Stop Taking Away Recess (And Do This Instead) [episode 124]

124) Stop Taking Away Recess (And Do This Instead)

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[00:00:00] You are listening to episode number 124 of wife, teacher, mommy. The podcast sponsored by educate and rejuvenate today’s episode is stopped taking away recess and do this in the stead. We had these posts go pretty. I mean, I wouldn’t call it viral, but they definitely got more engagement than most of our posts on Instagram. And there was a lot of debate about it.

There were some strong opinions, but what I shared is the reason why I think we shouldn’t take away BSS and what we can do instead. So let’s go.

Someone’s gotta take care of you. It’s the time or resources you lack. Teach your mommy, they have got your back. They’ll bridge the galaxy to come. They’ll bridge the galaxy to come. Between your [00:01:00] life and class, you and your family. They’ll bridge the galaxy to come. Bridge the galaxy to be.

Welcome to Wife Teacher Mommy, the podcast. I’m Kelsey Sorenson, a former elementary teacher and current homeschool mom. And even though I’ve been a resource creator since 2014, I’ve realized that printables alone aren’t all you need in order to thrive as a teacher or homeschool parent. That’s why I also created this show and got to Certified as a life coach to help you finally kick burnout to the curb and feel confident with whatever challenges come your way with the right mindset strategies and new teaching inspiration.

You’re going to be well on your way to your best teacher life. Now let’s go.

Welcome to another episode of wife, teacher, mommy, the podcast. I’m just so glad you were [00:02:00] here. Thank you for taking the time to listen or watch.

We did just start adding these podcasts to YouTube, but this time they maybe get like 10 views each time, which is funny. Cause we get like way more on. The podcast where you just listen, but they’ll keep going on the podcast. They’ll also be going on YouTube. If you want to watch there and give it some love over there too. Anyways.

I am so thrilled about today’s episode is one I’ve actually been thinking about doing for a little while, because back in all, let me look. When was it? I have my phone right here. For those of you who are on YouTube, I was just pulling it up. So I posted these back in November, November, 2023. I did the first post. I did the first post, which was just about to stop taking way recess, but then we had a bunch of comments like, well then what do you recommend that we do?

And then other people say, no, I don’t agree. But then a lot of people saying, oh, I do agree. And here’s why, and it was just so fascinating.

As the life coach, I hold a space for different thoughts and opinions, right?

I’m just sharing why this is my thought about it and the reasoning behind it. Because as a life coach, I also really care about our nervous system regulation. And as I’m [00:03:00] writing about in my book, educate and rejuvenate right now, which is a three-step framework to revitalize your teaching, renew your spirit and reignite your passion for life.

That book will be coming out this year. But as I’m writing it, there are several things we need to do to regulate our nervous systems. And one of them is to make sure that we get movement regularly. For the kids who were in public school, I know we have some homeschool moms listening here too, but also this is important for you.

If you, if you feel like your kids aren’t getting enough movement. So the re when we take away recess, we’re really taking away their opportunity for that movement to regulate their nervous system. And. This actually what inspired the post on Instagram was actually when I had Leah Davidson on the podcast, I don’t remember what the number that episode is, but it’s called get to know your nervous system with Leah Davidson.

You’ll definitely want to listen to that episode. And she just made a very passing comment about taking away recess. And I was like, oh yeah, I totally agree with that. And I even remember like, You know, other teachers send like, oh, this is what we need to do. We need to take away recess. And then when I would do it, I would just feel terrible about it.

It was like, this just doesn’t feel right [00:04:00] with me. And now I was like, coach, I know it just didn’t feel aligned with what I believe in, you know, for them. Maybe it was fine with them. And I’m not saying, I don’t think anything badly about you, if that’s what you do. I’m just sharing my reasonings and my why’s behind this.

Okay. So here’s what we do. Here’s why, and again, what the post said on Instagram, I’ll even just read those out and we’ll link to them in the show notes too, in case you want to like join the discussion on Instagram, or maybe we’ll even post them again, like the week this episode goes live. I think we’ll probably do that. But the first one says, stop with a big stop sign on it, taking away recess.

It says swipe to find out why. And then I said, I have never agreed with taking out way recess because play isn’t necessary for kids’ development, but that isn’t all when a child is stressed or their nervous system is dysregulated. This may be for, be preventing them from getting their work done. By taking away recess, we were taking away their ability to regulate themselves through play, making the problem even worse.

