Episode 92: Executive Function Reset: Starting the Semester Strong

Below you can view or listen to Episode 92 of The Personal Brain Trainer Podcast.

In this episode of the Executive Function Brain Trainer podcast, host Erica Warren welcomes back Kim Sorise for an insightful discussion on executive functioning resets at the start of new semesters. They emphasize the importance of reflecting on the prior semester to identify what worked and what didn’t, and how this reflection fosters resilience and cognitive flexibility in students. The conversation covers practical strategies, including organizing lockers and desks, as well as utilizing digital tools like Google Calendar and Keep for improved management. They also delve into study techniques, leveraging AI tools, maintaining productive routines, and the significance of adding playtime and downtime in busy schedules. The episode is packed with valuable tips for students to start the new semester on the right foot.

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#92: Executive Function Reset: Starting the Semester Strong

Erica: Welcome to the Executive Function Brain trainer podcast. I'm Dr. Erica Warren.

Darius: And I'm Darius Namdaran, and we're your hosts. Sponsored by the Executive Functioning Coaching Assessment, a quick online assessment that uncovers challenges and develops personalized strategies for success. Sponsored by ivvi. Imagine turning your meeting's audio into a live mind map instantly so you remember what matters. Or, well, try Ivy for free now at ivvi.app. That's ivvi.app.

Erica: Hi, this is Dr. Erica Warren, and I'm really excited again to have Kim Cerise join us for another discussion on executive functioning. And this time it's going to be more about an executive functioning reset. And this is about starting new semesters strong. So one of our first topics was reflecting on the previous semester. And of course, that works better when the semester was last week, not as much over the summer. But I do find that going. Reflecting back on the prior year can sometimes be helpful. And when you reflect back on the prior year, it's guiding them with a lot of questions of what was last year? Like, what worked, what didn't work? Who did you like, who didn't you like? Why? What do you think, Kim?

Kim Cerise: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me back first, but always, yeah, I think you have to help students and young people learn that reflection is a tool and this is how we can create change. And just because something didn't work out the way they might have anticipated the first time around, it doesn't mean that it can't shift and be great the second or third try. Right. So I think that reflection helps students build resilience. It also helps them think that tomorrow is another day and I have the ability to try things again. So, yeah, whenever we are ending a semester or starting a next one, it always begins for us with a reflection for our students. What worked for them? What were the things that were really hard for them? Where did they find that they got stuck? Where did they find success? Was that in their organization? Maybe a goal for them was to keep their locker really clean, or a goal was, I got all my homework turned in on time. So revisiting last year's goals, I think is an important piece. Do they need any that have to carry over into the next semester or even the next school year? And how do they want to tweak those and kind of step up to the next piece?

Erica: Yeah, definitely. And I think the interesting thing about this is this is executive functions, because we're getting them to be conscious about what worked, what didn't work. We're getting them to be in the present so that they can break patterns that didn't work for them, which is cognitive flexibility. Right. We're getting them to really be active participants and we're getting them to be the functioning executive. I always like to flip the term executive functioning into functioning executive so that they can really manage their mind.

Kim Cerise: Absolutely. I think it employs metacognition. They're thinking about what they are doing. They are also learning adaptation and adjustment. Because maybe this worked out well for me. But this year I'm going to try something a little bit different, or I want to add on to my skill set. I think that's also huge because every new semester is a new opportunity for growth. So I want them to always understand that, that every single time we can learn something new. And that's really what it's about. Because I try to work with my students for them to help and teach them to be lifelong learners rather than, I'm just here for this time. I'm just here for this class.

Erica: Right? Yeah. And I think too that you are going to have those kids that are more concrete and asking them an open-ended question like what worked and what didn't work? May not give you an answer, but you can always change your prompts to things like what are three things that really worked? What are three things that didn't work? Giving them a number sometimes helps. It's funny for the kids get really stuck sometimes if they can't really describe it in words. I'll do vision

00:05:00

Erica: boards with them. Interesting. I do a double vision board. I do a vision board of what wasn't working, what were the feelings. And I can go, we can go onto Canva, and they say, well, I don't really get an image. I'm like, okay, well let's put the feelings into Canva and see what images they come up with and then find the one that really captures your feelings. And what I'll do is I'll do the kind of the before and the after of this is where I was and this is where I want to go to. And sometimes the images create the solutions. And I'll ask them, I'll say like, wow, okay, now let's look at what was hard and then let's look at how things would be better. And do you see the solution in there? And they often can. And it's great when you can guide students to finding the answers themselves because somehow when you give the answer to them, it feels like a judgment.

