Ep 22: Supporting Executive Function Skills in the Classroom: The BrainTracks Solution

When it comes to helping students learn more efficiently, Executive Function skills are the greatest tool teachers have at their disposal. Yet, many teachers aren’t aware of their value, and the ones that do often don't know how to support them in the classroom. For example, we had one teacher ask us on our Facebook page how teachers can support their own Executive Function challenges while also managing a classroom full of kids who have varying degrees of Executive Function challenges, too. As soon as I read this question, I knew EF in the classroom was an important topic to cover on Focus Forward - and that I also had the perfect people to reach out to.

BrainTracks is a separate division of Beyond BookSmart that’s focused on training teachers in Executive Function tools and strategies that they can use in the classroom. I invited the program’s director, Susan Lohman, and one of their School Training specialists, Allison Larthey, to talk about the role Executive Function skills play in the classroom and how teachers can help both their students and themselves develop these skills further. Listen in to learn how you can apply these same strategies to find more time and energy for learning at home or in the classroom.

I hope you enjoy the conversation. Be sure to check out the relevant links and resources below that were mentioned in the episode!

Braintracks

Braintracks Website

Braintracks Resources

Your Kid's Gonna Be Okay by Michael Delman

Ep 15: Building Meaning: Life Lessons from an Executive Function Pioneer

Tools

6 Steps to Successful Goal Setting for Students (and Adults!)

SMART Goals - How to Make Your Goals Achievable

Circle of concern v Circle of control – Discovery in Action

Mirror Neurons

Mirror neurons: Enigma of the metaphysical modular brain - PMC

The Mind's Mirror

Contact us!

Reach out to us at podcast@beyondbooksmart.com

IG/FB/TikTok @beyondbooksmartcoaching

Transcript

Hannah Choi 00:04

Hi everyone and welcome to Focus Forward, an executive function Podcast where we explore the challenges and celebrate the wins you'll experience as you change your life by working on improving your executive function skills. I'm your host, Hannah Choi Well, listeners, this episode is a celebration for me because we've officially been on the air for over one year now. I'd like to thank you all for listening. It really means the world to me and my podcast team. I'd like to thank them today too, for helping me bring executive function, skill, knowledge and information to as many people as possible. I am not kidding when I say this podcast would absolutely not be possible without them. I'd like to thank Sean Potts, our producer and editor, Justice Abbott, our content designer, Jackie Hebert, our director of marketing. Mimi Fernandez, our Director of Customer Success, and the rest of the Beyond BookSmart team, including Michael Delman and Rachel Krompinger who never fail to support us and our work. Something that's really important to me is helping people recognize that there are going to be areas of executive functioning that come easily to you, and other areas that probably always have been, and may always will be challenging for you. And this is okay. As we've been exploring over the last year, there are tools and strategies that can help immensely in those challenging areas. Someone asked about this on our Beyond BookSmart Facebook page. The person who posted the question wanted to know how teachers can support their own executive function skill challenges, while also managing a classroom full of kids whose EF skills are all still emerging and in various states of effectiveness. As soon as I read this question, I knew it was an important topic to cover on focus forward, and I knew exactly who I had to reach out to. If you've listened to Episode 15, where I interviewed Michael Delman, the founder and CEO of beyond booksmart, you will have heard us talk about the exciting development of our school division, which was created out of a desire to democratize access to the critical executive function skills education our one on one coaches provide. This school division has grown into what we now call BrainTracks, and is led by director Susan Lohman. I invited Susan and one of her school training specialists Allison Larthey on the podcast to talk about exactly what the Facebook comments are brought up - How to support executive function skill development in the classroom for both kids and their teachers. So listen to learn about the role executive function skills play in the classroom, tools that teachers can use to find more time and energy for learning. And how brain tracks is working diligently to create access to life changing executive function, skill development for all kids, their teachers and their families. Hi, Susan and Allison, thanks so much for joining me. Would you introduce yourself so our listeners know who you are. Susan, you want to start?

