are putting somebody into aeuphoric state temporarily so that
(46:37):
they can overcome whatever it wasthat was creating the inhibition.
Anatomy creates creativity and inhibition.
I don't have time to share ittoday, but I'd like to challenge
you to go look for On YouTube.
(47:02):
Oh, shucks.
What was the name of it?
There was a I think it was a Newsweekor 20, 60 Minutes episode where they
They used this idea of getting agroup into a flow state, and how do
(47:24):
we make the grocery store better?
And they just problemsolved for three days.
They went out to the grocery storesand talked to people, and they created
What we have today in some locations,especially at places like Whole
Foods, cause this was done out inCalifornia and kind of migrated East.
(47:49):
Grocery carts that aren't thesame as they are here in the East.
So they have different featureson them that like you can take
bins out of them and put bins inand, and hooks and things on them.
And it was all created when this group wastrying to make, grocery shopping better.
(48:10):
And I believe it was a 60 minutes segment.
Serotonin is gonna help with calm,so that's why a lot of these kids
who are anxiety driven have, areon serotonin uptake inhibitors.
They are trying to regulate the Theanxiety and the calm with the serotonin.
(48:38):
Individual flow triggers.
So, how do we get these kids into flow?
We have to find theirpassion, their purpose.
We need to create a littlebit of risk in the classroom.
Novelty is a great way of doing that.
Creating a little bit of complexity.
(48:58):
Unpredictability.
I know Janet Lane is on the call tonight.
Janet Lane has taken a coupleclasses with Cheri and I, and one
of the activities that I share withher and shared with the group was
a thing called the handstand flip.
(49:19):
The handstand flip basicallyis the handstand upside down,
so you're standing on your feetwith your arms over your head.
And the purpose of the handstand flip isto facilitate full extension of the body.
Full extension of the body is trulyconcentrating on pulling the abdomen and
(49:39):
the glutes together to try and createsome core strength in our students.
There's some other areas to it,but she does that and she also does
interlaced bilateral integration witha technique that I shared with her to
help embrace both sides of the brain atthe same time while kids are standing.
(50:04):
She says the kids laugh, they carry on.
They have a great time in her classbecause she's unpredictable and novel.
Flow triggers create patternrecognition and creativity.
Art.
The arts are another area.
(50:25):
Athletics is an area we talked about,but there's been many research studies
of jazz singers and jazz musicians thatthe creativity that happens during some
jazz sessions, they create the musicon the spot just because they know
(50:52):
There's also group flow triggers andtrying to get the group to work together.
One thing about group triggersis you need to have small groups.
Groups of three is idealto get a really good flow.
Group Flow State to happen.
(51:14):
Now, I told you, I promised you I wasgoing to share Challenge Skill Ratio.
Cheri always starts her lessons whenshe works with kids for the first time
somehow or another with the number eight.
(51:34):
It adds a challenge, but it doesn'tstretch them so hard that they become
so frustrated that they just shut down.
So, challenge, The idea of thechallenge skill ratio is to stretch
their understanding so that theyget more out of it, more novelty.
(51:57):
But, not so far as to makeit so frustrating for them
that they just disengage.
So that's the idea of thechallenge skill ratio.
And this is another little technique.
This comes right outof improv, but yes and.
(52:21):
Whatever the student said,it could be, tell me about.
Your response is yes and.
Tell me about.
Yes and.
It's a way of continuing the conversation.
So, in improv, one person will saythat as they're ending, the next
(52:43):
person says yes and and moves on andsays their thing and then that, it
goes, keeps going around the room.
The word but shuts things down andI'm not talking about this back end,
I am talking about the one with one T.
But closes a conversation, yes andopens it up for further conversation.
(53:09):
So.
Is anybody willing to share some newexperiences that they've had this evening
versus old knowledge that they've had?
Think about that as I move on.
Remember I told you at the very beginningI was going to share the Counting,
(53:32):
Writing, and Skills Builder Pack?
The reason I suggested that at thebeginning is When we are, when we
are in one of the sessions, I'm goingto be going even deeper into flow.
We can only do so much in an hour's time.
What do you get with this?
(53:54):
You get four digital courses.
They are not the same as the onesfor the Mastering Math Method.
For those of you who are taking that,they are, there are some differences here.
You will come out of that understandinga lot more about literacy.
And what are some of the signs to look forfor kids who are struggling with writing?
(54:18):
Because writing affects math,and literacy, and social
studies, and music, and art.
You will get a bunch of worksheets.
You will get handouts.
We are giving some of them away.
So, the locker problem helpswith learning automaticity and
(54:41):
learning pattern recognition.
Parts of flow.
Visual motor control, spacedrepetition, and that repetition
engages kids in flow.
And then we have Fraction Sense,Time, Money, and Distance with
(55:04):
the paper folding, which willhelp with fine motor skills.
If you go to Eventbrite, you can, Ihave a little thing on how OTs can work
with kids using these three categories.
So, I have a little, I haveanother PowerPoint that I share
(55:25):
more about those three activities.
And then we have the Dotterer DysgraphiaMethod where we're really going to look
at the anatomy of reading and writingand we'll look at the neurobiology.
And we do have a certifieddysgraphia specialist in our
mix wave to the crowd, Ms.
(55:45):
Teresa.
You can share your experience with that.
There is a practicum that goeswith it, and that is monthly.
You need to email me atCheri at CheriDotterer.
com so that I can get youin the system correctly.
If you want this system, if you areinterested in learning more about
(56:10):
flow, learning more about how itworks with writing and mathematics,
that's what the Counting and WritingSkills Builder Pack is all about.
Go to Cheri at CheriDotterer.
com.
My name is in the corner there.
It's C H E R I D O T T E R E R.
(56:30):
And I can get you hookedup correctly in the system.
What did you experience?
The idea here, and we're going totalk a lot more about experience and
knowledge here over the next couplemonths in Impact Wednesdays, but I
wanted to give you a taste tonight.
We're going to delve deeper intothat over the next couple months.
(56:54):
Did I give you enough value tonightthat you is anybody considering You
can just put a note in the chat,you don't have to raise your hand.
The Counting and WritingSkills Builder Pack.
In addition to what other things that youmight be taking with John and Leigh and I.
(57:14):
And for those of you who are part ofTier 1 Interventions Workshops, we
have something on Saturday, and thennext month we will have Saturday Math.
Jonily will be sharingsomething fantastic, I am sure.
And then we will do next month,Building Thinking Classrooms and Flow.
(57:38):
So we're really going to be concentratingon that chapter in the book next month,
and how flow interacts with math.
with kids in a buildingthinking classroom situation.
So if anybody has, wants to read thebook and be prepped, there we go.
I hope you enjoyed this raw webinar.
On The Writing Glitch today.
(58:06):
Go be awesome.
Gobi.
Brilliant.
You were put here for such a time as thisis Cheri Dotterer, your classroom coach.
Have a great week.
Talk to you next week.
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