Brain Optimization for Educators with Dr. CK Bray

We know more about the inner workings of the human brain than ever before, but is our educational system taking advantage of what we've learned? Cognitive behavioral researcher Dr. CK Bray joins us on the podcast today to explore the intricate relationship between neuroscience, education, and culture. Dr. Bray shares insightful perspectives on the pressing need for change in our educational practices, emphasizing the importance of mental health monitoring, emotional regulation tools, the profound impact of physical activity and the vital role played by social connection in optimizing our brains for learning.

Ever heard of box breathing? In this episode, Dr. Bray explains how this simple technique and others can reset the brain, reduce stress, and combat fatigue, creating a more conducive environment for both learning and teaching. But, it doesn't stop there! We also discuss the positive impacts of educator autonomy on their motivation and student outcomes. A little autonomy can go a long way to foster a sense of control, purpose, and increase collective teacher efficacy. 

Finally, Dr. Bray lays out the importance of developing strong social connections. In the digital age, our interactions are often mediated by screens, resulting in a potential lack of genuine connection. Dr. Bray guides us through the influences of social media on our youth and underscores the significance of continuous learning and taking on challenges in enhancing self-efficacy and self-esteem. So, gear up as we dive into these pivotal discussions aimed at equipping educators to be more successful in their indispensable roles. Let's redefine education together!

"Outliers in Education" is a project of CEE, The Center for Educational Effectiveness. Find out more at effectiveness.org.

Produced by Jamie Howell at Howell at the Moon Productions.

Transcript

Ad VO: 0:00

Outliers in Education is brought to you by CEE, the Center for Educational Effectiveness. Better data, better decisions, better schools. To find out more, visit effectivenessorg.

Eric Price: 0:15

During the first 25 years of life. The human brain is the construction site. As educators, that puts us in the role of onsite foreman, trying to run a safe, successful build. But are we looking at the right blueprints? Put on your hard hats as we delve into the neural mechanisms of learning. On this episode of Outliers in Education.

Ad VO: 0:36

I think we really need to change how we look at what we do in schools. Everything that we do as educators, it just comes back to people.

Erich Bolz: 0:44

I love it, even when it's hard, especially when it's hard. Ultimately, I mean, this is about what's best for kids.

Eric Price: 0:52

Hey everyone, Eric Price here back for another mind-expanding episode of Outliers in Education. I'm joined, as always, by my big brain co-host, Eric Boles from the Center for Educational Effectiveness, and we're getting ready to put on our thinking caps today as we explore the intersection between education, neuroscience and culture. Bullsy, I know we've talked about culture and education as that kind of being a precursor to looking at those academic improvements. You're in the trenches a lot with K-12 leaders and administrators and teachers. Are you still seeing? Those same things hold true.

Erich Bolz: 1:30

Well, in a word, yes, EP, and I am so excited to be able to delve into this whole context of organizational development. One of the things that we've talked about as longtime practicing principles was, if you survive as a principal, you sort of intuitively figure out that your role is to really facilitate better culture inside of your school environment. But it's not explicitly taught, at least it was not in our experience in principal prep school. So I know that when I was a principal I didn't have a label to hang on it. So I think this podcast will help us a great deal in helping school leaders know that there's actually a discipline called organizational development. And then what are those concrete things that we should be doing as leaders to facilitate that improved and enhanced culture? So I'm really excited about our conversation today, EP.

Eric Price: 2:15

Yeah, I think that's a great point. We just absolutely were not taught this sort of thing, and we're going to learn more about our brains in this podcast, but we continue to learn more about our brains all the time and we're going to take a look at are we really applying what we've learned about culture, brains, organization, and are we applying that to education, the way in which we teach and the way in which we run our schools and districts? And here we've got to help us. Dr CK Bray. He's a cognitive behavioral researcher. He specializes in change, adaption, human performance and potential and is known for his ability to take complex research and make it understandable to people like me. That's a low bar. Dr Bray has a PhD in organizational development and learning, a second PhD in industrial organizational psychology with an emphasis in cognitive science. And, Dr Bray I heard this through the grapevine that when you were a kid, you wanted to be a game show host. Dr Bray, welcome to the show.

Dr. CK Bray: 3:11

Thank you, it is true, and I would have been a good one.

Eric Price: 3:16

I would like to see that game. What would it be called, Dr Bray?

Dr. CK Bray: 3:20

Oh, I wanted to take something over like pressure luck.