Susan Lohman 03:25

Sure. So I am Susan Lohman. I'm the Director of School Programming, BrainTracks - our school division, and I am a former teacher and instructional coach. So I worked in middle schools and high schools. I worked in traditional brick and mortar schools. And I also spent a lot of time in online education for K - 12. My firsthand experience in the classroom allows me to say The struggle is real for teachers teaching is a really hard job, a very hard job. As an instructional coach, I visited hundreds of classrooms and saw similar experiences with teachers and students. And then through the work of my work as a coach at Beyond BookSmart I realized that there was actually different in a better way for students and teachers. So the work that I was doing with my clients, I started using those tools and strategies with my own students when I was teaching and then when I was a instructional coach, using it with teachers, so I realized this success before even heading up BrainTracks.

Hannah Choi 04:39

Cool. That's great. Yeah. And how about you, Allison?

Allison Larthey 04:42

So I'm Allison Larthey. And I have been working for Beyond BookSmart since 2019, and I'm an executive function coach, and I'm also a school training specialist. And my background is elementary education. I had one of those New Jersey unicorn degrees where I could I teach anything in the classroom from preschool up through eighth grade. And I also am a certified school counselor. So I really love bringing all that information together. And that's one of the things that I love about what I learned about Beyond BookSmart was how we kind of marry those two things of, you know, calming the nerves, I work with a lot of clients with anxiety. And so we, you know, we practice with all those skills and how that impacts their education is just so much fun to see the progress, the growth. And, you know, so yeah, I spent a lot of time in elementary education. And I was incorporating these skills before I knew what they were and like, kind of had that name to go along with it. So but I, you know, was able to kind of put that name to it, I'm like, This is so much more impactful. And to really target this is why that worked all those years ago. So it's really fun to see the impact that it has on teachers and our clients. And it's, it's just so much fun to do this work really.

Hannah Choi 06:06

That's great. I know, I love it. I mean, I don't, I don't work in a classroom, and I don't work with teachers, but I can just relate exactly with what you're talking about, it's seeing the impact of the of your effort is just there's nothing better. Yeah. So the reason I asked you guys to join me today is because someone had commented on the Beyond BookSmart Facebook page about it, wondering about what teachers who have executive function challenges can do to support themselves in the classroom. And, and it just really got me thinking about how, like on the podcast, I always talk about how, you know, like, as adults, we have executive function challenges, whether you have ADHD, or not everyone has an area of executive function that is challenging to them. And so, in a classroom, you're managing, you know, however many different personalities, some of whom have more or less, you know, executive function challenges themselves. Plus, you're managing yourself. And so I thought, who could be some experts that can help me dive into this topic. And so I just knew I had to come to you. So thank you so much. So I want to ask you a lot of our BrainTracks because I love the idea of it. I love the idea of, of teaching as many people as we can about executive function skills. I mean, that's why I'm doing the podcast. But can we first talk about why do executive function skills matter in the classroom?

Susan Lohman 07:41

Executive function skills are really what allows the students to learn. So it allows them to self regulate, enough to be in the mindset to be able to absorb and manipulate the knowledge of teachers sharing. If they're not able to self regulate, and focus, pay attention, initiate tasks, all these things, they really can't access the knowledge that comes through the teachers instruction. So EF skills allow students really to manage themselves in their lives in school, but also out of school. If they're not able to prioritize tasks, organized belongings and their time to start task to finish tasks, they're not able to perform at their best. And so ultimately, the the E F skills and supporting them is sort of a ticket to them being able to learn and to maximize that potential. It allows them to be more independent leaders of themselves in their job of being a student, but also of themselves outside of school. Students who are receiving executive function skills support through tilt tools and strategies, their parents often see the same changes at home, those routines have habits that they're developing, transfer over out of school to.

Hannah Choi 09:07

And I imagine that when the kids feel like they have some autonomy and some power over their executive function skills, it gives space to the teachers to be able to teach and be able to access their executive function skills more easily.

Allison Larthey 09:30

Yeah, I would definitely say that that's true. Because whenever we practice these skills, I mean, I know I feel that way. As a coach, I feel that way when I work with with, you know, in the classroom when I work with teachers, you know, to translate it into the client into their classrooms. Whenever we're practicing these skills, the impact is felt not just by the person on the receiving end, but it's also on on our end. You know, the more I practice with like, you know, Circles of Control. Well, with a client of like letting go of the things outside of our control, then I'm practicing that skill at the same time with them. So, the same is true for those executive function skills, you know, if we really want our students to be organized and where their paperwork is, as we're bringing awareness to that, and as we're practicing that skill, like, then we as the teacher are also going to benefit from that, because we're paying attention to it. And we're putting into practice, at the same time that we're working on it with the kids. So I really I love that, that the teacher asked that of, you know, how do I help myself in that as well, because I really do think that it's great to recognize those strengths and weaknesses that we have, as human beings, that you know, we all have those strengths, we all have those weaknesses, just like you said. So when we're practicing those skills, and we're just aware of, you know, what this is, this is a challenge for me. So maybe I can bring this into the classroom and practice it with my students. And then we're all benefiting from it. And we're removing that stigma of everybody has to be perfect all the time, which I think we carry sometimes as teachers. And, you know, that's a hard thing to let go.

