Episode 59: Episode 59: Two Minds, One Goal: Strengthening Executive Function in the Co-Taught Classroom

Transcript

Arthur: This is the Inclusion Think Tank Podcast, where we talk about inclusive education, why it works, and how to make it happen. Today I am joined by my guest Jordan Fagan. Jordan is an Inclusion Facilitator with All In for Inclusive Education who has a passion for building authentic relationships and creating opportunities for equitable access.

Jordan joins me to discuss her presentation from the All In Winter Conference titled: Two Minds, One Goal: Strengthening Executive Function in the Co-Taught Classroom.

She shares practical strategies to integrate executive function supports into specially designed instruction (SDI) within the co-teaching framework.

I would like to welcome everyone back to a new episode of the Inclusion Think Tank podcast brought to you by All In for Inclusive Education. I'm your host, Arthur Aston, and I am joined today with my guest, Jordan.

So, Jordan, thank you for joining me today for this episode of the podcast.

Jordan: Hi. Lovely to be here.

Arthur: Yes, So I start off on my podcast episodes by asking our guest to introduce themselves to tell us a little bit about your story and the work that you do.

Jordan: So my name's Jordan Fagan and I'm an inclusion facilitator with All In. My Story. So I guess, there are a few different parts of my background is in special education. I was a classroom teacher since 2009. I worked with special ed students in a variety of settings in a handful of different schools before we moved to New Jersey.

And I kind of fell backwards into this role. And I love it. And then beyond that, I also have three children who are right now in grades three, five and seven. So our house is busy and two of my kids have IEPs. So I kind of have a special ed lens on both sides of that IEP table, I guess you could say.

Arthur: That’s it's I'm all for having people introduce themselves and share their story. And then to hear, as you said, you have, you're in a little bit of both worlds from the parents side and also the educator side. And working as an inclusive facilitator now, gives you a very unique perspective on things, I'm sure.

So that's always great to hear people and how they tell their stories, share their story with everyone. So thank you for that.

Jordan: Of course.

Arthur: So as you are aware and everyone is aware, this podcast is dedicated to inclusive education. So how do you define inclusive education?

Jordan: When we talk about inclusive education at All In we have a shared definition that says that, it means educating a child with a disability in the gendered classroom of the child's neighborhood school and basically it's including kids alongside their neurotypical, typically developing peers right in their neighborhood school.

But part of the reason I just got hung up is I'm always looking for the best way to phrase it. To remove jargon and not say at least restrictive environment because not everybody knows what that means, etc.. But what it really means for me when I think of inclusive education like my own, you know, homes by definition is making sure that every child has the experience of being in a classroom and knowing that they will be missed when they aren't there.

Jordan: We talk a lot about, like making sure that kids are present in classrooms. And yes, it is important to be in the classroom for some part of the day to be alongside your typically developing peers that are same age. Right. But it's more than just being in that classroom. It's not feeling like you're being tolerated, but that everybody is being celebrated.

Right. Like, you bring a unique perspective and you bring unique strengths and challenges and passions and interests just like every other kid there. And everybody should feel like they belong and they get to come in however they are and know that they're missed when they're not there.

Arthur: That was so great to say that they are missed when they are not there.

And that is what I think. That's what everybody wishes for, you know, for, you know, that I have missed when I'm not there, that people wonder, Where are they? Where where is that student at today?

Jordan: Arthur would love this conversation. I wish he was here.

Arthur: Yes. Right, exactly. Oh, my gosh. That was so great to hear. And I asked most of my guests that question. I think that's one of the few times that somebody has probably the first time somebody has said they that they will be missed when they're not there. And that is, as you said, it goes beyond just being in the classroom with in the general education setting. It's the you know, everybody has something to contribute to the class, to the day, to the school day.

And when they're not there, their presence is missed and what they contribute is missed, from the others in the classroom. That was really awesome. I like that.

Arthur: I’ve been doing this podcast for a few years now, and I get so excited because I learn so much from having guests on and to hear different perspectives of something as, you know, asking someone what their definition of inclusion and inclusive education is, to hear the different ways that it is described.

And as you've said, trying to remove the jargon and the, you know, the words that we always hear when talking about inclusion and inclusive education, because like you said, people may not understand what what certain words mean. So just to really bring it down to a basic understanding of what it is and what it is specifically for you, what you would you know you would want the definition to mean for you is really awesome to hear from everybody.