Eric Price: 3:23

I would have just Dr Bray, let's get into a big boulder to begin with. If we take a look, you've obviously done a bunch of a lot of education and research. So one of those things that will help our listeners and Bolsey and me kind of think through some things is, with all the things that we know about the brain, organization and culture and we start to look at the way in which schools are doing business. If you could say, hey, we should probably change a few things, what would those few things be that you would change in our practice and education?

Dr. CK Bray: 3:58

It's a phenomenal question and you almost hate to answer it because already educators are overwhelmed because there's so much to do and curriculum and everything, and so obviously I appreciate everything that they're doing for the six children I've had that have been educated and realizing what that is. But as COVID's hit and times are changing, we are realizing that what needs to be taught or noticed is changing. That's things like watching for anxiety and depression, watching for some of those health disorders and prioritizing some of those early interventions. And when I say interventions don't think big, I'm thinking small things that you can do in the classroom with classrooms as a whole or individuals, literally in three to four minutes that change the brain. Because a lot of times when we talk about health disorders, especially around those and I love your beginning when we're talking about those who are under 24, is the brain is just developing. It's not fully cooked. There's still new neural networks and synapses all connected and so there are a lot of good things to that in that they're learning, they're quick learners, but also the brain's having to really stop and say what's important, what's not important. Let's get rid of some of these neural networks and some of these synapses so that we can really focus on what's important.

Dr. CK Bray: 5:14

So, as we look at a lot of what's mental health, that is one thing that educators really need to be trained on and then also be able to begin to notice. And as a part of that, I'd say number two is just tools to deal with it. What are some really short, for lack of a better term just hard hitting tools that can be used to change a child's brain in three to five minutes. They can teach them how to have some emotional regulation, how to notice the emotions, but also, if they are dealing with depression, anxiety or even just increased stress, what happens when we take a test or have to do a presentation is what ways can we change what's happening in our brain, the electrical currents in the brain, the chemicals that are being released in the brain, to really bring out the best in that student?

Dr. CK Bray: 6:02

Now something else that went away and it started to come back it's physical health. We are now realizing more than ever, especially in the last five years, the connection between physical health and a really healthy brain. Now remember, the brain is the captain of all of these young people's ship, and so some of them are living on Jeff Bezos yachts and have great brains that are working. Some are in little teeny dingies that are just being built in, sometimes maybe about ready to sink, and so what we wanna do is, because they are the captain of their ship, we know that being active plays a key role in their brain health and the development of their brain, and not just, like I said, the structural or the chemical or the electrical or the physiological part of the brain, but we're also looking at relieving stress through physical activity, calming you know, and what it feels like after you've exercised, but also how good it makes you feel and how many really great aspects are connected to, you know, being physical and the brain.

Dr. CK Bray: 7:02

So it's really intertwining them Instead of just PE. What can we do in these 90 minute learning cycles, or two hour learning cycles, depending on the age of?

Eric Price: 7:12

the student? Yeah right. And if you're talking about like in the classroom, dr Bray, are you talking like a teacher could just stop for a couple of minutes and do something?

Dr. CK Bray: 7:20

Absolutely. So they may go to PE, but I'm thinking what things can you do in five minutes that change the brain? And I'll go through some different things, but we call it the 555, which you can literally change the brain in five minutes, three times five minutes between, you know, eight noon, five minutes between lunchtime there, 12, two o'clock, and five minutes between two and three, three thirty, when they get out of school. It's really changed the brain and, like I said, there are things that teachers can do and the sad thing is and you know this as well sometimes we have all this great research but it never filters down to the right. Yeah, let me throw in two other things.

Dr. CK Bray: 7:55

This is my list. Too long already, not at all. Keep going. Yeah, educators are going. Oh for this. But another one is resilience. Now, I know that has been become a major play. My children have learned it. I love it when they learn about resilience and it's an ongoing topic that they have, but then also learning about community and connection. Now, connection is key to brain health, key to decision making, key to happiness and meaning and purpose.

Dr. CK Bray: 8:21

Like relational connections. Yes, absolutely, connections with students, connections with teachers, connections with principals, where we're getting, you know, really good connections in there, a sense of community in the school place. So we're bringing in the PTA, we're bringing in teachers and librarians and PE and music and really creating that connection around relationships. Because we do know brain health, I mean really, what is it? Isolation and loneliness now has been shown to be worse than cigarette smoking. If you're going to smoke a couple packs a day, it's better to do that than to be lonely. And, as we all know, loneliness is very apparent with a lot of the youth today who are under the age of 18.

