On Monday, May 29th, 2023, I was in practicum at Nusdeh Yoh Elementary in Prince George, B.C. Today was a professional development day and Nusdeh Yoh chose to do their own independent development day. Which I was very excited to be apart of.

To give a backstory, Nusdeh Yoh is the Indigenous Choice school in Prince George. This school is full of many amazing students who are more capable than they know. This school is a loving and welcoming community. The environment that the people of Nusdeh Yoh created is unlike any other school I have been in. Nusdeh Yoh faces many challenges and without the amazing staff and community, these students would not get what they need to learn and explore their identity in such a safe place.

For the professional development day at Nusdeh Yoh, the entire staff collected in the circle room where we discussed and researched different social-emotional regulation programs. We talked about how they wanted their whole school to be on the same page for self-regulation strategies. They had noticed that for some students, they learn one way to self-regulate and when they get to their next class there was a different strategy that they had to learn and implement, which the staff felt was quite difficult for some students creating the opposite effect.

We held a dialogue in a circle about what people liked about certain programs they already had in use and new ones that some would like to try. from there they gave us 1 hour to speak to each other and go and research other programs and just develop our opinions.

We returned to the circle room and sat in a circle where we shared again what we were feeling and how we were thinking about the different programs.

What I liked about today was the collaboration that took place. The dialogue felt very comfortable and encouraging. Each staff member shared their thoughts and ideas and was fully listening to others which was a really encouraging and safe space to be a part of. I learned a lot about different programs for self-regulation. Below are my top three self-regulation programs I fell drawn to and why.

  1. Zones of regulation: I like that there are zones that students can relate to. I like that there are visuals for the students as well and relate them to physical feelings so the students can identify how they are feeling better. I also like that the Zones of Regulation normalizes all zones and ensures students know that whatever they are feeling is okay and it is normal to feel all zones multiple times throughout one day.
  2. MindUp: I liked that it teaches strategies and knowledge to help them regulate their emotions and how to treat those with kindness even when their feeling overstimulated or overwhelmed. MindUp is also a part of CASEL. This program is not only available for schools but for home and life which can be so beneficial for families who want to continue at home and includes many kits for further learning.
  3. Positive Action: I like that this program claims to have strategies for teachers to seamlessly incorporate SEL into every lesson plan. I like that this one also has kits that are tailored to the age of your students. I feel this is important because sometimes you can have a grade 5 student who is more of an age of a grade 8 student or the other way around. The fact that this one is grade k-12 is important too because it can be continued into their high school years as well and gives more variety to those intermediate teachers who may have students who need a higher level.

I feel very fortunate to have been able to take part in this professional development day at Nusdeh Yoh. I learned a lot and am excited to learn even more. I hope I can return in the fall and see what program they chose, why and see how it is working for them.