Susan Lohman 11:10

When you think about it logically, also, students during the week, they're at a school or in a classroom, more hours, and they're actually home. So if these, these routines, and these habits are occurring at school, they will more easily be able to transfer at home, because they're happening for a greater amount of time.

Hannah Choi 11:35

Something that you said, Allison made me think about how like, when I coach and I'm working with a client, sometimes if I share my own struggle and say, like, oh, I, you know, I can totally relate to that, or like, this is what I'm doing, to try to, you know, level the playing field in whatever area I'm struggling with. The look of, of surprise, and also relief on my clients faces like, Oh, all right, like, she's my coach, and she feels that way. So I imagine for it's the same thing for kids in the classroom,

Allison Larthey 12:10

And we're modeling that it's okay to keep learning and growing, and that even as adults, these things may still be challenging. So what do we do about that? And that's, you know, I think that that's really powerful. And that removes the stigma to for some of our students who are struggling with those areas, if we're patient with ourselves. And you know, it's like that, you know, the expression of you can't pour from an empty cup. So if I'm just pouring, pouring, pouring, and I'm never filling mine back up, then then what am I actually pouring out. So when our students are, like, when I when I have patience with myself, I'm gonna have a lot more patience, to, you know, help support my students. But if I'm feeling frustrated, then that may come across, too. That's one of the things we talked about in one of our workshops is those mirror neurons of like, when our students are reflecting back, what we're, what we're putting out there, and then we're reflecting back what they're putting out there. So how do we, you know, kind of balance all of that, but that like patience and grace with ourselves, as the teacher, I think is so important for our students as well.

Hannah Choi 13:20

Yeah, so how, how, in addition to that, How can teachers incorporate executive function tools and skills into the classroom, so that they are able to reach kids and focus more on instruction and, and help kids have autonomy and, and ownership of their own work that they're doing?

Allison Larthey 13:42

Yeah, that's where we, when we're working with teachers and schools, we always want to emphasize that we're not trying to add any new, you know, new stuff. There was, there's this one analogy that I heard from a professional development workshop, about a million years ago was probably like, I don't know, 15-20 years ago, maybe, that somebody explained a "constipated curriculum", where we just like shove stuff, and we never take anything out. And, like, do that we are here to take the practices that teachers are already doing the things that they want to focus their attention on, whatever that may be, however big or small, you know, whether it's I just want my students to put their names on their papers, or it's I work you know, we've got this massive final exam and we need our students to be prepared, no matter how big or small the task is. We're just going to take what they're already doing, and helping them to examine it in that executive function light and then adjust the practice to then make it the you know, who's benefiting from this practice. If I take the homework papers home to grade every single night, who benefit hits from that, do my students benefit? Do I benefit? And if that's not the case, then what can I do differently to really help them grow their skills. And so that's, you know, that's really what we like to do is talk about the tool, talk about the strategy, and then allow teachers to break it into their own practice and say, you know, oh, I could see myself doing this here. And, you know, so we're not looking for the, you know, piling on massive things we're looking for, you know, make it efficient,

Susan Lohman 15:33

Hannah, sometimes too, that just bringing the awareness to a student's behavior, or their lack of behavior to a specific executive function skill, a light bulb goes off. Oh, that's why she does her homework or forgets to turn it in half the time, I could never understand why someone would do all that work, and then not turn it in connecting the dots between behaviors, executive function skills, and then something that we as educators can do just a little bit differently, tweak and twist it a little bit differently, present something slightly different can have a huge impact.

Hannah Choi 16:15

Yeah, because if you don't, if you haven't had the opportunity to learn, you know, an understanding to learn the connection between executive function, executive dysfunction, and the related behaviors, then how would you know?