Kim Cerise: Certainly, yes. We have an activity a lot of times at the beginning of each first and second semester with the lockers, because lockers always end up being fabulous and colorful and creative. And then a lot of times they're a dumping ground and they're an absolute mess. So I usually give them a schematic of their locker and say, let's design this. Do we need shelving? Do we want shelving that's going to work from the floor of the locker, or do we want hanging shelves? Because you need the floor of the locker. A lot of our athletes are always putting shoes down there or their equipment bags and that sort of thing. So it's not great for shelving. So I'm asking them to go through the items that they're going to need in a day, in a week, in a month while they're at school, based on their different activities and the way their classes are. And then we also talk about orientation and space. Some people look at their locker truly in a vertical way. They are top down. Like, I need this here. And here's my second class. And they're working down. And then I have other students that read things side to side, and they'll say, okay, well, if I can put all my Monday, Wednesday class material on this shelf, then the next shelf will be for my Tuesday, Thursday classes. And. And then I have them organized that way. But other students want, here's A, B, C, D, E. And they have it all the way down. It just depends. But these are things that we talk about, we draw out. We go look at the space, we try in different types of furniture so that they can truly organize their system because this is like their home away from home is this locker room. And then also teaching them that when we are trying to create things, we need creating systems for ourselves. First, we need to clean it out. Then we need to maybe categorize some things. Are these my pencils, my highlighters, my notebook cart, My notebooks? Then we need to customize. What are we going to do? Are we going to color code things? Are we going to use binders and organize things that way? Are we going to use hanging shelves or stationery? And then we have to remember that it continues. So I always tell them, it's the four Cs, it's clean, categorize, customize, continue. And then that continue is every couple of weeks we got to go back in there and we have to shed the junk. Let's throw out the trash. Let's throw out those things that just got shoved back in. Let's take home the gym clothes and do those sorts of things. So when we're helping our students build systems for success. I think we often start with the thing that they are going back to most often during the school day, and that is that locker. Yeah.

Erica: And I think we can take that same idea almost as a metaphor and apply it to other things in their life, like at home, their desk, at home, their room, at home, their study nook, and making things really fun. I was just working with a student this week, and she loves to organize things, but she's not really organized with school or with her room. What was interesting is her clothes are all color coordinated in a rainbow, and she keeps them organized. And I was like, okay, well, color and categorization is really important to you, so how can we apply that to other parts of your room? Well, because her desk wasn't tidy.

Kim Cerise: Right.

Erica: There are certain things. So being able to look and see what works and then apply that to other things. So, like with the locker, you can again, apply

00:10:00

Erica: it to the room and say they don't even study in their room because maybe their bed's too distracting. And having a lot of fun, really making it something that is psychologically nice. And you can do the same thing with a locker where you open the lock and you're like, ah, this is so satisfying, or, oh, my God, this is so overwhelming. But I think it's so important to apply that kind of system to all aspects of their life. Okay, what are the parts that are working? What are the parts that are where you're a little bit stuck? Where are those little rabbit holes? Where are the roadblocks that are tripping you up? And then finding out what's working? And then what's nice about applying their system that's working from one area to another, then they feel like they're a part of it. And then sometimes it's a matter of doing assessments. So, like doing the SPI or the YPPI. Because if they're visual, you might use color coding. If they're simultaneous, you might use categorization things. If they're sequential, you might use alphabetizing. But it's very interesting to note that if what helps you isn't necessarily going to help someone else, and even that goes to say, with families as well, mothers always push, fathers always push what works for them because they can't step out of their own reality. What are your thoughts?

Kim Cerise: Well, I know that for a lot of our students going back to our locker activity, when they do their drawing, they go put that into action and see if that really works for them. I notice a lot of students Take pictures of their locker when it's really organized and clean and then they go back and use that as their reference and model when it comes to cleaning. Also, I've had a couple kids use that for when they've chosen to shift or change the organization of their locker in case it doesn't work out. I have a couple risky kids, and they want to try different things because now we've been working together, and they understand that there's all different kinds of ways that people process information and not everybody is like anyone else. And they're like, hey, I want to change it up a bit. I'm like, yeah, let's go do that. But I don't want to forget. Well then take a reference photo.

Erica: I love that. And so many people are so surprised because I'll often make that recommendation is when your kid's room is organized, take a picture of it and then you can just hand it to the kid and say, I want it to look like this. And it just makes it into such a no brainer. And of course, what does that do? It speaks to the visual learners because that picture says a thousand words. But you know, beyond the physical things that we can organize, there's the technology things that we need to organize as well. Our desktops and our files and using tools like Google Calendar or Google Keep or having an agenda or using Shovel. There are so many ways that we can apply that organization outside of reality into kind of this technology.

