Hi, and welcome to the In The Cortex podcast.
We are your hosts.
I'm Poloma Garcia.
And I am Danny Parakoni.
And we're the founders of In The Cortex, an online community with programs that show
people the tools that they need to change their lives, their brain reorganization, no
medication, just movement.
When you get your brain out of survival mode and regulate your nervous system, you start
to live in the fun, logical part of the brain, the cortex.
Subscribe today and learn how to live your best in the cortex life.
And now on to today's episode.
Today here with one of our favorite teachers on the planet because she is spearheading
the program in her classroom and doing it without support.
And well, she's got our support, obviously.
So we're talking about the other people who have all the funding support for her.
And this is Amy Hartig.
I'm going to turn it over to you, Amy, so you can kind of share a little bit more about
your backstory and what your school situation is and kind of give a little picture as to
what we're talking about today.
Okay.
Hi.
I'm so happy to be here.
My whole backstory was I first sought out something for my own children.
I have three boys, our oldest, we adopted when he was 10, he's now 15.
And then I had another child who had a vaccine injury.
He had seizures when he was two.
And so I was worried about how that was going to affect his cognitive abilities as he went
through school.
And then my youngest, we found out about, I don't know, and he right before he started
kindergarten that he had this gluten allergy.
And he was labeled failure to thrive when he was baby because he just wasn't growing.
He was in the less than 1%ile and just things like that.
And I'm like, how can that be?
He eats so much food.
How can he, but when your body is in so much inflammation, it doesn't absorb things.
And so as soon as we took him off gluten and soy, like his body just loomed and blossomed.
And then, so all three boys went through the program and they still do it.
And I'm like, you need to do some creeping and crawling.
Have you done anything today?
You know, kind of thing whenever we're getting into those frustrating moments with them.
And so I saw the great transformation in my own kids doing it.
And so when Danny came to me and said, hey, we're going to test this out in schools, I
was like, oh, thank you, Jesus, because we need it.
We need it.
Let me tell you a little bit of background.
My school, I teach it a title one school, which means low socioeconomic, which comes
with a plethora of different issues.
Also, my district, they have discontinued the special ed mild mod classes and they've
pushed those kids into regular classrooms supposedly with support, but it's not a lot.
And so you have a lot of extreme behaviors, not just from the title one students.
You have also your behaviors from the SAI kids.
Where the mild mod kids, now we call them on specialized academic instruction.
And so you have a lot of behaviors in your room that are just out of control.
And when you have up to 33 kids here in California, we can have up to 33 in our room.
And it can go higher than that, but they have to give you help.
And that that could mean like an hour of help a day.
And that would be it.
So you I think the highest number I've had in my 30 year careers, 36 students.
And then this year I have the least amount, which is 19.
So I usually, you know, am falling between 28 and 30.
That's my average.
I had 28 all year last year when we first started the program, which was amazing.
I've had a lot of severe behavior last year.
I still I have some severe behaviors this year, but not as lacking as I did last year.
Like last year I had one little girl and like lay on your belly and she laid on her back.
And I'm like, honey, where's your belly?
I put my hand on my belly and she put her hand on her belly and I go, OK, lay on your belly.
And she just continued to lay on her back.
So that's kind of like the lacking that we have.
And then, you know, just with really violent kids I've had in my room, too,
where they throw chairs and demolished bulletin boards and, you know,
throw their metal water bottles at other kids and, you know, just how language,
the language, the the F and the B and the, you know, all kinds of stuff that we hear from these little five year olds.
And you have to realize they're five.
Yeah, this is not their fault.
They are just behaving and acting in its survival mode. Absolutely.
And so, you know, we go as teachers, we get trained on all of this background like this is why they're behaving this.
They've had trauma.
They have a lot of ace, ace scores.
They have a high score.
They have this, they have that, but they don't ever show us like, what do we do?
They're like, here's a picture chart, you know, they give us these picture charts and
they give us a token board, some things like that, but it never actually addresses what's going on with the kid.