So a lot of times it just compounds it. Like when they see their friends go out to recess and they’re doing their work. They may not even necessarily be being very productive about it and it might just be setting them up for future [00:05:00] failure. So instead of making sure your kids get chance to play each day and build in ways for them to regulate their nervous systems, such as getting up and down, taking deep breaths or engaging with each other in a positive way.

A bonus tip I shared is flexible seating could be a great way to incorporate some movement into the classroom. And even mentioned a podcast episode. Again, I don’t remember the number, but it was the episode, but Kimberly Locke, we did an awesome episode about flexible seating to learn more. And then it just said to double tap, if you agree, now, I didn’t foresee much happening with that post, but we got a lot of comments.

We got a lot of people agreeing. We got some people disagreeing too. And those same, well then what do you recommend? We do? And I did realize that in that post it, oh, I was just, I just told you to stop taking away recess. It didn’t tell you what to do, right. So then it was like, okay, I got to make some more posts.

I got to help more. I kept just to be like, stop doing this without giving a solution, because I always loved to give a solution. So I did come out with those. So I will share those right after this quick ad break.

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Okay. So then the next post we create, we created. Said what to do instead of taking away recess. So again, I wanted to offer actual solutions. So what it said, and you can see it for those watching on YouTube. I’m like showing the screen here. So it was about to do instead of take away recess. It says recently we, and maybe I should have showed it for the first one, but that was okay. And I mean, it’s not working that great with my light either says recently we shared a post about why I don’t love the idea of taking away recess as a punishment for not achieving or completing [00:08:00] work. And that is because recess is just as important as academic subjects

because movement is necessary for kids to regulate their nervous system and they need to be able to do that throughout the day. But some, I ask them, what do you recommend we do instead? So I’ve got you first. I love focusing on positive rewards with kids instead of taking away recess, try incentivizing, extra recess, free time at the end of the day or other special privileges for when they complete their work. So they don’t get their main, like, let’s say, like to reset, like their morning and afternoon recess, those don’t get taken away, but maybe there’s like a 20 minute period at the end of the day where they get to free play or something.

And if they haven’t finished their work, that’s when they need to finish it. And then it’s more of just a. They still got their recesses, right. Um, And again, I got a little bit ahead, but that’s basically what this next slide is said.

But that way, it’s more of a natural consequence because the kids. It was just big. Oh, well, this time was, you know, free time. It was for finishing your work. Or if you didn’t, if you already finished it, you get to do something else, but it’s not actually a punishment and they’re [00:09:00] not losing that time.

They need to regulate because they’re getting the recesses that are actually built in the school day. You’re carving out this extra time at the end of the day, that could be a reward or, you know, for them to be able to finish their work, to give them some extra time where they’re not getting even more behind.

Right. So it really is still serving those kids. Um, but I also realized that positive reinforcement may not work for all kids because all kids are different too. So on. The next post. I shared another few ideas of what we could do. It really doesn’t have to be all or nothing. And that’s something I talk about a lot in this podcast and actually I was recently watching the TV show suits.

We were rewatching it. And it was like Harvey specter and Mike Ross, if you’ve watched it that these two lawyers and Mike Ross. Is working as an associate for Harvey specter. Who’s one. Of the, um, W what’s the word like partners at the firm. And, but the funny thing is Mike Ross is not actually a lawyer. Again, that’s the main premise of the show, but he hired him anyway because he has such like a brilliant brain and passed the bar, doing it for [00:10:00] other again, obviously like not like great. For real life, but for the TV show is great.

okay. So what Harvey specter says is what are your choices when someone puts a gun to your head, and then Mike is like, what are you talking about?

You do what they say, or they shoot you. And then Harvey specter is like wrong. You take the gun or pull out a bigger one or you call their bluff or do any other of 146 other things. So basically St a lot of times we think like, it’s this, or it’s that like it’s black or it’s white, it’s all, or it’s nothing.

And really, there are so many other options that we could ever realize if we just take the time. To think about what our other options are. So applying that to something small, like recess, it’s not like, oh, like we just can’t do anything. We just have to let our kids do whatever they want. Like, we can find a solution that will work for us and for the kids.