Eric Price: 9:02

So just to underline or get an outliner on this one, being lonely is the same as smoking a couple of packs of cigarettes a day.

Dr. CK Bray: 9:12

It's worse, smokes, worse, wow. And we're not talking loneliness over a year, we're talking where, and remember let me caveat here and you could always just interrupt because I get going and you'll never get a word in edgewise. And we talk about loneliness. People can have a lot of people around and still lonely, and also people can just feel lonely and have no friends around. So it's being able to notice what are the some of the signs that people are lonely? Because we can change loneliness literally in you know, just one or two activities or one or two connections that people all of a sudden feel like. It's like when anybody's been new to a school and you walk in and it's lunchtime. It's the most horrifying feeling of who do I eat with it? And that ends that cascade of chemicals and cortisol. And just someone saying come and sit with me changes the chemicals released in the brain. You're getting dopamine, you're getting serotonin, I have friends, I belong, I'm motivated to get more friends now, and so changing that will really help with brain health.

Eric Price: 10:14

So again the 555,. What was that again?

Dr. CK Bray: 10:16

Okay, so what we do and we'll talk about some of the tools, but you want 15 minutes in a school day and I always like to say between eight and 11, probably somewhere between five minutes there, five minutes between 11 and one and five minutes between the end of the school day that we need to reset the brain. It's like your phone that the app stopped working. Same goes for children's brains. We have to stop and reset it.

Erich Bolz: 10:39

Boy, you've covered a lot of ground and I've made a lot of connections to some of our work. We've got a wonderful series in partnership with Dr Greg Benner from the University of Alabama, called the whole educator series. So those SEL strategies that are practical management strategies in the classroom as well as student self-regulation strategies we have in spades. We have international filmmaker Aaron Christopher on two of our podcasts talking about the epidemic that's loneliness in our society. So take us through some practical strategies on the student side and then maybe we'll segue into all right. Now let's talk to principles a little bit Perfect.

Dr. CK Bray: 11:12

All right, let's talk about some of these strategies that we can do in under five minutes that change the brain, and I'll give an overview and literally people can Google it. Now you have to be careful. Make sure you go to a research site that gives you and most likely that's going to be a university or research institution that gives some good things. But some of these tools that you can do in the five, five, five. So the first one that I would say is one of the best ways to get students to reset their brain is deep breathing. It's that simple Now what we've shown, that if you can get students for even a minute or two minutes to do some deep breathing together, you know you're inhaling through the nose, you're exhaling through the mouth. That you know. Really, it's that simple that it changes the brain. It changes the brain waves. You know we get to. You know some of the alpha and theta brain waves that are the calming type of brain waves. We get more emotional regulation. The amygdala doesn't go to the fight or flight, so we get that calming feeling just by breathing it out.

Dr. CK Bray: 12:11

Now, for those who are in high school, maybe want to get super fancy in the two to three minutes there. You know you can do box breathing and there are a lot of books that you can buy on these and that's where you inhale and you count to four, you hold for four and you exhale for four and then you breathe in for four, because what it's doing is it's just really calming the brain, it's resetting it and if we have a new learning activity going on, maybe we have a new subject going on. If if just students could for three minutes at the beginning of class and I'll give another couple of things that we can do here is just do some deep breathing. It sets the brain up to learn.

Dr. CK Bray: 12:46

Now, when we talk about learning, we talk about creating those new neural pathways and getting just really the brain firing. It is all about number one, as you know, the environment, of course, but number two it's the internal environment, especially if kids are, you know, thinking about recess or what homework, or do my friends think I belong, or I have soccer practice. After we have all these things, deep breathing clears the mind and lets them focus on this new learning activity. We know that learning increases if we just do some three minutes of deep breathing and of course, students will laugh at it and say this is crazy, but here's what we do know, if you can literally do it for about four days in a row, students and adults will begin to notice. Notice that difference.

Eric Price: 13:26

So you're telling me I have a dysregulated kid, like a kid that's got behavior issues or I have difficulty attending. If I can just spend this three minutes breathing, that that will help my brain to reset to a place where I can learn better.