Susan Lohman 16:32

Right? Right, exactly.

Allison Larthey 16:35

And the benefits, yeah, the benefits of, you know, working on those skills, you free up so much time in your day, when you're not managing those little things. Like, whenever you have that good classroom management, and those, you know, those student independent routines, even from as early as kindergarten, I mean, back in the days when I would substitute teach, you knew the teachers that had that really strong routine. And it just made everything flow so much easier, when you would walk into those classrooms. So then as the teacher, it's easier to have a sick day, to have that day off. And you have that, you know, that benefit is so widespread of you know, it's not just about you know, are they prepared for that test, because, of course, we want them to be prepared for the test. That's why we're there. But we also really want them to leave with those those life skills of, you know, will they pick up a book when they have a free free moment. And, you know, so that classroom management, the student independence, and then the way it, it does free up more time in the classroom, you know, when we aren't having to hear all the arguments over kickball after lunch, and you know, then we have time to dive into math a lot faster. So, you know, we open up that space for the things that the students want to do, that the teacher wants to do. And it just flows so much, so much nicer when you have that, you know, when everybody's feeling good about those practices, and feels like they have that independence.

Hannah Choi 18:11

Right, and then it takes you takes us back to what we were talking about before, you're able to take better care of yourself, when you have that space to breathe and to not be rushing from one to the next and and trying to shove some behavior management in there and or classroom management in there. And yes, I taught preschool I know it's not the same as as as like K through 12. But I remember that I would really have benefited from a lot of that from just understanding more about, like, I understood the child development, but not the executive function part. Like I never remember learning about that. And how important that really is,

Susan Lohman 18:55

Hannah, that's that's a really good point of preschool. I was a high school English teacher, but I did sub for a year in a preschool room, which sounds very silly. I really was only qualified because I had my own kids. But looking at that I was at that time, I was a coach with Beyond BookSmart and I remember thinking, I'm seeing the emergence of executive function skills. In these little ones, the four year olds and really supporting them that early makes a difference when they're in first grade or third grade or seventh grade. They're starting small and in starting when they are wanting that autonomy over themselves and turning those routines into habits and have great effects you know, throughout their their school career.

Hannah Choi 19:50

We're going to be doing an episode on executive functions skill development in younger kids in the next few week so that the Yeah, yeah, I was super excited about that. Yep. So it is really important. And, and I think that you're right. When we start early, when those skills are emerging, it really does make a difference in the long run. Yeah. So, so back to classrooms, what are your go to tools that you would share with any teacher, because you know, it'll impact them positively?

Susan Lohman 20:29

Yeah, I think I'll start, Hannah, with one that I use myself, I've used it with all of my clients, with my own kids. And that is the the five minute goals and doesn't necessarily have to be five minute. But the thought is to use a timer to make something more manageable, to allow somebody to start on a task, or to complete part of a task to recognize that, Wow, I did all that in just five minutes. It can be used in a variety of ways. If somebody is struggling to get started on a paper, which is so common, setting the timer for five minutes and saying, just even brainstorm, start in the middle of the paper, start with the thing you know, best and just write for five minutes. It can be used that way it can be used, if somebody is not wanting to do something. And they know they have to do it, saying, Okay, we're only going to do it for five minutes and see what we get done with. And then we're going to leave it and come back to it in an hour or whatever. It sets boundaries around something that seems impossible, or something you don't want to do. It's also a way to have students who have struggles with paying attention and focusing five minutes seems so small, that it's not intimidating to them. Oh, I can do that for five minutes. It's just five minutes. Yeah, so that's one that I that I always use always even with myself. I use it.

Hannah Choi 22:15

Me too. I love that tool. It saved me so many times.