Like how do you make it better?
They just help you to kind of manage that behavior.
They don't help you understand and help the child like actually get better.
And I think program does.
And I think a lot of like a couple of things that you just said, one is a lot of the kids who have the more intense behaviors.
It's a lot easier to notice that something's going on.
You're like, okay, there's trauma, there's some dysregulation going on.
And naturally as a teacher, well, if those are the behaviors that are disrupting the entire classroom,
you're going to spend most of your time putting out those fires.
And then you might not ever notice the kids like the girl who doesn't necessarily know where her belly is.
And that indicates so much about her brain.
I mean, think about it right now, not knowing where a part of your body is.
That's really, really, yeah, that can be very off-putting for your central nervous system and for your whole brain.
And you might not notice it, but your brain is constantly scanning your body to be like, oh my goodness, where is my belly?
Right.
And it's doing it for every single other body part.
So that obviously goes hand in hand with a lot of other challenges that she probably is experiencing as well.
And you also mentioned token boards, which I know I worked in ABA for about eight years, nine years.
So I'm very familiar with every version of the token board that has ever existed.
And I remember this, there were a lot of times, and I already knew about all this brain stuff when I was doing ABA.
I remember a lot of the times the teachers would be like, yeah, this kid's just like really not responding to the token board.
And I'm like, well, if you knew about the brain, you would know that this kid needs to crawl more and develop their midbrain
because the midbrain actually plays a huge part in reward-based learning, which is what they're learning with the token board.
And that's what is going to give them the ultimate message you're trying to send to the brain, right?
But it's just we have these little kind of like, like you just said, all these like quick, like, okay, here's how to manage it.
But we're not looking at the long term and then these, you know, that schooling looks the way it does now.
And there's so many different challenges.
This a kid that is throwing chairs right now, we know what that looks like, right?
And five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years.
A kid that doesn't know what her belly is, we don't really know yet, right?
That could be a hundred different kinds of profiles.
And these kids are just getting stuck in this world where they're like,
I should just try to do my best all the time to try to be in this school and try to participate in things.
And that's just really hard because they're efforting so hard every single day because it's never going to be enough.
Exactly.
And then if they're in all of this stuff, they don't even know where their belly is.
How are they supposed to learn how to write their name or learn how to read or add or subtract or count or anything like that?
It just makes it hard.
I mean, everybody took Psych 101 in college, you know, like if you're in flight or fight, you cannot learn.
You cannot absorb information and retain it.
And so when most of our kids in our Title I schools, they're not getting fed.
They don't know what they're going home to, who's picking them up, how they're getting home.
You know, any of that kind of thing, they're not feeling safe.
And so how are we expecting them to learn?
No, exactly.
And what you were able to create was a safe haven.
And I got to witness it.
And we did have a kiddo when I was there and I came in and videoed last year and I was just blown away because Amy took something that is hard to implement at first because it is a little it's a lot to unpack.
And it was and it was a struggle for me at first, but now I feel like I'm in a groove and I got it down and we I just made it fit for my classroom.
Yeah, and we want to definitely talk about all the things that you did to make it work.
And being able to witness it too is now so exciting because it is 100% possible to take a classroom and regulate it.
And she is one person.
This was last year you had 28 last year when I saw you.
Yeah, 28 kids to one teacher and they were five years old.
And again, they were coming from families that weren't fully supporting what was going on at school.
So she really, really was in the trenches of doing this completely alone.
I mean, she had us, which we always share when we do our program with you.
We will support you, but you barely even used us as support because you're just because she has a regulated and organized.
Exactly.
That's obviously why.
Right.
So she knew what she was doing.
But for teachers who are just learning about this, we are there to support you along the way.
Any questions you have, we will help.
Oh, yeah. And, you know, just to backtrack a little bit when my kids went through the program, my husband and I did it too.
Right.
Yes.
And so it really helped us.
