Category: Free Inquiry

The Zone’s of Regulation is a framework that was designed to help individuals with understanding and managing their emotions, behaviours and sensory needs. This framework shows that it supports neurodivergent and neurotypical learners, establishes better mind-body connection and awareness for those familiar with it, builds stronger connections with peers, and helps with learning enhancment and focus.

The Zone’s of Regulation break our emotions up into four categories….

The Green Zone – this is when an individual is feeling calm, happy, focused; “They have a calm energy and a sense of control”. When student’s are in this zone they will have an easier and more enjoyable time learning and engaging with classwork.

The Yellow Zone – this is when an individual is feeling silly, frustrated, worried; “Higher energy and stronger feelings”. This can very quickly escalate to the red zone or blue zone causing more distress for the individual. When student’s feel in the yellow zone they may start to get frustrated or tired of doing the class activity.

The Blue Zone – this is when an individual is feeling sad, tired, sick; “Low levels of enegry and down feelings”. When student’s are in this zone their may be a lack of engagement or interest in the activities. Their could also be a purposeful seperation created from the student to gain more space.

The Red Zone – this is when an individual is feeling scared, angry, out of control, or even overjoyed; “Extremely high energy and strongest feelings”. One thing to note about the red zone is that it doesn’t just depict anger but can represent extreme overjoyment that feels overwhelming. This zone is probably the hardest zone for a student to be experiencing while in a classroom trying to learn. The extreme feelings and energy makes it very hard to focus and often lead to emotional outbursts.

We are coming up on the second week of October and so I thought it would be a good time to reflect on this months monthly resolutions. My resolutions for this month were time management, excercise and proper nutrition.

Succeses so far…

Excerice! I have completed 9 Lagree classes so far in the month of October so I seem to be on track for my goal of 20 classes. One thing I think that would benefit me is making sure I am stretching. My muscles feel pretty sore so I’d like to start doing 10 minutes of stretching in the morning and before bed. I will try to impliment this into my routine, starting with stretching on the days I plan to take a class and then maybe increase that to become apart of my daily routine.

Areas that need improvement…

Time Management… this one has been difficult as I find myself getting distracted with other things. I’m going to try using my Apple Calendar and specifically schedule in time for me to focus on school, cleaning, or my hobbies. I think it would also be good if I broke down my schedule for school into specific classes, that way I dedicate an hour to focus on just History and get ahead or just PHE, etc. I’m going to try implimenting this for the rest of the month and see if it helps with my goal of getting ahead of the work.

Proper Nutrition… this one is so important but I have been majorly lacking. I love cooking and making new things but have found myself being so exhausted by the time dinner comes around that I just order in or get something premade. I’m going to try using the Apple Calendar for the rest of the month to schedule cooking and meal prep times and see if that helps me stay on track a bit better.

Key Take Aways…

It will be important that I use the Apple Calendar to schedule things in but more important that I actually follow it. I think one thing I’ll have to keep in mind is not to overschedule as that will lead to a burn out if i’m over doing it. I’ll need to make sure I schedule enough time to enjoy my hobbies, relax, or spend time with my friends & family as that is so important for maintaining a healthy balanced lifestyle.

September was a very busy month, being back at school and working more than I thought I would be. As the month comes to an end I am starting to feel a bit worn out, so I want to reflect on a few highlights that happened during the month of September. I got to see my bestfriend who lives in Calgary and spent a few days with her and our partners in Scottsdale, Arizona. School started and although it has been busy, it has been exciting finally taking teaching specific courses and not just general study year one classes. It also has been a highlight doing observations on Wednesdays at a local school, my mentor teacher is so lovely and the students are a blast! Another big highlight is that my friend had her baby! Even though she lives in another province it has been so sweet recieving photos of her newborn and seeing how well they are doing.

A few things that I felt I lacked this month were my time management, excerice and proper nutrition. With time management I found a tool that seems to work well for tracking assignments and due dates, however I would like to get ahead of the work instead of just making the deadlines. For excercise I am a passholder at Lagree and I really love going, but I found myself cancelling classes more often than not so didn’t get to go as much as I would have liked to. I have definitely fallen off my proper nutrition, because I have been so busy it has been hard to find time to cook at home and meal prep. This has caused me to eat out a lot and have a higher salt intake than I would like.

With these in mind my October Resolutions are going to be as follows…

1. Time Management: get AHEAD of the course work. When I have downtime read ahead, work on my blog, work on my sketchbook, start on assignments that aren’t due for another month. Try not to leave things to the week before but instead have it finished by the week before to lessen the amount of stress it causes leaving it last minute.
2. Excercise: go to Lagree 20 times in the month of October. This is a fun goal because for the month of October Lagree is having a fitness challenge where you win prizes after taking 5, 10 and 20 classes in the month! This will mean that I will have to take early classes before school to ensure I hit my goal, so getting to bed early is also very important!
3. Proper Nutrtion: meal prep and have ready to eat food available in the fridge. Because I find I live a very busy life it is hard to find the time to cook a full meal at home. Instead on a day off or an evening after school, meal prep for the week, have lunchs and dinners prepped and ready to grab to eliminate having to eat out so often when I’m in a rush to run out the door.

You know how at the beginning of the year its common practice to write down your goals for the year, a list of your New Years resolutions? Well I like many people really struggle with maintaining these resolutions more than a month. The classic get a gym membership for a year go all of January and then forget that you even have it. These resolutions that are created at the beginning of the year are all usually important goals that improve things like mental health, physical wellness, financial literacy, or establishing a more balanced lifestyle. So why do we restrict creating habits or quitting habits and bettering ourselves to only one time a year? My proposed resolution to New Years resolutions is monthly resolutions! With this the idea is that at the end of the month you sit down like you would at the end of the year and reflect on the last month; when you felt your best, where you struggled, and how your going to achieve better wellness.

A common wellness habit tracking process is the 21/90 method which basically says it takes 21 days to form a new habit and 90 days to integrate it fully into your lifestyle. So with that in mind for the next 3 months I’m going to commit to creating monthly resolutions and track my progress as I go through the month. At the end of the 3 months I am going to see what habits stuck, what worked and what didn’t and see if monthly resolutions is something I will continue to incorporate into my life moving forward. To hold myself accountable I am going to do weekly blog posts of how my progress is going and share my personal experiences and insights of creating new habits.