Dr. CK Bray: 13:40

Oh, absolutely. And before we ever even talk, if we can say, oh, let's just deep breathe for a minute, we're resetting their brain, and we do that for two minutes, say we're going to do this five or six times, it's going to calm us both down so we can help solve the problem. And you know how important communication is there. But like, this is what we're going to do, this is going to be the end result, then we can help really begin to calm them down. Because whenever, especially if you're a teacher or a principal, and all of a sudden we're going to have a conversation that they know is not going to be a good conversation, we want to move them from fight or flight that hey, this is going to be a threat state that I'm in, so I get defensive. Everybody regulation is my hands start sweating, my blood pressure goes up, I'm focusing in on the problem, so everything that helps solve the problem disappears, whereas if we can calm that fight or flight down, all of a sudden it opens up everything that makes us really be at our best. So I can learn better, I can listen better, I can make better decisions. I'm going to change my behavior more easily by doing that. Now can I throw a little whipped cream and cherry on? Yo, whipped cream, baby. Okay. So I do this with adults. We do it almost before every workshop, we do this at keynotes, so it's not just for students. I do this for adults in the workplace who get very amped up and very much in a fight or flight, is doing a quick check-in. So let's breathe.

Dr. CK Bray: 15:05

Now just tell me how you are. Give me descriptive words. If we're talking, you know, are we angry, am I upset? And here's what we don't, we don't want to say why. Now let me be super clear, because the research this is the most fun research you're going to. Well, some of you. I want to name the emotions because here's what we have found in adults and students that if I just name the emotion, if I'm upset or I'm angry or I'm frustrated and the more I can name the better. So we need to teach people those emotion words. It decreases the emotional velocity that fight or flight with 50% faster than if you didn't tell me the words. So I'm not trying to figure things out. I'm not trying to tell you why I'm upset. All I'm doing is naming the emotion I'm upset, frustrated. It decreases and takes you out of fight or flight 50% faster than if you're angry.

Eric Price: 15:59

So if you're talking about self-care for our teachers, or, I would say, our administrators, this is something that we could be doing as well.

Dr. CK Bray: 16:07

Oh, teachers absolutely should be doing a whole lot of breathing, maybe we should say a 10, 10, 10 for them, but absolutely just a five, five, five, if they can.

Dr. CK Bray: 16:20

Just before class begins a new class, just take some deep breaths and just do a quick check-in. How am I doing? It isn't even better if you're a little vocal, say, man, I'm a little stressed out. I know this class is a little more difficult, it's a little more high strung, some challenging maybe students. But I'm just gonna take some deep breaths, it just, and remember the more you do it, the better effect and faster effect it has.

Eric Price: 16:44

Wow we've got a lot to think about here. We'll be right back to go even deeper after this quick break on Outliers in Education.

Ad VO: 16:55

School districts across the country are turning their focus to social emotional learning like never before. But who is the time? Now you do, thanks to the Whole Educator Series an online SEL training that you take at your own pace. Six modules packed with proven strategies that will make a difference right away. The training was awesome the content was amazing.

Erich Bolz: 17:17

This workshop is gonna make you a better educator.

Ad VO: 17:19

Taught by SEL expert Dr Greg Benner. The Whole Educator Series delivers strategies to ease the stress on you while bringing out the best in your students. These strategies, they work.

Erich Bolz: 17:30

You'll be amazed at the results, not only with the youth you serve, but also in your own life. He's telling us strategies that we can implement tomorrow.

Ad VO: 17:39

Absolutely a home run Professional development at the speed of life. Check out the Whole Educator Series online SEL training available now from CE at effectivenessorg slash workshops. That's effectivenessorg slash workshops.

Eric Price: 17:58

Welcome back everyone to Outliers in Education. Today we're getting some help wrapping our minds around how the neurosciences can inform our approach to education from cognitive behavioral researcher Dr CK Bray. Dr Bray, I know you have worked with Fortune 500 companies. If you were gonna say, hey, if you're a principal or a superintendent and you really want to start to create some of these cultures that have got trust imbued, trust driven and based, what would those big things be for a leader to get a culture that really has some of those really strong trust pieces in it that we know are gonna support some good learning?

Dr. CK Bray: 18:39

I love that you said trust, because number one right now in the workplace is psychological safety. I want to feel like I'm safe emotionally, that I can speak up and share my thoughts and feelings and that I'm not constantly worrying is someone judging me? If I don't do this right, is my job in jeopardy. So we want to have a lot of psychological safety. And you say trust here. Trust absolutely then trumps the psychological safety, because it's just creating that trust. And how do we do it? It's the little, small things that create the psychological safety. So as a principal or a leader or superintendent or whatever it is, we can get up on our podium and talk about psychological safety. But it's the little things of going around to the classroom or the lunch break and talking about how are you doing, how are things going, and it's not even necessarily giving recognition what you can do, but it's appreciation of things for what you're doing. We sure appreciate your hard work. We sure appreciate what a great teacher, educator you are.