Like, I remember I used to talk like at meetings and stuff and I would like be so nervous and my I would start twitching and, you know, I would feel like my voice start cracking and, you know, I just, it would difficult for me to talk in front of my colleagues.
And now, like going through this program, I feel very confident.
I am very much in my cortex when I'm speaking about things like that.
And so it just, I feel a lot more calm and so it helped me too.
Right. And the kids respond to that because they feel your demeanor.
And then they go, I can trust her.
She's safe because she obviously is in control and I don't have to worry about fighting for control because even after you show, I went in there after you doing the program.
With them for about three months and one child was so disruptive.
Like before he was throwing chairs, all the kids were afraid of him and you couldn't even have picked him out in the crowd at that point.
Like when I saw him in person, I would have never known that was the child that was throwing chairs and completely dysregulated.
So it was amazing the transformation he made from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
Just with the physical and the violent behavior just diminished so much.
It was amazing giving them the tools to be able to be okay and think about, okay, I'm here at school.
I'm safe. I can actually learn here.
Yes. That's an amazing gift to give a child that deals with those struggles at home.
That's so powerful and it's giving because everybody deserves to feel safe and it's not always going to be at home.
If you can have it at school, then that's going to be life changing for him.
And we saw the change in one year and I can just think about how grateful he's going to be to you for the rest of his life.
And this is really going to set him on a different path for his life and it's amazing.
And kind of hand in hand with that.
What are some of those common challenges that you see in your classroom behaviorally and then academically throughout the years?
So behavior, you know, that was a big one.
The kid throwing chairs.
I have another one this year that does that also.
Just goes around and knocks the chairs off, rips things off the walls, things like that.
Or they take off.
They don't.
This is like a new thing.
They don't feel like they have to stay in the classroom and they take off.
Well, we can't put our hands on kids.
And so, you know, they do the office and they pay somebody to follow them around the school, you know, where they're taking off, where they run, just to make sure that they're safe and they don't leave the property.
You know, kind of thing.
Wow.
Yeah, it's really sad the way that schools are dealing with these things.
You know, because what else are you supposed to do? The goal is to get them to come back into the classroom.
But, you know, they have their reward.
Like they're not in the class.
They don't have to listen.
They don't have to do any work.
Exactly.
They get to run around and go climb fences and play in the playground or in the sand all they want.
Because they throw these big fits.
And the school is spending resources on having somebody there hired to follow the kid around.
Instead of investing in a program like Alvarez, which is probably like one 17th with their paying that person.
Yes, absolutely.
And you can do it for the entire school.
Absolutely.
And that's exactly what kids are doing, though.
They're trying to find a boundary, right?
And so now schools, especially in California, they have no boundaries.
I just heard this.
I don't know if this is true where you actually have to evacuate the classroom.
That you have to get your kids out, let them finish, destroy whatever they want.
And then you can come back when it's safe.
Yeah.
So we've been told it's just things.
Things can be replaced.
And you just let the kid destroy whatever he needs to be destroying at that time.
And if it's bad enough, you evacuate the rest of your kids.
I've never had to do that.
I've never had to evacuate my room.
I came close one year to doing that.
But the way that you make your room, you make your room so fun and enjoyable,
and you get all the kids connected to each other, and they don't want to leave.
They want to be part of that family.
They want to be part of that class.
And so we talk about that.
We have a morning meeting time every morning where everybody greets everybody by name,
being able to greet each other and be happy for each other,
and know that you have connections with each other.
We built in family.
Is also really important when you have kids that are in the foster system
or have parents that are addicts or moms or dads that are totally MIA.
You have that in your classroom, and the kids remember that forever.
100%.
And you're creating something that goes back to the brain, right?
So the brain, when it's in survival mode, can only think about itself and basic needs.
So if I get upset and angry, yeah, of course, I'm going to go through and terrorize everything else
because I've got adrenaline pumping through my system, and I need to get this cortisol through me.
But once you start to create connection, then it's like, oh, wait, I can't just be focused on me.