Allison Larthey 22:19

Oh, absolutely. That's a three way, three way agreement on that one. It's like a favorite go to because you can use it in so many different ways. And I would say one of my favorites, too is probably the the DKDK, The do know, don't know. And this one is so great, because it can again be adaptable to all levels, all, you know, practices, whatever skill it is you're trying to reinforce. And basically you just sorta what do I know? What do I sort of know? And what do I really really not know, like I forgot it even existed kind of don't know. And I love that because you can use it for so many things you can have, you know, your high school students can keep track of that they can use their notes and sort them in a chart to say, Oh, I totally know this. So I really don't have to spend a lot of time reviewing it. I sort of know this, I might get it right on the test, I might not get it right on the test. So I need a little bit more practice. And then the I don't even know what this means I definitely need to talk to my friends or ask my teacher or go to a tutor, or you know, read up on this watch a YouTube video, I need more time. And then you break apart your study methods into more efficient practices of I can spend time on this little bit of time here. And then just a real quick review over here. And I love how you can use that even at the youngest grades of you know, in a preschool room of does everybody know where the scissors go? After we take out the scissors? Do we know where they belong? And we can introduce it and say like, look, we're gonna talk about where the scissors go. So we don't know this yet, then we explain it. And we're now we sort of know it. But can we put it into practice. And then as your students start to build that routine, then they say like, and then you're like, wow, everybody knows where the scissors go, we're all the way over here, we can move on to a new goal now. And just the way that you can break that apart to be, you know, so complex, but also so simple. Is is just I love, you know, that kind of a tool. And then I have a great story with a fourth grader who I was coaching, one on one coaching. And I found out after months of us working together that he would go into school the next day and tell his teacher, the practices that we would talk about during our sessions. And DK DK was one of their favorites, his and his teachers. And I just had to jump in. I was like I didn't even know you were talking about this, but you could tell that it mattered to him and then he was like, Oh, my teacher uses this all the time now. And so it's

Hannah Choi 25:01

just great. He was your first he was your first brain tracks, and

Allison Larthey 25:05

he didn't even know.

Hannah Choi 25:08

Yes, spreading the

Allison Larthey 25:09

word of like he really did just like, take it into the classroom, which was so fun, because he got to be the owner of that of like, look at this, like, Yeah, we're gonna do this. Yeah,

Hannah Choi 25:18

that's so great. I love that.

Susan Lohman 25:22

I think it's also worth mentioning that any of these tools collectively using them as a class makes them more powerful. Even the even the teachers using them in the moment, it makes it a community effort, rather than something that I'm giving you, the students to do. I had a when I was a instructional coach, I had a teacher that wrote all the papers alongside with the students. So this was a middle school class. And she wanted to show them that she modeled for them, but she also showed them the writing process. By joining them showing her paper, she joined in just like another student. And I think there's some really great value in that with all of these tools, using them collectively together.

Hannah Choi 26:10

And it also, it also make sure that anyone who likes, okay, so there's going to be some students in the classroom that really, really benefit from it, and really, really need it. And then other kids who could probably get by without it, but when you teach it to everybody, and it's just this is just what we do, then everyone gets to benefit it benefit from it in a way that doesn't feel like isolating for one person or like, Oh, you're different. You're you have ADHD. So you need this. This is something that, yeah, this is something that everybody can benefit from. Well, and that

Susan Lohman 26:51

yeah, I love that to Hannah, and even on it on a nother level is teachers in other classrooms or other content areas using the tools as well, students are able to use the tool in one classroom, and maybe go to another and use the same tool and a slightly different way. You know, it brings and it just circle.

Hannah Choi 27:13

Yeah, and I imagine it just becomes part of the vernacular, we just talk about this, this is just what we do. We all do DK decays, or we all use five minute goals. And when it's consistent, like I mean, we know that in coaching, right? When it's when you're consistent, that's when the magic happens. So the consistency across classrooms, I'm sure it would make a really huge difference.

Susan Lohman 27:35

Well, and Hannah to even outside of the school, in our brain tracks program, we work with families too, because we do want that language, you want those tools, we want that entire ecosystem that supports the child's learning to be consistently using the language, the tools, the approaches. And so we do work with families and families are the trainings with the families are very well attended, because they they want the knowledge, right, they want to be able to support their child in school, but also out of school.

Hannah Choi 28:10

And I bet some of the parents find themselves thinking, Oh, this is actually something that would be helpful for me as well, then if they use it, they can then model for their kid at home so severely, kids are getting the reinforcement dma's I love that.

Susan Lohman 28:24

It's smart goals is one of the tools that we use a lot with families, we encourage them to write them with their children. So everyone's working towards the same goal. It could be something as simple as you know, reading 30 minutes a day that everyone's doing it or it could be around. household things like sorting, doing the laundry, putting it away, but it's goals that the family is collectively working on. So it doesn't again, feel like we're pointing at the student you need this. It's like no, we all need this. So the house, the house works systematically, just like the classroom work systematically.