Arthur: So recently on the podcast, I've been interviewing, having conversations with guests who have presented at our either our summer conference from last year and more recently our winter conference that was just held in January. And you were one of the presenters at our Winter inclusion conference and your your presentation was titled Two Minds One Goal Strengthening Executive Function in the Co-taught Classroom.

So can you give us an overview of what your presentation was about and share what is a co-taught classroom, what that means, and the purpose of a co-taught classroom and also executive functioning, What that what that means.

Jordan: Sure. So to start with co teaching right in New Jersey, we call that ICR in class, resource in class, replacement. Everywhere though what it is is a classroom that has two teachers, one content certified and one special ed certified, right?

So you have a gen-ed teacher and a special ed teacher and you have a handful of students with IEPs and ideally they're spread out across classroom that kind of getting into the nitty gritty of it. But you have a handful of students with IEPs. It varies by state how many are allowed to be in the room to fill before you kind of like maxed out on that number.

Again, nitty gritty stuff. But you have a handful of kids with IEP, you have a handful of kids who are gen ed and you have two teachers. And within teaching, right? Like officially, that's the definition. And then your teacher provides specially designed instruction so that students can work towards their IEP calls. And that can happen with a handful of co teaching models from Marilyn Friend.

Jordan: So, you know, you have like one teach, one assist and one teach, one observe, and maybe you're splitting into groups and doing station teaching there that a handful of models. Google it to visualize you can Googling individual in the co teaching models and my presentation was how to strengthen within those co teaching models. Right. And within that classroom how to embed executive function instruction.

One of the things that keeps students with disabilities out of that co teaching classroom is executive function skills, right? Executive function is our brains air traffic controller. So you have to remember rules, You have to state organize. You can't get overwhelmed by your frustration. You can't have like this impulsivity. Well, you can't have all those things that we think many of us have those things right.

But within the co-taught classroom that like less restrictive environment, one of the barriers to students being included is that they have a low frustration threshold, they have impulsivity. They have struggled to stay organized. So they will get moved to a smaller environment so that a teacher can kind of be on them more about those things. Right. So if we embed executive function instruction and support into the co-taught classroom where students can be included and we remove that barrier.

Jordan: And so my presentation was basically on explaining executive function what some of the barriers are supports we can offer, and then how do we embedded within those models.

Arthur: Yes,

Jordan: That was a lot of words.

Arthur: but I love the air traffic control statement. That is so true. It's it really does keep this executive functioning. It keeps us all going in the right direction and, keeps us keeps us moving.

So that it's a really good analogy to make.

Arthur: So in addition to your presentation, can you share one or two strategies for enhancing executive function that people who attended the presentation have learned.

Jordan: Okay. So the way that I broke it down was that under executive functioning that like umbrella term, we have emotion, behavior and cognition, right?

So I kind of explained what falls under each of those categories and then shared a handful of strategies for each. Right. So, for anybody at home listening who's a parent who may be looking to build those supports, I talked a little bit about like ways you can do this at home to support your child so that when they're in class and they're working on those skills, they kind of have a roster.

If you want to start very early. You know, one strategy that I like that I share that I used with my kids a lot was like mental rehearsal, right? To like get your brain and your body ready for something that may come up, right?

Jordan: So like, if you're taking your child, let's say, to the grocery store and you know, you're getting ready to park, you're in the parking lot, you can say like, okay, we're going to go in the grocery store and when we get to the checkout, we're not going to get candy.

Right. Let's think when you ask for candy and when I say no, what's that going to feel like? Right. And so when you have a kid who's like three, four or five years old, they can be like, oh, it's going to feel really bad in my body. I might get frustrated, like my son would say, like, ‘I might lose it.’

So and then you're like, okay, so what are some things that we can do when we get that feeling right? What's something you can do? And you say like, Well, I'm going to take five deep breaths, right? Or I'm going to look around and I'm going to find five things that I can see and four things that I can hear and kind of like do a grounding strategy, right?

And so when you're ready for that feeling and it's not a surprise when you experience it and it comes, then we're better able to regulate it, Right? The surprise is part of what this regulates as it kind of leads to that outburst, that tantrum. So something that we talked about in the presentation is that like you can do that rehearsal and that exercise during warmup before a class at the end of class while you're walking in the hallway, even right when you're headed to a place.

Jordan: So one of the co-teaching models is alternative teaching, where you pull a small group and you can do a three, four, five minute exercise on grounding strategies and mindfulness and deep breathing while your with some other kids in your class. And again, these don't have to be only your students with IEPs. This is anybody who you note gets frustrated at a certain time of day or during a certain activity, right?