I'm a part of something bigger.
And all humans innately have a need to connect.
That is attachment at its finest.
So you've created an environment where you belong, you matter, you deserve to be safe.
You have worth and all these things.
And so now kids are gravitating to it because we actually have a need for that.
So I love that you're able to create that because if we actually expand this out,
when I heard that come through about when a child is in that state, what we would call the pawns,
they're allowed to complete that whole episode and everyone just allows it.
Now let's fast forward this to adulthood.
What does this look like in our society?
And we're seeing it.
We're seeing it today.
Oh, yeah.
It's all over social media.
People tag us all the time and people who are completely losing their minds in that sense.
And we're like, but they're not losing their minds.
They're just in the state of complete survival mode.
And so that's what we want to share is that it does start in childhood.
If we can create an environment that is safe and nurturing and loving and connected,
these now children will grow up to be more regulated and it will ultimately help society as a whole.
So I think we're on the brink of swinging that pendulum back to more of a balanced space.
And we need more teachers like you who are willing to do the work, who are willing to see
that these needs need to get met.
And here are tools that you can apply to your everyday classroom.
I've witnessed it.
We have video of it.
It is real.
Amy has accomplished it and it is completely possible to bring a group of 30 plus kids by
yourself to a state of harmony and regulation.
So can you share some of what your typical day looks like when you're bringing
in the cortex program into your school, your classroom?
I know a lot of people want to start the day off right away with academics.
And I do have kindergarten.
So there's a little bit of leeway where my administrator isn't going to say a whole lot
because it's kindergarten.
And so that's kind of what I did last year.
And now that he sees what it has done, he doesn't say anything to me about.
And I take 30 minutes every morning.
We do our morning greeting.
We do our morning sharing.
And then we go right into our brain work.
And my district can count it.
We count it as PE minutes because we are doing movements, which is awesome.
That's great.
But we don't just do it in the morning.
So I found other ways to get an extra stuff throughout the day.
And so I know a lot of teachers use what's called daily five for their classroom management time,
where you're with a small group and then the kids have five different choices, like read
to themselves, word work, work on writing, listen to reading, and then read to somebody.
So you're all doing all of this literature-based stuff when you're doing your small groups.
And you just rotate through your groups, three or four.
It's supposed to be five.
But I take that 30 minutes to do the morning meeting.
So we don't get to five every day and that's OK.
And at the beginning of the year, I get to one because the behaviors and the things that I have
to monitor.
But by the end of the year, we're doing four, five easy.
It's like a well-oiled machine by the time we're done.
So when I first started, I was like, OK, how are we going to do this?
Are you going to do it in three different groups and rotate through the groups?
And so we tried that and it was a complete fail.
Because it was just me and I had a student teacher at the time to help me start it.
And even though I had another adult, she wasn't very good at classroom management yet.
And so it was just too much.
And so I'm like, OK, I have to do a whole group.
How am I going to do this whole group?
And so I switched it out.
I made the creeping a little bit longer so we could do some stuff.
And so we would do the water and all of the pace things.
And then we spread out on the floors to do our snow angels and fencers and creeping in place
and crawling in place and all of that stuff.
And it just seemed to work better.
And then we would go and do our academic thing.
And so while I have my small group, the other kids were doing their choices.
Once they finished the whole group thing, then they would go creep three times.
And so there is like a place in our room that they just go and creep.
And the kids would just do it on their own very quickly, didn't take hardly any time,
and then they go make their choice.
And then I incorporated the lazy eights.
We got a little bit of title one money, and I took the money and I got some of the crazy eight boards.
And so they would go creep three times and then they would go get a lazy eight and a marvel.
And they would do it 30 times, 10 with one hand, 10 with the other, or whatever.
And then they put it away.
And then we would do the other thing.
And then they put it away and then go make a choice.
And so throughout the day, we would just do once you're done with the whole group thing,
you creep three times, you do your lazy eight, and then you go do your choice.
