Executive Functioning and Emotional Control

In all the reading and blogging I've completed for Teaching with Poverty in Mind, I've found the most resonating information for me was within 'My FIRST Big Takeaway'. I need to frequently remind myself to respond with patience and compassion when a student is impatient or inappropriate. This important mindset has been reinforced by my professional development 'Smart but Scattered', a seminar on DVD focused on executive functioning skills (response inhibition, task initiation, goal-directed persistence, metacognition, organization, emotional control, flexibility, planning/prioritization, sustained attention, time management, working memory) and the necessity to teach those skills to many children. 'Smart but Scattered', like Teaching with Poverty in Mind, indicated that students are not "lazy", they are merely lacking skills. This also ties into a breakout session I attended at the Autism Spectrum Disorders conference, led by Dr. Ross Greene. Dr. Greene had the same message, although he was talking primarily about students who display behavioral outbursts. His message was that all kids want to be good, they just have an unsolved problem and are lacking skills. Dr. Greene provides an 'Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems' on his website, Lives in the Balance. For children living in poverty, it is arguably more important they are taught executive skills, particularly emotional control and range, in order for them to succeed in life and navigate the social world. We, as teachers, need to remember we have an impact on what kids can accomplish when they leave our classrooms, and the more patience we can offer them, the more patience they will learn.