Hannah Choi 29:06

Yeah, and then if everybody feels supported, then they're more likely to use the tool because they feel like, Oh, I'm not the only one that's doing this, right.

Allison Larthey 29:17

And we hear that all the time, from the parent workshops from you know, even when teachers are in the workshops, it's like, Oh, I could use this with my own kids. And you know, and then parents are like, I could use this myself. And you know, that's, that's a fun thing is that they really are universal strategies and tools that we're practicing.

Hannah Choi 29:37

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I just as a coach, I have learned so many strategies that I've taught my clients and then that way to us, this is absolutely something that I would benefit from. So yeah, it is such a great way to to learn about ourselves and how we can support ourselves to then be better parents, better teachers, better coaches. So, yeah, I love that. So all this talk about, you know about making this universal support, it makes me think about, I mean, that's kind of why you guys got into brain tracks, right? Like, why, why that the idea of brain tracks came out? Can you explain a little bit about that?

Susan Lohman 30:19

Sure. So I'm going to just step back to my instructional coaching days, and when I was seeing very similar struggles in a variety of classrooms, a variety of ages, or classrooms, working with my one on one clients, in my mind, I was thinking, Wow, a school program would be so helpful. And I was thinking like, how, how could this work in schools, public, private, online schools, not knowing Michael was thinking the same thing. So, you know, coming together, you know, was the evolution of BrainTracks, but the idea was to take the similar support that our one to one coaching clients receive, and make those accessible and affordable for all students, and all schools and all states, across the US. So allowing, or providing, I should say, providing those strategies, the tools, the insight, the knowledge, the language, all of that to students, through teachers, you know, allows us to make a much greater impact than we already are through our coaching program.

Hannah Choi 31:39

That's great. I mean, that's a big reason why I wanted to do this podcast was to, you know, be able to teach as many people as I can about executive function skills, and, and that and getting access to, to that does not have to be something that only, you know, some people get to do, and it's ever everyone in the world would benefit from learning about it. And so...

Susan Lohman 32:06

Absolutely, and when you when you live it, and you love it, and you know that it is so impactful, you do want to share it with everyone, it's like you hold this secret sauce that you do want to share.

Hannah Choi 32:20

Yeah, I'm going to be doing a presentation at our elementary school about executive function skills. And, and one of the parents, you know, was asking me about it, and when I told her, Well, I just really love it. And I and I want everyone to know what this word executive function means and see how they can benefit from learning. And, and, and she was just so excited, and it felt so good to, to see that the impact, it is so important for people to learn about it.

Susan Lohman 32:54

When we begin working with teachers, part of our first training around the developing brain, you know, basic overview of how EF skills develop. Part of it is a it's a, it's a self assessment, they can take, it's private, they have the knowledge, but it allows them to recognize what the executive function skills are and what they look like, in life. And they will be able to see where they're really strong and where they might struggle. That way they can look in their classroom, they can look at their students and make a connection through themselves

Hannah Choi 33:35

Yeah, when you are able to learn about it yourself. And then you can bring that knowledge and understanding to your children or your classroom or whatever. So when you work with teachers, how do you? Like? How, how do you? How do teachers see their own executive function skills? Are they confident in areas that they are talking about it? Are they is it something that they're kind of expected to have these perfect executive function skills? Because they're teachers?

Susan Lohman 34:11

I don't I honestly and Alison, you can feel free to chime in. I honestly don't think so. Because part of our work is to normalize it. So in the education of executive function skills, normalizing that everyone has strengths that they're naturally, really good at, it feels good to be strong in those skills and the ones they struggle at. Or maybe they struggle with certain skills in certain parts of their life. But normalizing that, and you know, also being really transparent that we use these tools right now do we use those with our, our teachers and our clients and our own kids, we use them too. And we use them because they know they really work and they really do help you