So here are just a few other ideas. And again, I didn’t share 146 things here. You might find something that works for you. That isn’t anything that I shared here. And maybe you even decide you still want to take away recess, but this is just giving you more to think about right. So [00:11:00] here’s what the final. The point is that kind of made on that final post on Instagram? I shared about how the in the two previous posts. Um, I shared, I didn’t like taking recess away as a punishment for not finishing work, because again, then regulating and all of that.

And then we also shared the idea of using the free time at the end of each day. Of creating free time at the end of each day, that can be used for either finishing work if they need to, or if they’ve already finished it just free, free time or whatever it is, or, you know, fast finishers, whatnot. And then everybody still gets their recess time. But here’s another idea.

Like if you find that that’s just not working for some kids. While still allowing all the kids to go out for recess. Maybe some will need to lose the ability to have the extras at recess, such as like the coveted jump ropes or basketballs. Like maybe they don’t get to check those out, or maybe they forfeit their turn on the swing set, which, you know, those are always, always very popular and not everybody can be there anyway.

Right. So. It’s just like, Nope, you don’t get to turn on that. We can also tell the kids that they are still able to get their play on what goes [00:12:00] out. Um, these extras are a privilege that require them to do their work and be on their best behavior, but they can still go out for recess. You can also have a walking path for kids who don’t finish their work, where they can have some reflection time to think about like, what do I need to do to earn back full recess privileges?

And they could walk back and forth while they think about it. Honestly. Like walking while thinking really helps me even now as a grownup. So for kids, it can really help as well versus like having to sit at a desk. And it even be just for part of their recess. Like they do that for the first half and then they get to go play for the second half.

So those are just a couple of ideas that will allow the kids to regulate themselves during recess while addressing unfinished work or problem behavior. So I would love to know if you give anything that I shared in this episode of try, I would also love to know your thoughts on this topic. What do you do about unfinished work and problem behavior? And is recess tied into that at all? Let me know.

I would love you too. Wean us in the discussion about it. We’re definitely going to have posts on Instagram and Facebook about it. And in the wife teacher, mommy’s United Facebook group. That’s what the [00:13:00] group is called for now, but it will be changing soon. Head on over to both of those places to share your thoughts and ideas about this topic.

I would love, love, love to hear. Now today was a bit of a shorter episode. So if you want more, we’ve got a full library of episodes. You’re definitely going to want to listen to Gasper van dazzles, recent interview. If you haven’t. He was on the Netflix show, the trust recently, and he shares a lot of behind the scenes about it.

He was also a teacher and a standup comedian and the keynote at our upcoming educate and bridge uni

event, which I would love to see you at. He’s going to be a keynote, Christina. Kouzmanoff. Which is also going to be a keynote at the event and she will be on the podcast next week. I’ll be rehearing the interview that she did, um, last year, where it’s really going to be time to listen to it

Again.

Even if you listen to it, then I really believe you’re going to need it again, because it was such a good interview. And what we talked about are things that we need to be reminded of again and again, every so often. So. I am [00:14:00] really excited to hear that episode again, and we will chat next week. If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to hit subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. And if you’re ready to take the next step, I would love for you to purchase a ticket to join me live at Educate and Rejuvenate Summer 2024, the education event of the year happening on July 16th and 17th this year. We have two incredible keynote speakers, Gaspar Vandazzo, who’s a teacher and standup comedian who was featured on Netflix on the show The Trust just recently, and Christina Kuzmich, who is an incredible.

Best selling author, video creator, influencer, mom, amazing person who was also our keynote last year. She’s back. Everybody loved her so much. We have an incredible lineup of additional speakers teaching on topics such as math, language arts, reading, social emotional learning, [00:15:00] classroom management, homeschooling, and tackling burnout.

This year we have a super clear teacher track and a parent chat for homeschoolers, and your ticket gets you access to whichever track you’d like. You can even watch sessions from both if you want to. We will start the day all together with a workout each morning. We’ll have panels with the speakers, plus you get to join me for some live life coaching, as well as with some of our other club coaches.

It is the best professional development you could ever attend. There are prizes. Lives, thousands of like hearted educators all coming together. And all of this is happening from the comfort of your own home. So go to educateandrejuvenate. com now to learn more about the 2024 event. Or if you’re listening to this later, that link will show you what is up next as we’ll continue to do events like these, and I hope to see you at the next one.