Kim Cerise: Absolutely. Well, one organizational tool that we use a lot because we are a Google school. So I definitely teach students Google Calendar and also Google Keep. I'm a big fan of Post it Notes, but I also think that I have kiddos that lose their Post it notes and that's okay. They can't lose the ones that exist on their screen. So I want to teach them to use them on a regular basis. Because for some planners can be a big thing for a seventh or an eighth grader or even younger. And they're like, there's a lot of things going on this page and I don't always entirely understand it. I just need to know what my assignments are. So they're still kind of in this task list developmental stage. And I think that's fine. I think Post IT notes can be brilliant for that. When you get an assignment, just write it down or type it on your Google Keep and it's going to stay there, and you can even see it in your calendar because you can hook those two things together. But for a lot of my students, they struggle to keep track of notebooks for notes, or they'll write their notes on one sheet of paper and then who knows where that ends up going, right? So we really talk to them about that single point capture in Google Docs use one document for that class note. So all you then have to do is put your date and you push all the older material to the bottom and you're always working at the top of the page and it's chemistry notes semester two and that's it. And we're just pushing everything down and we're using a single point capture of just one notebook for everything or one Google

00:15:00

Kim Cerise: Doc. That's it. Not a whole bunch. I think that can be a really empowering, just very simple tool for kiddos that tend to grab a random sheet of paper, or they pull one out of their binder and it can't ever go back in because all those holes have been torn. Or, or my students that just open up a brand-new doc, it never has a title, it never has a date and then they can never find it again. So I love that single point capture. That's also the one trick that I have with kiddos when they really want to try to fight me on organizing their Google Drive. And I just simply open it up and I say can you please search one word for me? And they're like absolutely. I'm like untitled, tell me how many you get. And for some students it's thousands. And for some students that is all they need. And they're like whoa, whoa. I had no idea that I never titled anything. I said yeah, this is a big challenge now how are you going to find that assignment? And I'll even pull up an assignment from several weeks ago and I want to see the rabbit hole they go down to try to find that one assignment. And that can really be interesting too to see how the brain works. But it also many times serves the point of this is why we need to title things and the purpose of a single point capture for class-based notes. So very simple and easy organizational support.

Erica: For those that have iPads or even computers, I usually suggest GoodNotes. I really well there are lots of them. There's one good notes notability. And they compete with each other so much that which is great because they just keep each other right on top of one another creating the newest best note taking features. But I particularly like that because it encourages students to create notebooks and then it, you can have notebooks but then they're all organized and categorized. You can drag into those notebooks the teacher's slides. I'm not crazy about students having to type their notes or write their notes because in the current day and age, teachers aren't writing on the board. So they don't. The kids don't have the time to write down what the teachers are writing down. The teachers just put a screen up and they start speaking. Now the kids are having to read, write, and listen at the same time. They can't do it. Nobody can do it. Nobody can multitask that way. And so being able to have a device that captures the teacher's notes beforehand so that they can just annotate their thoughts or annotate the extras, and they're not having to recapture the notes because the teacher's just not going slow enough for them to be able to process everything. So getting my students comfortable using digital notes, I think is really important. There are tools that will capture the audio for you and create a stream of text, but then that's a lot to sort through. Granted, you can use AI to help you sort through things, so there are all sorts of new features. But I think most kids don't really have the time to go back and reprocess a lecture. You know, what's best is to be able to capture it and to process it in the moment. But if they're having to write down all the information, I find that most of my students aren't really able to process. They're just focusing on writing down the information.

Kim Cerise: Yeah, I find that too, one of their biggest challenges, you know, that they come in with and say, I don't know how to take notes. I can't listen and write and figure it all out. And so we take it individually, of course. I have some students that do record their lectures because they would rather pause it and write it down. They really want to do that. They understand that it helps for their processing. I have other students that would rather record and listen to it several different times. I have other students that get comments, class notes from the teacher kind of in a guided note style. What I always prefer is if you're going to use a PowerPoint style presentation to deliver information to the student, then they need either a digital copy of that they can annotate, or they need a hard copy of that that they can annotate. I don't care which one, but it's just a heck of a lot easier because they will annotate, write questions, make

00:20:00

Kim Cerise: connections right on the sides of those slides. But asking a student to write all of that information is really it is next to impossible for a lot of kids at this point. But I do teach students to build their own version of shorthand. Yeah, I do teach students to use symbols. I teach them to cut words down. I think all of those kind of standard note taking practices are very consistent and can also be replicated on a screen. And that is still very useful. And it saves.

