Teaching Regulation at the Southern Ute Indian Montessori Academy
The Southern Ute Indian Montessori Academy (SUIMA) focuses on regulation for learning and life-long well-being. This year, SUIMA began a new curriculum that focuses on teaching self-regulation skills. Self-regulation is the ability to tend to our own emotional and energetic needs. It’s an essential skill in education because feeling sleepy, restless, or sad affects a student’s ability to fully participate in lessons; yet we all feel these things!
Teaching regulation helps students learn healthy, positive ways to cope with their feelings and inner states. Not only do regulation skills help students be successful in school, but they help us in life in general.
All SUIMA staff participated in training related to The Zones of Regulation, a program for teaching students self-regulation skills. Our goal is consistent, school-wide implementation so that students have support with regulation throughout their school day.
The Zones of Regulation sort emotions into four color-coded categories. Blue is for low-energy emotions (sad, tired, sick); green is for medium energy emotions (calm, happy, comfortable); yellow is for higher energy emotions (excited, nervous, frustrated); red is for the highest energy emotions (angry, overjoyed, out of control). All the zones are okay, and people generally experience all of the zones in a given day. Being able to identify the zone they are in helps students know what tools to use to self-regulate.
A central part of Zones of Regulation is the check-in process, which we can also help children do at home!
- What body sensations are you feeling? Examples: fast breathing, eyelids feeling heavy, or tapping foot.
- What emotions are you feeling and/or what zone are you in?
- What tool might help? Examples: deep breaths, rest, going outside, or squeezing a pillow.
- How are you feeling now? Would you like to try another tool?
Younger students may need more support with these steps. For example: “I noticed you stomped your foot. I wonder if you are feeling angry. Would you like to squeeze a pillow or run around outside?”
Practicing these steps regularly helps students learn this process so that they can do it throughout the day on their own.
Early Release Days are every Friday at 2 p.m.
Upcoming Events
- 10/18 – Elementary students go to the MPF.
- 10/19 – Parent workday to spruce up SUIMA’s playground.
- 10/24 – Pumpkin Splash.
- 10/25 – Elementary students go to the MPF.
- 10/31 – Trick or treating throughout the Tribal Campus.