ESSDACK Resilience Quick Bites

Feeling overwhelmed is a common experience for educators and students alike, often leading to a cycle of unfinished tasks and increased stress. In this video, Ginger Lewman and Eric Nachtigal from the ESSDACK Resilience Team discuss practical mindfulness strategies to break this cycle and regain focus. Learn how to identify the physiological signs of overwhelm and implement simple, effective tools...

Are your students bouncing off the walls or struggling to stay engaged with traditional worksheets? In this episode of Resilience Team Quick Bites, Ginger Lewmen and Eric Nachtigal explore why "letting them play" is the most effective tool for classroom management and academic success in early childhood education. Discover how purposeful play transforms the learning environment: Neurosci...

Are your classroom refocus rooms actually helping students, or are they just a temporary fix for behaviors? In this episode of Quick Bites , Ginger Lewman and Eric Nachtigal from the ESSDACK Resilience Team dive into the science and intentionality required to make calm spaces truly effective. Why Some Refocus Rooms Fail Many interventions are considered "late" because they address the be...

Unlock the power of resilience in your classroom by focusing on the transformative concept of joy. In this episode of "Quick Bites," Ginger Lumen from the ESSDACK resilience team explores why cultivating personal joy is the essential first step for educators to effectively support their students. Key Takeaways for Teachers: Self-Care as a Foundation : Just like putting on an oxygen mask...

Are you struggling with a student who has intense behavioral challenges that compromise classroom safety? In this episode of Quick Bites, Ginger Lumen and Eric Nagal from the ESSDACK Resilience Team introduce RISE , an innovative alternative to suspension and expulsion designed specifically for elementary students. RISE stands for: R elationships I nstruction S afety E motional Well-being Why RISE...

Are you tired of seeing students repeat the same mistakes despite constant consequences? Traditional discipline often pushes students away, reinforcing the "shadow message" that they are "bad" rather than showing them they simply made a mistake. In this video, we explore the power of Esteemable Acts —a restorative practice designed to shift a student's identity from "the problem" to a valued, capa...

Stop the Cycle: How to "Catch Them Doing Right" in Your Classroom. 📩 **Restorative Ripples Newsletter**[https://essdk.me/rr]🌱 **Restorative Practice Coaches**This year-long restorative practices cohort is the next step in your trauma-informed journey.[https://www.essdack.org/rpc] 💡 **What does it take to get kids & families out of poverty?**[https://www.essdack.org/poverty-paradig...

This video explores effective, neuroinformed strategies for educators to help students meet behavioral expectations through positive reinforcement and predictable routines. Summary for TeachersThe Power of Pre-correction: Rather than reacting to misbehavior, pre-correction involves setting students up for success by clearly stating expectations, modeling the desired behavior, and allowing students...

Classroom Management: Strategies to Prevent Students from Talking Over You  🍎🏫 Is your classroom buzzing with too much energy? Do you find yourself competing with multiple conversations, struggling to get through your lessons? In this video, we tackle a common and frustrating challenge:  students talking over the teacher and each other . We’ll break down practical, actionable classroom managemen...

Tired of the "Blurts"? Here’s How to Get Your Students to Listen More (and Talk Less!)  🍎 Does it ever feel like you're competing with a megaphone in your own classroom? You’re not alone. In this video, we tackle one of the most common teacher frustrations: student blurting and impulsive talking. We’re moving beyond just saying "shhh" and diving into strategies that build...

Does telling a dysregulated student to "just take a deep breath" feel a little too  kumbaya ?  🧘‍♀️ In this episode of  Quick Bites , Ginger and Eric from the Resilience Team dive into why breathing and regulation go hand-in-hand. When a student is stuck in a high-stress "Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn" state, their sympathetic nervous system is flooded with cortisol. You can&...

In this episode of Quick Bites, we explore what it really means to prepare kids for their futures. If this work matters for who they are now and who they’re becoming, why wouldn’t we invite them in from the very beginning—and then give them space to lead alongside us? This conversation centers student voice, shared ownership, and the power that grows when young people are trusted as partners in sh...