And so it kind of became like this thing where not everybody's in the same place,
you know, you know, as a teacher, they all finish at different rates.
But you always, I would always make sure at the end before we are finished.
Okay, if you're not finished with your thing and you haven't done your creeping, you need to go do that now.
And I was just going to say, I think the difference, and I think most teachers,
when they hear about this, like, oh my gosh, this sounds amazing.
I can totally do this.
And I think the biggest piece is your demeanor.
You had the demeanor that believed that they could.
And when a child feels like you believe in them, and you are showing them how to do it,
you're, you're breaking it down, you're, you're starting slow.
So I'm sure I know you didn't start your fencers, wherever we just, right.
You broke it down.
You just had head turns at first, right?
What did you do?
And we just did, okay.
So for the fencers, we did it sitting on the carpet, like we just practiced turning our head.
That was it.
And then on the carpet, we practiced our arms, you know, with our head.
And that was, that was really hard.
And even now I still have kids that can't cross their midline, you know,
and we've been doing it for, you know, since August, beginning of August.
And I still have kids that can't cross their midline.
And so, you know, you get there and you help them, but it's, they still are having a hard time on their own.
So I'm a firm believer in my whole kindergarten teaching career.
You can teach your kids to do anything.
You just have to know how to break it down into the itty-bitty parts that you have to do it in,
and you have to practice it.
So it does take time up front, you know, and I know everybody's like, well, I don't have time for that.
Well, how can you not have time for it?
Because once they're doing it, I have the freedom to do my small groups and my interventions
and everything else that I need to do.
And I don't have to worry about who else is doing what, including my violent kids.
They like to do these things.
And it's a great break for them.
And it gives them something cool and something neat for them to do where they're up moving their body
in the appropriate way that we know is helping them get to their cortex instead of being in their ponds.
And they're changing activities, which is something they need.
They can't stay focused for 20 minutes.
Like that's too much for them, you know, but if they're working on this little project for five minutes,
they get up and they can creep for, you know, five minutes.
And then they get to go do the crazy or the lazy eight for, we call it crazy eight in my room.
Sorry.
The lazy eight, you know, and then they get to go make a choice.
You know, they are only doing that choice for five minutes.
And then look, oh, look, it's been 20 minutes and they've done four different activities.
And so it's really keeping them busy in that time.
So yeah.
And you're so calm with them too.
And I watched them.
It was like, I was even in kind of just shock too, watching you in that space of taking that many kids
and working them through the group.
It even got me going, wow, Danny, you should level up too to be up to where Amy is.
Like she is totally doing it.
I was like, pull them away to you.
See these videos.
Like you won't believe she has, she has done it.
She has completely taken these kids and helped them learn how to take care of themselves
in a way that helps them move forward and into independence.
So they are not going to be the kids who are dysregulated when they turn into adults.
And I want to share really quick when Amy sends her videos to us.
That's what we do.
We take the videos of all the kids and their beginning space.
Over half of the kids had no idea how to move on their bellies.
So she said, get on your bellies, move from point A to point B, move everybody anyway.
We have instructions on what we tell the teachers to give the kids.
And she sends us the video.
We plug in their names and we keep it.
And so I show them your video.
I show them your video.
So you're kind of like the rock star.
So like when you came in, they're like, you're just Danny, we get to meet Miss Danny.
I was so not expecting that.
So cute.
It was like my first celebrity moment, by the way, when I walked on the campus and they knew
who I was.
And I was like, I've never met you kids before.
This is amazing.
So it was, it's so inspiring.
So this is where this program comes in.
And Amy is there to help support it in the classroom.
And we're just looking for more teachers to take that on and make the world a more cortex place.
So is there any advice that you would share with the teacher right now who's maybe listening to this
and they're like, I want to do this, but I don't, I don't know.
So, so I need to tell you a story about a student, a different one that would have
lots of meltdowns last year, just out of control.
One of those kids that like spins on the carpet, I don't think still has such a hard time,
but it's so bright.