Eric Price: 19:41

So they feel like they're being seen or acknowledged.

Dr. CK Bray: 19:44

Seen and heard. Those are two things for us to be at our best, and some of our greatest need, once we have food and water, is please see, hear and value, and once I have those three, I can do amazing things. And just a side note, what does that do? When we're seen, heard and valued, it unlocks in our genes what's called the potential gene, and that potential gene is I can do more than I thought I could do, in other words, that self-efficacy. So when I feel like you value me and you see me and hear me, you're going to see me do things that are going to surprise me and probably surprise you. So, Dr Bray, I think a lot.

Erich Bolz: 20:20

Transfers are going to be made from the business world to school leadership. Having gone back and forth now twice in three decades, what would you tell a young principal in terms of what's job one? In this regard, they're hung up with high stakes tests and get those scores up. How well they do there may not contribute a whole lot to their tenure. The overall health of the building. What would you suggest they do instead or in supplementation?

Dr. CK Bray: 20:42

I mean I think the number one and of course, all those things are important you know, those test scores and grades and dealing with parents and all those things are very important but specifically for the educators in her school or his school, I'd say the number one thing is create and I don't know if I'd number these as order of importance, but create a social connection. We need to make sure that we are a team. Together, we have each other's backs and there's a social connection. Now, my mom was a second grade teacher for about 28 years and the connection she had with her fellow educators was unbelievable, almost unmatched in any I've seen in any corporate type of setting. For some reason, there's something that bonds educators in what they do, so I think that it lends itself to that already Now.

Dr. CK Bray: 21:31

A second thing I'd say to a new principal and this is the hardest thing to do is we have to let people make decisions. We have to give them freedom and autonomy, because the moment I have autonomy, it's not I'm doing what you want me to do, but I feel like I have great ideas and things that I want to do and can we talk about it and collaborate together so that I feel like I have autonomy, I have a sense of control that they are driving those behaviors there.

Eric Price: 21:55

Yes, absolutely.

Dr. CK Bray: 21:57

They're taking control and making decisions in their classroom, working in collaboration with the leadership of the school. That sense of control goes a long way to feeling like I have meaning and purpose. Now, when we have a sense of control, our meaning and purpose go up. Now that's the dopamine chemical in the brain, because the moment I feel like I have control, I become motivated and that dopamine is let me take more action. So what then begins to happen is I think of better ways, things I could do for the classroom or those students. So we wanna give them that sense of control, even if it means let's sit and talk about how we can collaborate, cause there are certain things coming down from the district, coming from places, and the principle that we have to collaborate together. But, boy, as much control as he or she can turn over, the better that is for that teacher's brain.

Eric Price: 22:44

And does it? Is it snowball then, when they feel more in control than they want to take more and they want to invest more? Does that how it works?

Dr. CK Bray: 22:52

Absolutely. You're gonna learn a lot about that educator through giving them more control. I'd say a large percentage of those are going to take it and run with it and you're gonna see them do amazing things and we've seen them do amazing things. There are gonna be some who will not run with it and that's gonna tell you some of the information that you probably already knew. But maybe they're in it for the wrong reasons. But those who love the students which what teacher doesn't? That's why you went into it. Love the students, love educating them, helping them develop and grow into these little great humans. When the moment my autonomy gets taken away, I check out because you're running the show. Now you're running the show. I'm not running the show.

Eric Price: 23:28

Are there any other things that are like big bang for a buck? If I'm really trying to boost that social, emotional health of my staff, what other things would you offer?

Dr. CK Bray: 23:39

Okay. So I would first go back and go back to the breathing, the check ins also, and it's hard to do but say the physio are we walking, are we moving? Because that has so much impact on the brain. But what you could really do inside the school is that social connection. It is so important for there to be a connection and to create connection points. Now, a lot of those will happen when they have time to work on their lesson plans or they're taking the class to the library, whatever that they can. But I would encourage that social connection with other teachers, other people who work in the building and in the school. And that might mean even I would encourage PTA, bring in a lunch that we can come together. It doesn't mean necessarily everybody needs to sit together, but I want little small groups of people connecting and saying okay, you have to have one person in your group that you don't know.