Allison Larthey 35:01

Yeah, and I would say, I think, you know, I think teachers do carry that burden of having to be the perfect at everything situation of, you know, like, I shouldn't have any weaknesses because I have to be everything for everybody. But right, that's one of the hardest things is, whenever I was trying to do things for my students, when I was regulating for them taking notes for them, making, you know, learning for them, it was harder for me as the teacher, because my students weren't benefiting from it, and I was carrying a lot more weight than is, you know, necessary or useful to anybody. So when I did things with my students, alongside them, modeling it, over, you know, supporting them, it was just more authentic, and it was beneficial for, for them. And for me, that I didn't have to carry the weight of being everything for everybody. I could just be me. And then all of the, you know, all the strengths and weaknesses that come with that. And I think that that's important for teachers to know of that, you know, we don't have to do everything for our students, we don't have to make the study guides for them. We don't have to write the notes for them. And we're doing our students disservice when we do that. We want to bring our students in and have them take ownership of the practice of why would I write this word and not this word? Why did that? Why will that help me remember it later? And what do I really have to study? And how do I break down the material that I've learned, and we can do that even from the youngest age with a spelling list of you know, these are my sight words that I have to I have to know how to spell these. So am I aware of that I know how to spell it or that I don't know how to spell it. And if I'm carrying that weight is the teacher, then my students don't take any ownership over that process. So it's good for us to recognize as teachers that we don't have to carry everything on our shoulders all of the time, we can, we can do it with our students and, and that's a huge benefit to them. And to us at the same time, .

Susan Lohman 37:26

I worked with a teacher and she had the most beautiful relationship with her students. She was teaching sixth grade, and it was her first year in the school. And she was she was doing exactly what Alison just suggested. She said to them, as you know, I'm brand new and your school, you already experts on your school, I'm the expert on ELA, she was an ELA teacher. And so I want us to have a partnership, I'm going to ask you for help, because I don't know everything about your school, you all know what you've been here for years. And you can then ask me for help on writing papers in your reading. And, and it was so beautiful, because she let that go, she let that I have to do everything, I have to carry the burden. And she really had built a very trusting, respectful loving relationship with their students, so that they could work together and support each other, it was just so fabulous.

Hannah Choi 38:33

I love that. It's so funny because I was I have a terrible memory. So I had to write a little note down. And what I wrote down was asking for help. And that's what I wanted to say is, is the gift that we can give our students and our clients and ourselves is learning how to ask for help. And learning about executive function skills, we don't have to do it all on our own. So like, you know, something like BrainTracks is a way to support ourselves, our executive function skills and our kids without having to like do all the research ourselves without having to also take that on, like, Okay, I want to learn about executive function skills so that I can really support my kids and make my classroom this really, you know, comfortable place to teach and learn. But you don't also have to do that you can reach out to the experts. And, and I think we think of that. So, so speaking of like, what's been the reaction of the teachers in the schools that you've worked with on once they're open to the idea of bringing the BrainTracks team

Allison Larthey 39:43

It's been really fun. It's great to be in the workshops and hearing immediately. This is how I'm going to use this. And during one of our parent workshops, a parent said, you know, right away like, Oh, this is what my son was talking about. because we had already done this school workshop with the students, and she was like, that's why he's breathing like this all of a sudden at home, he's like, taking these breaths and, and calming himself down. And she's like, that's what he's been doing. So it's really fun to see that transfer, you know, immediately there's that like excitement about, you know, oh, I know how I'm gonna use this tomorrow.

Susan Lohman 40:24

That's really cool. Yeah, and I was gonna say, too, I think that wouldn't begin begin working with schools, they recognize the skills are for immediate use, but they're also long term, what we're sharing in the knowledge that we're teaching and training extends way beyond a student's person's life as a student. And I, we worked with the school with their teachers several times, and now I'm working one on one with their instructional coach, and she was, is so excited because the teachers are using the language, they're using the tools, students are becoming more independent. And, you know, classroom struggles are slowly dissipating. And they are just thrilled that you know, us presenting this content in a manageable way in a realistic illogical way that teachers can use it without a heavy lift of changing, really what they're doing, just adjusting it slightly has such great rewards. It just feels really good from being a teacher and being in classrooms, it feels so feels so great for us to see them making such great strides.

Hannah Choi 41:44

That's wonderful. And I just had that conversation with a client of mine who's in college and, and she struggles with keeping her her room clean. And so we're going to spend some time working on figuring out a system for that. And I said, you know, what is so cool about this, like, we're practicing this skill on your, your room in your college apartment. But I just like when you're at you're like, Nope, I have to, you know, follow this system that I developed, you know, like, 60 years ago with that coach called Hannah. And, and it is it's, it's it's a gift for life. Yeah, absolutely.