Erica: Yeah, there are those that are tactile learners and they really need that. That's what encodes it, is actually taking the notes. And I think, yeah, using shorthand is a fabulous way of supporting, supporting those that need that type of note taking support. And also there are those that are the simultaneous processors and they want to see the big picture. And I really like ivvi.app, which Darius Namdaran has created and continues to create and make better and better. But I love the idea that for some of those kids that want to record it, and I do have some occasional students that really shouldn't be taking hardly any notes that they absorb best auditorily and in fact, if they're having to take notes, they don't absorb the class and they don't do as well because they don't go back. And so having something like that where it's creating this mind map that you can interact with if you want to or not. So now you have the audio, you have the whole text written down from the class, but you also have an image which is really nice. And not only an image, but it's a mind map which kind of connects ideas and allows you to see how things are interrelated. So there are all sorts of cool things that you can do. And of course, I love NoteBookLM because you can drag in all of your notes and contents and slides and YouTube videos and everything. And then if you want, you can listen to a podcast about that and ask the question you want, or you can get it organized, you can get everything defined, or you can have a list of characters, or you can do a mind map. You can just. You can reprocess it in so many ways. But teaching the kids about all of these resources is vital. All these tech tools, whether it's Google keep, whether and then allowing them to choose which are ones that resonate with them.

Kim Cerise: Absolutely. Just a little side note, my tech guru at school told me that NoteBookLM has now made it available for everyone. So you don't just have to be over 18. So I knew if you didn't already know that that would be an exciting piece of information.

Erica: That's very exciting because just yesterday I was telling a new student that we probably would have to use her mother's account. We know what age they lowered it.

Kim Cerise: To that he did not tell me, but he said I can definitely use it with my age group, which is 7 through 12.

Erica: So that's very exciting. I'll have to do a little bit of research to find out.

Kim Cerise: Yeah.

Erica: What age they lowered it to or whether it's ageless.

Kim Cerise: Because that would be even better.

Erica: It would be even better because I just. I think it's really interesting even to teach the elementary kids how to use it because it really enables them to be in control of how they process the information, how they can reprocess and play with it. It's just such a. Such a fascinating way. So that's wonderful news. Thank you for that.

Kim Cerise: I really appreciate it. Absolutely. Well, we're organizing our systems digitally and also tactically. And I think that also means got to do a good clean out of the backpack, tidy up the desk space, tidy up the locker space. Everything I think at a new semester just needs a refresh and a clean. Right. Yep. But then I also think we need to look at what our game plan is because new semesters are new classes, new teachers sometimes. And that can also require a little bit of adjustment too. So I think taking a look at does a student have a new club or is a new sport starting? Maybe study hall has changed to a different time than it was before, or even a different day at a different semester. So you kind of do have to readjust your weekly game plan, I think at the beginning of every new semester or trimester, depending upon how a school works, to make sure that you're ready to go, reviewing your time blocks, reviewing when your study time can be. And that could always change, especially if we have students with extracurriculars

00:25:00

Kim Cerise: and athletics and things like that, because they really do, they always are, right after school, which is generally the optimal homework time. So those are things that we talk about a lot too is when a new activity is starting after school, how are we going to adjust our homework or study time so that we're not pushing things too late in the evening because the brain just can't handle that it's too much. And children have to be allowed to be exactly who they are, which is kids. And they shouldn't be doing homework at 9 or 10 o' clock at night. So.

Erica: Yeah, well, and the other thing that I usually recommend is let's get started before the semester and start to think about planning these things. So a Lot of the students that I work with in September, I meet with them in August. And because there's always things to update, there are all sorts of new tech tools that I can show them, so they have new options. But also having that forethought of planning ahead and saying, okay, are you taking any sports this year? And how can you manage that? And what kind of support do you need? And what kind of support do you need from me? What kind of support do you need from your parents? Is your environment conducive of what you want to do? All of these different things so that they're not in the second week and then saying like, oh, this isn't working, you want to try to avoid that and give them what they need so that they're two steps ahead instead of two steps.

Kim Cerise: Absolutely. I always think it's really important too. This is something that we do at the beginning of every new semester. And even part of the way through, especially in study halls, is how are we using this time? And how can we use this time? Because our students are so very involved and most of them are not taking homework home because they just don't have time after school. So the majority of their homework is being done during study hall, you know, a couple times a week or, or during what we have as a common work period, which is a 45-minute block before school even begins, where students can get reteaching or retake a test, that sort of thing, study groups, stuff like that. So that really, we're trying to teach students, how are we using unstructured time throughout the course of our day to be structured and productive of time? So I teach them things like the two-minute rule. Oh, this is a great way. If you're struggling with your motivation this morning and you know that you have a few things to do, employ the two-minute rule. Do all the really quick things that you can do in a couple minutes or less. Check your email, respond to a teacher, file some paperwork really fast. You can do all of these things and get some things done, done, feel accomplished, and then you may be more emotionally ready to sit down and do a harder task. Right. I also, I know there's the 3, 2, 1 method of take a couple minutes to clean up your space and take a minute to, you know, create emotional balance and then do one thing at a time. But with my younger kids and even some of my bigger kids, I teach them the 3, 2, 1, go, which is truly like the countdown to the race because just that little countdown is enough separation between themselves and the thing that they have to do, even if they don't want to do it, that it just builds that little bit of internalized competition of are you ready? Yeah. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go. And then they're like, right on. I can get up and do it and I make them do this. And they have to do it with a little bit of excitement. Excitement. Because a lot of times these are kids that just don't want to do it. So they're not very excited. But it does absolutely help build in those times during study hall, during common work period, maybe during a late-night homework session where they're just really struggling with their motivation and to get started.