You can do it during the warmup, you can do it during the wind down and do it when we're in a calm place so that we can receive that. Because trying to teach somebody a calming exercise while they are melting down, nothing gets in that right. You want to have those strategies ready. So that was one, you know, you can do a goal setting activity as a class.

You can do a goal setting activity as the parallel teaching model where you split the class in half and, you know, like one half can work on a hoot or a look at like a review game and then the other half of the class can do a goal setting exercise, can do a check in. There are a lot of like organizer kind of strategies that are shared with agendas, and you can do that.

Jordan: So again, if you are a parent or if you were working on this for yourself outside of the teaching space, right. If we're talking about in our lives because these are all transferred to our lives, right? Yes. These are skills that come up. My executive function skills didn't hit until I was in college, like halfway through college.

But I realized that like, oh, no, I don't know how to study or no, I don't know how to use an agenda. So anyway, you can do like some planner exercises, like if your child has an agenda, I'll use my seventh grader as an example. So right now in school, he uses like a weekly agenda, right? So he writes down the assignments and their due dates, but they just stay there.

That in his agenda he doesn't know to go back and look at them. He doesn't know. For instance, something that we've been working on is like planning out, okay, so you have an essay that's due Friday. So it's due Friday, but you want me to look at it for you, right? You want me or his dad, my husband, whoever you want to look at it for you before you turn it into.

Really It's due Thursday nght, but Thursday is also Boy Scouts, so we don't have time Thursday afternoon to work on it. So really, it's still Wednesday and Thursday, right? You have to look and see like how does this due date fit in with the rest of our life. Right. And actually plan time to work on it and then we can extend that a little bit further and say like, okay, well, how long can I reasonably expect to work on this before I get frustrated, before I run out of bandwidth to focus on?

Jordan: It’s probably an hour worth of work on this assignment, but I only have a half hour and my gas tank at any given time for E. LA.. So I'll plan 30 minutes to work on it, and then I'm going to take a break. Well, what's my break going to look like? If it's time on my phone, that's tough to transition back from.

But if it's reading or coloring or going out, I turn around with my brothers. It is a less fun but easier but it's like a less preferred activity. So, like, that's the kind of stuff that we really need our kids to like, think about is like, how do these duties and skills like work within the larger picture of our life, and like, how do we use that calendar?

Arthur: it’s funny, when you were giving the example of, you know, asking for candy at the checkout line, I was like, That sounds like what I said to myself when I was at the grocery store. All right, how are you going to respond? But you say, no, don't get the candy at the checkout line.

Jordan: These are things that like, okay, so we have to practice this with our kids. We want to build these skills on kids so that they have a little toolbox of coping strategies to go to for those times when they are feeling frustrated or when they do need a break or when they do need help keeping themselves regulated.

But we also need those things for ourselves, right? Right. Like I feel like I'm a master with executive function right up until I have to put together something from IKEA, and then I'm ready to break the table. I just want everything to line up.

Arthur: Just take it back. I don't need it anymore

Jordan: We need those skills we need to be able to identify when we need a break. So in the classroom or with your child, it may start with saying like, Hey, it seems like you're getting frustrated and maybe you need a break. Let's go take a walk. Let's go get a drink. Let's take a mindful moment.

But then it's building towards them, saying, Hey, it feels like I'm getting frustrated. I need a break. And like building that, scaling themselves so that they can turn into those adults who don't mind screaming at their partner. Right? Yeah. Or disregulated or losing their temper with their boss. Like they need these skills. And we don't want anybody arrested in the grocery store because they're having a meltdown. So we need everybody you have those skills?

To call on in their lives.

Jordan: That extends to all individuals, not only your students with IEP. Everybody needs those skills and none of them are are skills that we're born with or are intuitive. We all need like explicit instruction in these skills is just some of us take to that a little bit faster than others.

This is something that even within my marriage, you know, like we all have like different strategies that work for us and some of us like adapt things very quickly and some of us don't. And some of us need, what am I trying to say?

Jordan: Some of us need like supports built in around us, like some people do great with a handful of Post-it notes and some of us me like a to do list, and some of us need a digital agenda with reminders, right? Different levels of support that works for everybody. And we just have to like, figure that out for ourself. And the way to do that is to practice it and try out different things.

Arthur: Yeah, and then some of us need the Post-it note and the reminder in our phone, right?there's different different levels of things and ifferent people need the different supports and that and to learn that and as you said with, you know, in the classroom, you can say like, you know, the teacher that's there, they might say, you know, I see that you're starting to get overwhelmed.