Dr. CK Bray: 24:32

So maybe this is great teachers gonna be with the first grade teacher or if it's advice, we're gonna have the English with the math. And that social connection does so much. Because, number one, it helps us feel like I'm not alone in this. And when you feel like I'm not alone in this, number two, when I have an issue with a parent, when I have an issue with a student, you want them to go to another teacher educator first, and hopefully it's one who has experience and great ideas and really and then maybe go to the principal after. Now, it depends on what the situation is, that parents involved. But I'm just saying, boy, if it's something that they can have, a relationship, they can go to someone, another educator and learn from them. Boy, that bonds them together. And that social connection, people, no matter how bad that classes or students are, if they love their fellow teachers and their principal, oh, they're gonna stay.

Erich Bolz: 25:22

As I sit here and I listen, I imagine you're probably more familiar than we are with John Hattie's wonderful research and what he says just in terms of what can be changed inside of the schoolhouse is he refers to it as collective teacher efficacy. So I'm listening to you talk about really the roadmap to that from the principal to teachers is foster a sense of broad social connection. Social connection leads to wanting to collaborate with your peers, and when you seek your peers out to come up with solutions, magic happens. That seems like a pretty simple roadmap to me. Tell us why this is all shrouded in mystery.

Dr. CK Bray: 25:55

Oh, this is we're cutting into the meat. This is the good. We hear about all the good things, but oftentimes we don't see the barriers. So what happens is is if I'm a new teacher or I don't let's say I've been in a school and maybe I don't know people as well as I should is I feel like if I reach out to them. Number one am I gonna be not rejected, but just not accepted? Number two if I go to you with a problem, what are you gonna think of me as an educator? You're gonna think I'm not gonna get a job. So a lot of it's the internal rumination and internal thinking that we have that, instead of reaching out, we say, oh, they don't wanna talk to me, they're busy, they wanna get home, they have papers to grade and tests to create and all of these things, whereas that is the key, just when we can weave those together. So barriers in internal talking and our head rumination that says, oh, what will people think if I reach out to somebody?

Eric Price: 26:48

Yeah, like some of that Bernay Brown vulnerability stuff.

Erich Bolz: 26:51

Right, I was gonna go right there, ep, you want all I beat you to you beat me to the punch. I'm like, wow, sounds like we've been to the Bernay Brown world now. Look at all these things we're connecting today.

Dr. CK Bray: 27:00

Okay, I don't mean to name drop, but I was reading somewhere for research and I emailed her and we had an email exchange which I still have. Long. She said let me come and work for you. I should have said will you marry me? No, I'm just kidding. So, yes, the Bernay Brown part is let's get to where we can help people connect in a way, so it's not some of the barriers are these educators can't do it themselves and they don't feel comfortable doing it themselves. So if we can help create environments of the social connection or say, encourage them, reach out to somebody. Just find someone that you are comfortable with and people will find their own tribe that they can then help each other out. And here's what's fascinating when it was asked what number do you need to feel like you belong and you have someone to go, the number was one. People just need one, and then what usually happens? That one person then introduces you to another and then you have three, and so it just goes.

Erich Bolz: 28:00

Well, and we know that in the first 30 days of ninth grade if a student fosters a connection with one adult in the schoolhouse, that the chances of them graduating from high school are massively enhanced.

Eric Price: 28:10

Yeah, and students with behavior issues right. Just one healthy adult relationship right.

Erich Bolz: 28:16

Get them a friend who's a peer and one healthy adult and it's amazing what happens. I also wonder, as I'm kind of thinking this through, dr Bray, why do you think there's not a bigger nexus to the increase that we would obviously see in school achievement and these simple relational practices?

Dr. CK Bray: 28:30

It's a hard.

Dr. CK Bray: 28:31

I think COVID played a lot into that and I think a lot of the change in just the world and how we work that it actually is pulling us apart.

Dr. CK Bray: 28:41

Now one of the killers of this is social media and we know and now people are cringing and don't turn off, your don't turn off.

Dr. CK Bray: 28:51

The surgeon general, dr Vivik Murthy, came out recently and I don't know if you saw it, saying that social media for youth that there is, literally it is no benefit to them and could possibly be harmful. Now the surgeon general came out and said that the American Academy of Family Practice, the Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the Public Health and the National PTA came out saying we agree their literacy there. We cannot find one benefit to social media and in fact it's most likely harmful. And for that to come out from the US surgeon general just lets you know that that is pulling them away from the connection that they need, because, remember, when we have likes and responses, it's that all sense of connection that gives us an immediate, but it's the not long-term thing, because I can't call the likes when I'm super subtle and I did do great on a test or I didn't make the team or people left me out at lunch.