Today, Eric will be sharing 5–6 solid, research-aligned strategies that consistently lead to positive outcomes. These are dependable, practical tools you can return to often! These are strategies that support both relationships and results!

In the world of resilience-building work, this might feel like a controversial perspective. And at the same time, it names a very real experience for those of us in the trenches—what we see, feel, and navigate every day with the young people and communities we serve.

We know that lost time during transitions adds up fast, eating away at your precious instructional minutes. In this episode of  Quick Bites , the Resilience Team ( Eric Nachtigal and Ginger Lewman ) shares a game-changing Tier 1 strategy to make your classroom movement safe, efficient, and calm. Eric introduces his  S.T.E.A.D.Y.  framework—a neuro-informed approach backed by the concepts of Dr. Br...

How do you stay regulated when teaching feels overwhelming? Join the ESSDACK Resilience Team (Ginger & Eric) for a short, powerful  Quick Bite  on building emotional resilience through  Personal Mantras . We discuss the concept of the "Enlightened Witness" and how remembering  one  supportive person in your life can change your entire mindset. Learn how to: Identify your "Safe P...

In this episode of  Quick Bites , Ginger Lewman and Eric Nachtigal tackle the "hardest hill to climb" in education: The difference between Punishment and Discipline. If you feel like students are "getting away with everything" or that traditional consequences aren't working, this episode is for you. We break down the  Social Discipline Window (The Relationship Matrix)  to h...

"Just let it go and let's do some math." We’ve all been there—trying to teach when a student is clearly dysregulated. But asking a child to push down stress often leads to more disruptions or shutting down completely. In this episode of  Quick Bites , Ginger Lewman and Eric Nachtigal dive into  Part 2 of Closing the Stress Cycle , specifically focusing on kids. We discuss why academi...

Welcome back to  Quick Bites with Ginger and Eric ! Eric Nachtigal and Ginger Lewman take a quick bite out of a vital strategy for building resilience in kids and staff. Teaching is hard, and life is stressful! In this episode, Eric shares actionable ways that adults—especially educators—can effectively  close the stress cycle  to show up as their best, most regulated selves every day. These power...

Ever felt like you're talking to a brick wall when a child is having a meltdown? 🤯 In this episode of Quick Bites, Eric Nachtigal and Ginger Lewman from the ESSDACK Resilience team dive deep into a common struggle for parents and educators: getting dysregulated kids to listen. We all want to help, fix, and solve problems immediately, especially when kids are struggling. But what if our words are...

If you're struggling to find time to help kids learn behavior skills, these Focused Attention Practices are just the ticket. 100 FoAP from Dr. Lori Desaultels https://revelationsineducation.com/100-focused-attention-practices/ Eric's slide deck of FoAP:https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1T7lrvS7sjIcT2iNa_-Bav_qwhcqSotx_77cZ5IBoUWE/edit?usp=sharing

🔗 **Bridging to Resilience**cultivating connection and belonging for all[https://www.essdack.org/b2r26]📩 **Restorative Ripples Newsletter**[https://essdk.me/rr]🌱 **Restorative Practice Coaches**This year-long restorative practices cohort is the next step in your trauma-informed journey.[https://www.essdack.org/rpc]💡 **What does it take to get kids & families out of poverty?**[https://www.e...

This episode pairs beautifully with the episode all about Internal and External Resources. Except that today, we're talking about acute stress...the stress we feel when that kid is doing that thing. How can we lean into our Anchors/Resources so we can better respond instead of reacting? Friends, be sure you're following our blog, Tending the Field, which offers a different take in professi...

Stress is the reality for those of us living in America and working in this profession...whether that's education or another helping profession. Using our Internal and External Resources can help bring us back to calm in a quick and easy way.

We can intentionally connect older/younger students to increase connection in both kids. So what are some ways we might think about doing this? Join Ginger and Eric today as they talk about peer mentoring at the PK-12 level. Thank you so much for subscribing to this podcast! We are growing, reaching more educators, teachers, and classrooms. That is in large part due to you subscribing and building...