Erica: And of course, the 3, 2, 1, go could just be for two minutes. Because that's the beauty that once you break that barrier of getting started after the two minutes, they usually want to continue.

Kim Cerise: Yes.

Erica: It's like they've gotten the appetite is a good way of a good metaphor. They had a little taste and now they want to finish the meal.

Kim Cerise: Yeah.

Erica: And so I think that works really well.

Kim Cerise: But I think older students, we work on that five minutes. Keep. Can you, do it? Five minutes. And then they're usually like, yeah, I'm in this. All right, that's fine. It wasn't that hard. I'm like, no, it's not, but it's okay. Whatever takes you, whatever

00:30:00

Kim Cerise: you need to get there.

Erica: Exactly. But I think going back to having them reflect on what didn't work in prior semesters too, that sometimes defines some of the things that could trip them up in the future. And that's where we can start to do perhaps some teaching. So, for example, I often teach my students that have trouble with last minute test prep. We want to teach them things like, all right, first of all, let's talk about cognitive flexibility. Right. So they understand that we get stuck in routines and that there are different ways of doing it. And yes, it's going to be really uncomfortable to try something new and something different, but if we can push through that discomfort for so many days, it will become a new neural pathway and a new way of doing things. And then that's the opportunity to teach them things like spaced repetition. That every week, can we schedule a time where you prepare for your next test, whether it's been announced or not? Even if you've only had one or two classes since the past test, you can still take that information and throw it in a Quizlet or create, create some index cards. Just giving them and helping them to understand that the brain learns best by Review over time versus cramming at the last minute.

Kim Cerise: Yes, we have a lot of those discussions because we have a lot of last-minute studiers. And I always let them know that I really want to teach you to learn how to get the biggest return for your investment of time. And nobody wants to spend a lot of time. And this is usually where we start. How long are you going to study for this test? Well, I'll study for probably an hour and I'm going to cram it in. I said, okay, if you studied four days in a row for 25 minutes, I can guarantee. Or even three days in a row for 20 minutes and then we get an hour, you're going to get a better score on your test than if you study for 60 minutes right before your test. And some kids, they need me to prove this to them. So I let them do their thing and whatever their score is, and then it gives us an opportunity to go back and reflect. Are you willing to give this a try? You can come to me. I will study with you for 20 minutes and help you if you got to sit down and write note cards, or if you want me to ask you questions, or if we want to build a practice test together, or if we're reviewing your study guide, any of those things. But give me 20 minutes three days in a row for the next test and I bet you will beat your previous score. And they always do. And that is like, I think sometimes it's just I got to let, I got to prove it to them and however we get there. But you know, sometimes some students are like, oh, that seems a lot better. 20 minutes is a heck of a lot better than an hour. I said, it surely is. And if you broke that down even smaller, I'm going to carry my note cards with me. And so when I'm in the car on my way to practice, or when I'm sitting there at the track meet and everybody else, all these other events are going on, but it's not my event. And I have four, 40 minutes before my event. I'm like, take a look at your note card and then throw them in your gym bag. These things are portable, they're easy to go. If you have your phone and you have Quizlet app, you can do it just like that, go through your note cards. But this is going to be a heck of a lot easier for you and you're going to get a greater return on your investment of time. And because if you study for an hour, the brain's going to take maybe 15 or 20 minutes. Of that time. The rest, it's too much.

Erica: And remember that this year is so different from last year, largely because AI has changed so much and being able to use AI. AI can now help you to take your notes and turn it into study materials, so it doesn't have to be as time consuming as it used to be. So you can even. You could drop your notes into NoteBookLM or ChatGPT and say, can you create some index cards for me? Or, well, it'll create a list that you could put onto index cards. Better yet, you could take that list and drop it into Quizlet AI and it will create the Quizlet for you. Now, remember that some people are tactile and it's the writing it out. So I do have those students that are still like, nope, I'm still sticking with my index cards because I like to write it out. And

00:35:00

Erica: that's fine too. But what I usually say is, well, let's do both. So while you're writing them out, I'll create a Quizlet for you. So we're going to double team. This way you'll have both, because in that moment where you wish your mom was around and she could test you and she's not, you can use Quizlet.

Kim Cerise: Yeah.

Erica: So, but with the new technology, for those that don't like the grunt work and won't put it in, there are so many cool new tools that we have to keep the kids on top of because again, many of them are like, oh, no, I'm not allowed to use AI. Well, let me show you how you can use it in a way that's not cheating. This actually helps you to learn. And having discussions with schools and saying, okay, let's. The bottom line is they're using it anyway, so let's teach them how to use it appropriately. It's really important.