And then it gets to a point where the student recognizes it themselves after a while, like, okay, like I'm reaching my point. I think I need a break and, can I go for a walk? Or, they start to recognize it for themselves. As you said, it's it's something that we're not born with. And we have to learn this and put it into practice and use in many different ways, many different times, so that we can start to recognize it.

So that's really, really awesome. I love the the examples of, using the essay as an example. I can put a personal, you know, in your personal life, but, you know, it's due Friday, but you have other things going on during the week. So when does it really do if you want somebody to review it for you before you submit it and turn the assignment.

Arthur: it is this those things that we you know, as we grow older, it kind of becomes like a natural thing for us to to do these things. But for now, students know that seventh grade, like you said, it can be difficult to manage that and to figure that out. So it's great that you're sharing these things in your presentations.

Arthur: So my last question that I have for you and something that I'm asking all of my guests is to share resources, something that is like your go to resource a website and movie or anything, books that you would recommend for our listeners to to look at on topics related to co teaching or executive functioning strategies.

Jordan: Okay. So this is not specifically CO teaching or executive function, but it's a website that I love that I'm recommending to everybody and that's explaining brains dot org. So explaining brains or actually I think it might be explaining brains dot com but explaining brains is from a neuroscientist and what she does is offer scripts and not just scripts like resources really, and the language around affirming neurodiversity and strengths based perspectives.

So let's say you have a child who has a new diagnosis of dyslexia or ADHD or autism. She has a handout for parents to download. That is wonderful. That will kind of take you through like how to talk about that diagnosis with your child in an affirming way that doesn't come from a deficit place. So instead of saying, Oh, well, you have dyslexia, that means you struggle with reading

That means that like the letter sound connection is challenging for you.

Jordan: Instead, it says, like everybody's brain has highways and construction zones. When we see the construction zones that you have that pattern that shows up, we call that dyslexia. And then it has like a handful of activities that you can do to say, like other people who have the same patterns that you have are like X, Y, and Z. And let's make a strengths profile for you.

What are some of your highways, right? Some of the highways with dyslexia include pattern. I can include creative solutions and thinking in it takes a look at all of those ranks that come with dyslexia, mentors and also some of your construction zones include this. And these are the strategies that help me and kind of offers a way to communicate with teachers about this as well and like what you need in your life and it practices self-advocacy.

So she has them for autism. She has them for ADHD as well as then other resources that are really helpful for parents; videos you can watch and listen to. I found it really, really helpful.

Jordan: My youngest son, who is neurotypical when I was talking about that with my middle son who has dyslexia, he was like, Oh, yeah.

So one of my construction zones is I'm scared of the dark. That’s great. Yeah, and very similarly, it also talks about anxiety the same way. And when we were talking about that, he identified for himself like he does have a little bit of anxiety before our test and like what are some things we can do.

It was it's a really wonderful resource specific to other concerns and also executive function I love understood understood that org is a tremendous resource for both parents and educators on any number of topics, but specifically executive function. They have a lot of really accessible blog posts and articles that you can read that kind of remove jargon, and they're digestible and accessible and practical.

I love understood, and I also love Shelley Moore. Yes. Yeah, certainly more hands. The five more minutes videos she has the you know, she has a five more minutes blog. She has a podcast. Incredible resource. I recommend her videos to everybody. And if you have the opportunity to hear her speak live, do so, she’s an incredible voice in this space.

Arthur: Yes. Yeah, Really great resources. Thank you for those recommendations. You know, we're putting together a resource guide from all of our guests, sharing their different resources that they use regularly. And Shelley Moore has been mentioned a few times. So that's really that's great.

Jordan: Yeah, I truly when I was in her company last year for our summer conference and I was like a young girl, I was starstruck.

I was like, can we take a picture.

Arthur Yeah, she was great. She was really great. I had a chance to talk with her for a few seconds. really great.

Well, Jordan, thank you so much for your time and to share a little bit about your presentation of co teaching and executive functioning. I really appreciate you taking the time to have the conversation with me today.

Jordan: Thank you for having me. It's wonderful to catch up. Yes. Yes. I work from home and so I don't see everybody that I work with quite often except for at our conferences.

Jordan: So yeah, I think that that's true for all of us because, you know, I'm in the field like four or five days a week most of the time, but rarely with our coworkers, right?

Arthur: Yeah. So it's always nice to be able to catch up on Zoom for a few minutes and just see people, and then we'll be having the summer conference coming up in June. So then we'll all be together for that.

Jordan: I’m looking forward to that.

Arthur: Yes. Yes, me too. Me too. But thank you again. And I will be in touch.