Like it's still getting in there, even though she's doing all these things.
And once you would have a meltdown, talking about token charts, we have the little,
the little paper that has like the different emotions at the top, like, are you sad,
are you mad, are you worried, are you scared?
And then at the bottom, there are things like, well, what do you need?
So a lot of times kids can't at that age, can't verbalize when they're in that state.
They can't verbalize anything.
And so this kind of chart kind of helps them figure out, okay, I'm really mad.
I need some space, or I'm really mad.
I need to rip up paper, or I'm really scared.
I just need a hug or, you know, things like that.
And so this one student, they get to choose what their things are that they need.
And I said, you know, it started out with just the regular stuff, space, a hug, you know,
drink a water or a snack, those kinds of things.
So those are like the basic ones.
And so we added to hers, because she kept saying, well, can I go creep?
And I, yeah, go creep.
Totally.
You got all set a timer, you got five minutes, go creep all you want.
And so we added that to her chart of things that she wanted to choose to do.
And so a lot of times I found throughout the year, I would have to do that.
And so I would have kids come up to me in the middle of whatever and go, can I go creep?
And I would be like, well, yeah, go for it.
Go for it.
You know.
And so it's really interesting, even kids that like you wouldn't expect them like that kid for 75%, you know.
What do you need to creep for?
Well, it does something and that brings and it helps them, you know, whatever problem or issue that they're having, they want to and they feel the need to.
And so I have that available to them whenever they need to.
And so that was an interesting thing that came out that I wasn't expecting at all, is that then they start to crave, crave it.
And they want to do this.
You know, and it's really interesting because as we as we move along, you know, you creep and then we get to the crawling part when they're done creeping, they crawl around to the beginning of where they creep.
And so you would see kids crawling.
And then somebody would come by and they would go, no, she's crawling.
Leave her alone.
She's creeping.
Let her do it.
You know, and so they would start sticking up for them when other kids were trying, you know, if they thought they were playing around or something, you know, no, she's crawling.
Leave her alone.
You know, and so they, they themselves started recognizing that that was work and not just a play thing, and that they needed it.
You know, and their little bodies like, you know, when you have little bodies that that are asking for things like that that are good for them, you know, you obviously give it to them, you know, mommy can I have a carrot?
Yeah, sure.
Here you go.
Yeah.
Well, I think that's also part of the way that that you presented it and that the way that the program is designed is to not create any stigma around it.
And so that's why they can all see it as like, Oh, this is great. This is awesome tool. Everybody's doing it. My teacher's doing it too.
It makes me feel amazing. Right. It makes me feel so I mean, if anybody listening to this has done any creeping, you know what it feels like.
They're like, it's amazing. It's just such a great feeling afterward.
Especially when you're feeling dysregulation.
Right. The other thing that I noticed, you know, when you're in a classroom and you're you ring the bell or whatever and everybody cleans up.
And I have my kids come to the carpet. Well, you know, not everybody cleans up in the same pace. You know, you have your stragglers that you're trying to help hurry up and get to the carpet with everybody else.
And before it would be like, okay, well, I'm helping those kids get to the carpet. The kids on the carpet are creating mayhem with each other.
Right.
Well, all of a sudden my kids started doing some of their brain work stuff on the carpet when they got to the carpet.
Like they would start doing their ears or they would start with their fingers or they would, you know, do hookups or brain buttons or whatever.
And I would notice that. And as soon as I noticed someone, I'm like, oh my gosh, look at he's doing brain work while he's sitting and waving.
And then pretty soon, every time everybody would come to the carpet earlier, whatever they would start doing all of these things.
You know, and so you're getting brain work throughout the day. And you're not even realizing that the kids are just really absorbing it all and really moving along.
And then when I get to the carpet with everybody and everybody's ready to go, they're really ready to go because they've just done all of this stuff, you know, to prepare themselves.
And they just think it's like a transition thing.
But you notice it starts to become a habit for them and they just start doing it when they're sitting there.