Kim Cerise: Oh, absolutely. It, absolutely. It's an incredibly powerful tool. But they need to be taught to learn it, to use it for good. It's like a wild horse.

Erica: You got to tame it, you've got to ride it, you've got to nurture it, you've got to be mindful. You don't want to use it in abusive way. There's so many good metaphors with a wild horse, but AI can be extraordinary for them. I love using AI for parts of writing because it takes away the load that distracts them. For example, if they're in an assignment and they're having to find a quote about love in two books, it could take them hours finding the quote. But using something like NoteBookLM they can find it in a minute. And they're staying on more of the higher order thinking skills instead of getting caught up in a grunt work skill. That's where AI is really good at doing the grunt work, which doesn't really help. Cognition really kind of derails us from the learning lesson, so to speak. It's pretty, pretty cool. And then finally, I'd love to talk about leveraging support systems.

Kim Cerise: Okay. Okay. I also. Can I add one more thing in about routines? Because I think they are incredibly important. We talk a lot about evening routines and homework routines. Most of my students use some sort of type of pomodoro where they have time on, time off. That's also another way to be able to really show students that time on and time off with studying that is spaced repetition is great because they also do their homework that way. They do it in short spurts with breaks in the middle. And I'm like, this is all you're doing. Which makes repetition and the focus and.

Erica: The turning off all of the distractions, putting everything to a side so that when they are doing their work, they're giving it 100% of their attention.

Kim Cerise: Yeah. And then also taking some time for when you're doing homework, putting it all back in the backpack, turning it in on Google Classroom, then you know, it's done.

Erica: Done.

Kim Cerise: We load up the backpack at night with all of the material that needs to go in there and just set it by the door. So because stuff happens in the morning, you could lose power. The alarm doesn't go off, we hit snooze too many times, or it's just a weird morning. It happens in families.

Erica: The car breaks down, could be a million things.

Kim Cerise: Right. So just have your stuff packed up and ready to go so that the morning is as easy, easy as it possibly can be. And also, I think the importance of doing a mental check in. There is an app called How We Feel that I think is great for kids, and it's free, and it teaches them all about emotional intelligence and all different kinds of feelings. And it opens up every morning with, how are you feeling today? Is it low energy and pleasant or low energy and unpleasant? High energy and pleasant or low energy and unpleasant? And then you kind of pick a quadrant and it goes through. And it can give you different tools to be able to support. But I think students learning to check in with themselves before school starts. How am I feeling today? That can also help you get through tough days. It can help overwhelm. It can help with just building in a better routine that you are aware of. This is how I'm feeling today. Do I need to instill a tool right now to make me feel a little bit better? Maybe I woke up feeling kind of funky. So. So I think those morning rituals are really important. I think evening prep is very important of organizing

00:40:00

Kim Cerise: the materials, getting that backpack ready, setting things up for tomorrow, and then the last thing I'll say is I think Sunday needs a part in our routine too. I have plan B time. It is scheduled on my calendar every Sunday morning from 7 until 9. I get up before everybody else. It's just me. I have two hours dedicated if I need to wrap up work from the week or get started for Monday. And if I don't have anything, I do a quick check of email, I double check my schedule for the week and then I give the rest of the time back to myself for self-care. And I think that it gets me started. It starts week really well and I never walk in on a Monday morning shocked. I know what's going to happen. So I teach students that all the time. And many of them have said I could not exist without giving myself at least an hour to two hours on a Sunday to kind of think about and wrap up last week and preview the coming week.

Erica: Yeah.

Kim Cerise: And as my students get older, they realize that is an incredibly important time for them.

Erica: It's interesting because I. I wrote a blog this morning. I started it, it's almost done. I need to finish it today at some point. And it was really about how we're all feeling like we have ADHD right now. There's been a shift in life and this shift, I think you and I, whether it was on the podcast or not, we've talked about how scrolling is really terrible for attention, but I really came to this realization that we actually now live in an instant gratification society where, you know, even if I have a morning routine, it's very easy for me to get derailed because I'm a first minute person.

Kim Cerise: Okay.

Erica: And so I'll be like, oh, I have this great idea. And I'm like, oh, I want to capture it while it's fresh. So I'll move out of my morning routine to capture the idea and then I'm down that rabbit hole. But that's the problem with our society these days. It used to be like, oh, I'll put it on my to do list. But people don't want to put it on the to do list. They want to do it in the moment. Oh, but if I don't do it right now. I'll forget. I need apple cider vinegar. I. I can just. It'll take me two minutes to order it on Amazon, then you order it in Amazon, and then two hours later you're like, oh, what happened to my morning routine? Oh, I can't do it this morning because it's over. But it's really. I think that it's easy to say, establish a morning routine, but I think it's more difficult now than ever because of devices. Because of devices for kids that can just. They can be on their way to put their shoes on, and they pick up their phone and then 15 minutes later, their parents come up and they're like, what the h*** are you doing?