Eric Price: 29:51

I can't call the likes, but I can call them, but they feel like they have that connection right.

Erich Bolz: 29:55

And that was a succinct analysis to my high school career. I just want to point that out.

Dr. CK Bray: 30:02

I will be your friend. I will be your friend. We will be friends. There's one, there's your one, because the other two guys are all talking.

Eric Price: 30:09

Yeah, I already know that. Okay, Dr Bray, you said you had a couple more for us. I want to hear your nuggets.

Dr. CK Bray: 30:15

Okay. So talking about the educators and this is going to be pretty much the dichotomy of what I said earlier. So we're talking about social connection, we're talking about breathing, we're talking about checking in, we're talking about good rest. Educators should get really good rest. But on the flip side of that, what can we do in the school? Are you ready for this? Number one keep learning. The brain loves to learn. It makes your brain feel so good and they're in a learning environment. Educators should be consistently learning. Now, that could be anything. That could be. We're listening to TED Talks. That could be. We're reading different books. That could be a structured educational type of thing happening within the school.

Dr. CK Bray: 30:52

But I have seen we all have education changes lives. Second part of that. So I would say and people say where do I have time? I'm saying I don't care if you're even learning the guitar, you have to be learning something all the time. And hopefully there's one thing in your work area that you can always be improving, cause then we know we're better for the students, we're better for the parents, we enjoy it more. But then also something personally. You know we should be personally learning, whether it be cooking or gardening or the piano or pickleball or whatever it is.

Dr. CK Bray: 31:25

Now the second part of that is every year, principles educators should take on a challenge, a hard challenge. Now, let's think of it this way Anything that we're proud of in our lives that we've accomplished 99% of them were difficult and hard, and we felt and we struggled so every year. I don't care who you are, if you're human, you need to take on a challenge, something that you say. This is going to be super hard, but in the end of it, it's what makes us proud of who we are, what makes us feel like we can accomplish more Every year. I would love it if a principal would talk to an educator, maybe back and forth what's your hard thing this year, whether it be personal or professional, what are you going to do that you really are going to put your all into? That's a little bit scary.

Eric Price: 32:10

Yeah, and they got to have a little bit of grit there, right? It can't be this. You also participated. Here's your trophy, because they see right through it. Right, they've got to put a little bit of skin in the game, right?

Dr. CK Bray: 32:20

Absolutely. I love that you shared that. I want them to think in their brains can I do this? Can I really accomplish this? Because here's what we find in the brain even if they come close to it, even if they get halfway there, the self-efficacy increases, self-esteem increases because they find out I can do more than I thought I could do. That's really what education and life experience is all about.

Eric Price: 32:42

Wow, Dr Bray, so many things here that you have shared with us. I know I'm overloaded. It doesn't take much, Just like your own podcast. We're going to try to encapsulate this. Our master of summarization is Eric Boles. Bolesy, what do you got for it? This one's going to be a challenge. My friend, Was I supposed?

Erich Bolz: 33:06

to be prepared to summarize today. I'm going to start to just take it from the top. One of the things that Dr Bray said right off the gap was we talk a lot about that research to practice gap. I think none of us, whether we went to teacher school or principal school or really got what we needed to deal with the challenges at hand. It seems like maybe we were on the right track two or three years ago when we built that whole educator series with Dr Benner, with all those great teacher SEL management strategies and those great student self-regulation strategies In fact I noted that Dr Bray mentioned, with the breathing certainly one of Greg Benner's top strategies as well and naming emotions.

Erich Bolz: 33:44

We see that in zones of regulation We've got some really great material, I think, to follow up with that piece of it. Love the fact that when we talked about resilience we really defined that as connection. Connection is what helps us avoid loneliness. I'm taking up smoking as a result of this podcast because smoking is much better for you than loneliness. That was my big takeaway there. Nice take away, you're welcome. Obviously, having that one-carrying adult in your life, having that one-peer connection, makes a huge difference. I like how Dr Bray really made that connection, not only for students but for our classroom teachers as well. We hear a lot about mindfulness and I think we wonder. Sometimes we throw these words out but they don't help us foster a common lexicon. I started mapping to mindfulness, all these really simple strategies, naming emotions, deep breathing. These are things that we can put in our toolkit, that we like to call at the Center for Educational Effectiveness low-touch, high-impact strategies. What we mean by low-touch is it doesn't require going to a conference, it doesn't require nights and weekends and all the things that are just onerous for our teachers and principals. At this point, these are things that he named that we can do tomorrow. That psychological safety is really important.