I just watched back one of the videos when I was in your classroom and you were explaining and that's the key thing what Ploma is just saying is when you explain the why, why do we do this?
What is the purpose behind it?
Kids then feel that respect that, oh, okay, I am a human. I have that worth of you taking the time to explain to me what is the purpose of this.
So I'm more likely to do it now. And then you were planting seeds when you were explaining this to them.
You were giving, I was just watching the video, you said, when's a good time to do this?
And you were giving them those cues of in between classroom transitions, you were giving them the time for, you know, at home when you're watching.
They already were thinking that in their heads. And then it just takes that cortex to come online going, oh, I want to do more of this because it feels good.
So that came from you. Again, you led them to that and that kids are so receptive.
They want to know like how their brain works. And so we talk about that, you know, when you talk about in your video about the neurons making connections, and then you draw the line and erase it and, you know, have a, makes it hard.
And I'm like, how many of us can do hard stuff? And they're like, oh, stuff is hard sometimes. Yeah.
And so do we have things that are easy for us? Yeah, we all have stuff that's easy for us. Wouldn't it be nice if everything was easy? Yeah, I guess we can make it easy.
Yeah, all we have to do is we have to do our brain work so that our neurons can connect easy. And we talk about all of that, which is, you know, when things are hard, we're in the dip and how do we get out of the dip.
And we have to do our brain work and not give up, you know, and keep trying to think about it in different ways. And so I do a lot of growth mindset with with my kids simultaneously with the brain work and that and so it explains a lot to them and they're learning about, you know, we want this side of our brain to talk to this side of our brain.
And so how do we do that? We do that by doing our cross, you know, our crosses and all kinds of different things. So, and they get it. You know, yeah, we want to have bubblegum brains, not brick brains.
Right. We want brains to be elastic and, you know, move and open and and learn things. We don't want to just be set and the way that we think. So we talk about a lot of different things.
Yeah. And that's the perfect time to do it is in at that age in childhood, right? When neuroplasticity is much, much, much higher than it is later on in life. Right. So that's when you want them to have those habits, especially because you know, you don't know what's going on at home.
And so if they're able to take these, these tools and start to apply them when they're in a stressful situation outside of the classroom, that's when you know that it's really, really there, right?
Because in the classroom, it's one thing like they're there, you're talking about it all the time. Once it starts to permeate their whole life. And that's what we see with our members all the time of all ages. Sometimes you are only doing it for the sake of the program.
But then some people after the recommended 12 weeks will reach back out and say, Oh my gosh, I did it. You know, I was in a meeting and I did this, one of the movements and it helped me so much. Right. Kind of like what you were saying.
Yeah. Well, and that's why I said, you know, like, you know, a lot of my kids, all they do is they go home, they live in an apartment, they have TV and they have video games.
So that's what most of them do all day when they go home. And so I'm like, okay, like Danny said, when can you do this? Oh yeah, while you're watching TV. Oh, guess what? While you're watching YouTube, you can do this or while you're watching a video game, you can do that, you know, or when you're doing this, you know, you can do that.
And so maybe, maybe I'll have a parent go, Oh yeah, they said they were doing this because they did this brain work in your classroom.
You know, and so then I am able to talk to parents a little bit more about it. You know, because like I said in the title one school, a lot of our parents are not educated or they're, you know, recovering addicts or addicts or who knows what's going on in there in their life too.
But obviously they need some kind of help too.
As well.
You know, and it's easier. It opens that door of conversation.
Exactly.
Because it's turning, because normally in like our society as it is, it's like the teacher has all the power, I just turned it over the teacher, she's in charge of everything, right?
And the goal here is to create a team. Let's create that congruence of what we're doing at home at school. And that's why we love it when families do the school program and they're doing it at home too.
And then the teacher next year continues it because it is something that needs to keep on going. So imagine all your kindergartners having gone to first grade and they still kept doing it and then second grade.