Susan Lohman 42:22

For sure. For sure. And the great, the greatest thing is when you see someone we've worked with sharing that gift with someone else, or teaching someone else, the tools, it's such a great feeling.

Hannah Choi 42:35

Yep. Yeah. And that goes back to, you know, like what we were talking before about how, how can we help as many people as possible, and that is one way we can is by teaching people and hopefully they'll see the deep, deep and generalizable benefits of doing of doing that of doing that work? And then and then teaching it to someone else? Yeah, great. Anything else you guys would like to add? Anything you're excited about?

Allison Larthey 43:10

I'm excited about our open office hours for the teachers that we work with. And that's where they can follow up with us and ask those questions of like, you know, we did the workshop, they've tried some things out. And then they get to dive in a little bit deeper and say, This is what's working. This is not working. How do I you know, it's just this and that I'm really, really excited about?

Hannah Choi 43:34

Yeah, and are they when they access those office hours? Are they accessing them with teachers from other schools as well? Or just their school?

Susan Lohman 43:43

Hannah, that's a great question. We haven't set up both ways. If a school prefers to be just have their own time set aside, otherwise, their general that any teacher can can pop in and out, or they can pop in and listen and maybe get some information that they hadn't even hadn't even considered. So something that's really cool. Yeah, something I'm really excited about is our online training modules are up and running and ready to go. They are we're really created to accommodate schools, very tight schedules. So the trainings that we present live on Zoom are also can be taken by teachers on an LMS on a platform, which is so exciting. I'm very excited about that.

Hannah Choi 44:37

So they can do it at their own pace.

Susan Lohman 44:39

They can do it at their own pace, they can use it go back and review they can use it for if they want to take part of the trainings via zoom with us and they want to take the other part. So it really allows flexibility. The I would say the one of the challenges with working with schools. It's It's not the funding, it's not the the actual executive function training. It actually is working it into the calendar, the school calendars if they're tight. And that time is allocated about a year out. So the online modules give some flexibility with that.

Hannah Choi 45:20

And then are teachers able to earn continuing education credits from that as well?

Susan Lohman 45:26

Yep, absolutely. So that's another huge win. Yes.

Hannah Choi 45:30

That's great. I love it. And I love that name brain tracks, such a great name, your idea of like laying down these, like, the neural network and the train going through your brain. I love it. That's how it works. Very cool. Well, I was very lucky. I got to I got to talk with Michael Delman are the CEO and founder of beyond booksmart. back last year, and he told me a little bit about about it, and at the time, it hadn't been named. And so it's, it's pretty cool to see it, to see Yeah, really come to fruition. And to really see that you for you guys to really start to see the benefit of of all the work. Yeah, for sure. Congratulations.

Susan Lohman 46:14

Thank you, Hannah. Thank you so much.

Hannah Choi 46:16

Yeah. It's so fun to talk about this. Yeah, I'm so glad you guys were able to join me. It's, it's, it's a it's wonderful to hear that more people are getting access to the stuff that we know, is life changing? And could you share with our listeners where they can find out more?

Susan Lohman 46:36

Absolutely. So they can go to braintracks.com and log into our website, all kinds of great information there. There's also information that they can download and take to their school leaders if they want to share our information. If they have specific questions, they can reserve a time on our calendar directly from the website, or they can email us at info at brain tracks.com.

Hannah Choi 47:05

I love how accessible the website is it's so easy to read. And it's really easy on the great website. And it's packed full of information. And I also love how, how open and available you are for anyone to find out more information. All right. Well, thanks again for joining me. It was really great to talk to you guys.

Susan Lohman 47:29

Thanks. Thank you so much, Hannah. Our pleasure.

Hannah Choi 47:33

And that is our show for today. I hope you enjoyed our conversation about executive function skills for teachers and kids. If you're curious about any of the tools we talked about today, check out the show notes for some more information. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to listen. Please share this episode with the teachers in your life. I hope they find something in it that makes their teaching experience even more rewarding. You can subscribe to focus forward on Apple and Google podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you get your podcasts. If you listen on Apple podcasts or Spotify, you can help us out by giving us a five star rating. Sign up for our newsletter at beyond booksmart.com/podcast. We'll let you know when new episodes drop and we'll share information related to the topic. Thanks for listening