Kim Cerise: Yeah, absolutely, yes. I have clients big and small. That's really common.

Erica: It's really hard. I think that our society is really breeding split attention. And you even see people all the time in their cars, driving and texting. It's just. They can't resist. And I think that our brains have always been like this, where these little thoughts pop up. But in the past, it was like, oh, well, I don't have a phone with me in my car, so I can't do that now. Well, now we do. And of course, all the time when I call clients, they're in the car when I'm talking to them. That's the only way they can do it. They can only talk to me if they're multitasking and, on their way, to pick up their kids or on their way coming back. So we're all getting more done. We just keep raising the bar of what's expected to be done. Like, kids didn't have to write as many papers as they do now 10 years ago. So every time we raise the bar and AI is raising the bar again so that we can be accomplished that much more, but then we're expected to accomplish that much more. And sometimes I feel like we just have to go back to simplicity, and we have to shut these things down and we have to really stay true to our. At least to these kind of sacred spots of time. Like, I really need to. Even if there is something that I'm like, oh, my God, it's so good. I'm going to have to go back to putting it down on a list. Because otherwise it's just. It's really reinforcing this scattered way of being. Which doesn't work in the long run.

Kim Cerise: No, it really doesn't. And I have had these conversations with students, too,

00:45:00

Kim Cerise: and a lot of times it Is the. I can do my homework and listen to music at the same time. I can have a conversation with my friends via chat while I'm also writing this paper. And I'm like, but can't you really? Can you really?

Erica: And how long will it take you?

Kim Cerise: Let's talk about how much extra time you are adding through this appearance of multitasking. Okay. And then let's also talk about the quality of the work that you've done while you're attempting to do multiple things. And then also how much have you retained while you're trying to do multiple things. And I think for a lot of our students, because of this shorter attention span, instant gratification, and presence of overwhelm, we sometimes just have to let them learn to sit in quiet, in their space, in their feelings, and start there. I have a quiet space in my office. It's a small little room across from mine that has a door in between. And this is the space when I have students that are in the midst of panic and anxiety, they know they go in there first. And they. And it's low lighting and nice weighted blankets and fuzzy things and things to hold and things to touch, and it's quiet. And I want them to sit with their feelings and in themselves and start with their own power first. Yeah. What can I do to help myself?

Erica: I love that. I. When I used to have an office, I had the Zen table, and that was the first place that everybody went. Instead of going to the table where we'd get work done, everybody would go right to the Zen table, and it was filled with lentils, and they would dig their hands into the lentils. And sometimes I had things hidden in the lentils that were tactile. And it was just amazing to me. But we would all sit there, and I used to say, all right, let's let the stress dribble out of our fingertips. And it was just such a great way to reset, because if you don't have those moments to kind of drop into the moment, you're just constantly scrambling from one thing to the next. And, oh, I was doing this, and I forgot this. And over there and over here, and oh, my gosh. And then what that does to the nervous system is not great. You know, even what I've noticed that's been really helping me is turning really calming music on in the morning. Because if you need to. If you can turn on uppy music if you're low energy, but you. If you're not low energy and you're a little anxious, you can always turn on really calming and soothing music and. Yeah. And learning how to slow down. We're in such a fast-paced society learning how to slow down. And what I'm noticing is sometimes when I slow down, I actually get more quality work.

Kim Cerise: 100%. I have a few students that are learning this, and I love this for them. I think we have a lot of students with scattered pieces that we're trying to help them shift in alignment. The other end is the all or nothing thinker. It's this or the other. And I think that's also a really nice piece to take a look at in reflection too. Right at the beginning of every new semester is how can we teach students that. To reframe that all or nothing idea, that partial progress counts every time we can take steps forward. This is improving. We do not have to do all of the things every single time. And if you forgot one thing or if you got one wrong, it does not mean that your efforts are useless. This is another piece that, I mean, they just, they get stuck in this.

Erica: Loop of, you're right.

Kim Cerise: Yeah.

Erica: A perfection. And sometimes a kid will come in and be like, oh, I can't believe it. I'm so dumb. I can't believe it. I. How did this happen? I'm like, what? I got a 70. I got a 70. And my response to them, whether they get a 50, a 60, a 70, I'll say, oh, you got 70%, right?

Kim Cerise: Yeah.

Erica: And they're always like, what do you mean? Oh, come on. What? I'm like, yeah, but can we just for a moment bask in the idea that you knew 70% of the information.

Kim Cerise: Of the material and there's only 30%.