And by the time they finish elementary school, they are prepped for what's coming in middle school and all those hormones start to come in.
And then high school because I hear the stories of what happens at middle school at high school and I am just like I gasp and I like grab my heart sometimes because I'm like, whoa, times are so different than they've ever been for us.
Like the amount of information these kids have access to is a little unsettling sometimes. So what do we do? How do we set them up to handle it?
And it's by getting their brain online, giving them that option to be in their cortex to pause before I react and then have a response.
And so that's what you're doing. And we commend your efforts. You are a rock star. We are so grateful, like beyond grateful for everything you do.
You sometimes get caught in just like your small classroom, right? But the impact you have on this world, it's that first ripple.
And it's going to start to create more of a wave. And so you are in the beginning of it. And we just are so excited for where this is going.
And we just want to be like, we're here for you. Keep going. Keep spreading the word. Keep modeling it.
I love it. And I see even, you know, even my violent kid that I have this year has started. You could see it coming down a lot quicker, you know, because everything's set now.
I have like, I got my groove on. I have tried different ways and, you know, the kids are starting to get into it too, which is amazing.
Yes. Do you have one word of wisdom or a word of advice for any other educators that are listening to this right now?
All I can say is just do it. Jump in with both feet and do it. You know, if it doesn't work one way for you, try a different way.
You know, the way that I do it is not the end of be all, you know, it's you have to have it fit to you and how you want to do things, but just do it because and spend the time doing it.
It's it's worth it, you know, to get it. And it'll make the rest of your teaching the rest of the day and the rest of the year so much easier and so much better.
Yes. I was funny. I used to say a little prayer every beginning of the year, you know, please let me have a good class. Please.
In the last few years, I've said, Dear Lord, I know you're going to give me the kids that need me. You know, there you go.
Give me the kids that need me. And so the beginning of this year, one of the, you know, playground attendance people, they're like, Oh, how come you always get the bad kids?
I'm like, I get the kids that need me, you know, and it's not that they're the bad kids. It's that they're the kids that are not regulated.
And they don't know how to regulate themselves. They're not bad. I mean, they're five. How can they be bad? You know, they're just kids that have a lot of baggage that they're dealing with.
And so they need somebody to help them figure out how to deal with it or give them a safe space so that they can deal with it.
And so this is this is not just like the token board and the way to manage it. This is a way to help those kids become more regulated.
And so I just feel like this, this isn't just a management tool. You're changing these kids. Yeah.
Yeah, that's amazing. And thank you so much. And thank you for saying about the, the labeling of the bad kid and the good kid and the kid.
They're five. They're five. And even if they were like 25, why are we labeling everybody? Come on.
It's so, it's so yeah. Anyway, I love that you have that perspective because yes, absolutely agree with you. Disregulation can make you look a certain way.
Exactly. But that doesn't mean that that's because we know that these kids, once they feel like they're seen and they are being helped and their needs are being met, they're like, oh, there's no need for these behaviors.
And it doesn't happen on a conscious level. It's all very unconscious when the brain comes online. It's all automatic. So Amy's not sitting there helping them regulate anymore.
She just does the movements and now they have the tools to help themselves regulate because that's what the brain was needing. And so that's what our mission here in the cortex is to help more educators learn these tools so children can start taking care of themselves so they don't need anybody for the rest of their lives walking them through what to do.
They now know how to handle it. And that is our goal. That is what we think of the entire world could be more cortex on what the world would look like. I always say let's hold that vision in our minds of everyone just living in their cortex and just think about all the things we all are challenged with.
Just, it would just make everything just so much easier. Not saying that there wouldn't be challenges but things we get a lot easier. It would be easier though. It would definitely be easier.
So thank you Amy. We appreciate everything you do and thank you for just keeping on going because you are making impact beyond just your classroom. It's coming for the tools. That's for sure. I couldn't do it without these tools. So thank you for the tools.
You are welcome. Well thanks for being here today and yeah, have a great rest of your day.
Okay, sounds good. Thank you.