Erich Bolz: 35:02

Again, coming back to episode 10 with Chuck Salinas and Suzanne Gertz, the power of those one-on-one conversations and really authenticating, validating what folks are feeling, starts to create some of that self-efficacy. Oh my gosh, all of a sudden my administrator cares about me. Or as a student, all of a sudden my teacher cares about me. We want to go the extra mile for people who care for us in this life. That extra mile is what creates that multiplier effect. I sure do a bright line connection to wow. These strategies are really important if ultimately we want to fix that ultimate legging indicator that by policy we're all held accountable for, that being student achievement when we really continues to validate that boy, this culture side of it matters.

Erich Bolz: 35:43

Then we segwayed into organizational development, really starting to think about it from the principal standpoint. I don't know how many principal prep programs out there in the United States are saying, hey, job one is to really create social connection. It sounds like they all should be. Social connection again leads to that efficacy which leads to empowerment. Empowerment leads to distributed leadership. When we give control back it creates that virtuous cycle of what John Hattie would then define as collective teacher efficacy.

Erich Bolz: 36:13

Absolutely loved all of that. Social connection leads to collaboration and collaboration manifests itself inside of a healthy culture of vulnerability, social media. No benefit to youth whatsoever. Would be remiss if I hadn't pointed out the 555. Inside of your day, just taking those intentional breaks to let the brain reset Boy, I'm not good at that, working and getting better at that all the time. It matters for us as leaders, it matters for us as instructional leaders in the classroom. It matters to our students. Again, healthy whole children, whole teachers and healthy whole principals lead to higher achievement, then finally love how we punctuated that. Education changes lives. It makes all possible that we're hardwired to learn. We need to take on great challenges because when we learn we can do hard things. It resets that entire cycle. Dr Bray, thanks for giving us a ton to think about. Thank you for really chunking it out in terms of things that we can do at the student level, things that teachers can do for students and for themselves, and then ultimately helping our principals understand what job one was.

Eric Price: 37:20

Thank you for putting it down at a level that Bullsy and I can understand. Dr Bray, that's an art right there. Oh, my man, Dr Bray, you've got a couple of books out. Best job ever rethink your career, redefine rich, revolutionize your life. I know that is USA Today bestseller. You also came out with how to raise remarkable kids without talking to them. My wife is anxiously waiting for how to stay married with your husband. You don't have to talk to him. Whenever you come out with that, that's going to be fantastic. I had actually started doing those sticky notes from my daughter and it is amazing. I would absolutely push you to go to that. Where can our listeners get more books and listen to your podcast? Where can they find that?

Dr. CK Bray: 38:03

Oh sure you bet. Well, books are on Amazon or anywhere that you pretty much buy books. You can buy the two books. We have a new brain book coming out, probably first, middle part of next year, having to with a lot of what we talked about and taking all this good research and putting it down. You can also go to theadaptioninstitutecom and there you can sign up for a newsletter. It comes out once a week with just some really good short tips around the brain being happier and healthier at work as well as being happier, healthier at home. I cover just a gambit of topics and you can listen to the podcast. Anywhere you listen to podcasts. It's the doctor's decay ratio and mine is just a short 15, 20 minutes. I give one topic, we hit it hard and then let it go. Lots of great information out there, all of them free, but the books yeah.

Eric Price: 38:51

You've got a fantastic podcast. You're way more engaging than Bulls and I together. If you get bored of us, go listen to Dr CK Bray. Dr Bray, is there anything that we missed or you'd like to add onto this litany of amazing wisdom?

Dr. CK Bray: 39:06

I think the most important thing is keep your brain healthy. It is the most important thing so that you can not only age and have longevity, but you're going to be super smart. While you do it, take care of your brain. It's the most important thing you can do.

Eric Price: 39:21

Thank you, Dr Bray, for being on the show. Fantastic to have you.

Erich Bolz: 39:25

And thanks to all of you for joining us today on Outliers in Education. You can find this episode and more anywhere you listen to your favorite podcast or listen to us online at effectivenessorg. Until next time, this has been Outliers in Education.

Ad VO: 39:45

If you'd like to find out how to gather the data you need to help drive positive change in your school or district, take a moment to visit CEE, the Center for Educational Effectiveness, At effectivenessorg. Better data, better decisions, better schools. And Cleo thanks a lot for watching this show.