Erica: That you didn't know. And unfortunately, we've so many kids have just gotten to the point that if they don't have a hundred, they're. That's bad.

Kim Cerise: Yeah.

Erica: Because we work just so quick.

Kim Cerise: Pushing.

Erica: But that's a whole other…

Kim Cerise: I was going to say that's a different show. When you have your grading scale that's rooted

00:50:00

Kim Cerise: in 50% of failure. Right.

Erica: Let's do one. We'll have to talk about the possibility of doing one on the grading system. That would be fascinating.

Kim Cerise: Yes. So I, I do think that when we are looking at new terms for students, new learning terms, reflection is incredibly important. Taking some time to organize those systems, review your game plan and see what new events, activities, sports, extracurriculars are coming into play. Do we need to do any sort of readjustment? Don't forget that morning routines, evening routines help to create stability, and they help for calm and ease and balance in our lives, which I think some of our students are going to all of the time. They're so scheduled. And they'll say, what are you doing after school today, Mr. Reese? I'm like, I'm going home, I'm chilling. I'm going to work in the garden; I'm going to make some dinner. They're like, oh, well, I have this appointment in practice and this. And I'm like, when do we have time to be a kid?

Erica: Scheduling downtime is so important. And when I do schedule out, and I often will do this with my students. All right, let's schedule a plan for after school every day and we'll make a list of all the things. And I'm like, okay, well, let's add to the list downtime, fun time, play. What do you love? All right, so let's put those on the list too and make sure that we're scheduling at least a couple things in the afternoon. Because you have to have me time.

Kim Cerise: Absolutely. And it's also that me time can also be used as a reward too. Right. For sometimes when students are struggling with their motivation is set your short-term goals tied to motivating rewards. I'm going to do 15 minutes of this really cruddy math assignment that I can't stand. And then after that I get 10 minutes of Roblox or whatever the things that they're looking for that day. I think being able to schedule that in, but then also knowing that once the homework is done and we've had these little, tiny snippets of Roblox when it's done, then I get like a full half hour or an hour and I get to be a kid and I get to have fun and, and.

Erica: Remember that there are those kids that can't have the tech in for 10 minutes because they can't let it go. And if that's the case, then they get their work done first and then they play their games. So many of these tech games can be very addictive and can create a lot of emotional dysregulation. So keeping that in mind, that and weaving that in, if there is some emotional dysregulation, that, that the rules change if there's emotional dysregulation because we don't want to reinforce that.

Kim Cerise: Yeah. And then I think we also, we've talked about different ways of managing elements of the overwhelm. Taking in a daily stock on how you're feeling even throughout the course of a day before an assessment. How am I feeling right now? Do I feel that I'm ready for this test?

Erica: Am I breathing right?

Kim Cerise: Right.

Erica: What's my emotional state? And what can I do to take control of how I choose to feel? And because you always can, if you're anxious, you usually aren't breathing enough. You're not getting enough oxygen. And when you take deep breaths, it sends a message back to the brain to relax. So. Yeah.

Kim Cerise: Yeah. And then I think, last thing, we got to leverage the support systems that are in every family and every school. Right. We got to learn to be accountable to ourselves and the things that we say that we're going to do, and that does include those assignments. We want to be accountable to ourselves and to our educators. Join a study group. Study groups are really cool. They're really fun. You guys can each build five questions and mash them all together and have your own practice test. Grab a tutor or get an EF coach if you're really struggling. And then some of those things that we talked about today, that's exactly what you're learning. How do you set up these structures for yourself? And what are the different types of strategies that can be used? And I think we're always great cheerleaders for our students and clients when they make it through a great week and didn't get stuck on their phone for an hour and completely lost track of time and missed a meeting. Because those things can happen. Right. So I think leveraging the support systems that are inside the school, going to the success center or going to the office of support at whatever university, I think they can be really helpful.

Erica: Absolutely.

00:55:00

Erica: Yeah. And I could talk a lot more about leveraging support systems because that's a podcast in itself, but I think I'll leave it at that because we've already been chatting for quite a while, so I guess we'll wrap it up for today. But thank you so much. It's always so fun to have a discussion with you, Kim. We, I. We play off of each other and it's a lot of fun.

Kim Cerise: Well, thank you so much, Erica, for having me.

Erica: Until next time. Bye for now. Sponsored by ivvi. Imagine turning your meeting's audio into a live mind map instantly so you remember what matters. It's ideal for students and managers with dyslexia or ADHD. Try ivvi for free now at ivvi.App. That's ivvi. App, sponsored by the Executive Functioning Coaching Assessment. A quick online assessment that uncovers your challenges and develops personalized strategies for success. Thank you for joining us at the Executive Function Brain Trainer podcast. Check out our show notes for links and resources and follow us on social media.

00:56:05

Episode 92: Executive Function Reset: Starting the Semester Strong

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