“Self-Regulation is defined as the ability to deal effectively with stress in all the main forms as child encounters- physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and prosocial- then recover from the energy expenditure involved and restore the energy expended.” (Stuart Shanker, https://self-reg.ca/self-reg-song)

As a Montessori teacher, I am constantly striving to help each student move towards self-regulation. With that said, there is a great deal of preparation on the teacher’s end to ensure we are able to help students become self-regulated.

One way of helping students with self-regulation is through our work logs (also known as work journals). There has been a tremendous amount of time spent on helping students learn how to record what they have done in our classroom. As a first and second year student in the lower elementary environment, you are required to write down your starting time of an activity, or work, leaving a blank space for your ending time. Once you have completed your activity, or work, you are to record your ending time. As a third year student, you follow the procedure described previously, as well as add a detailed sentence about what activity, or work, you did.

So why is this so important? How does it help the child? It is important and helps the child in a variety of ways. Writing down the time serves as constantly practicing to read a clock, it also helps children gain a sense of time spent on activities, or works. If a child is uncertain about reading a clock, they are able to ask a friend, this encourages peer interaction. It provides a great baseline for setting goals for the child. You could recognize that they worked on the 3-chain two days in a row, you and the child could then set a goal to work on a different chain. Along with setting goals, it also provides documentation of what has been worked on and what still needs to be worked on. It also serves as an accountability tool to refer to if a child is unsure of what has been accomplished and what hasn’t been accomplished. Lastly, as a third year, it encourages students to be self-reflective about what work they have done.

Our work logs are an ongoing process in the lower elementary environment. As a child moves through their three year cycle, they will move from just remembering to record what lessons they are in, to recording their activities that they to, to including recording their jobs, and lastly, reflecting on the activities they do. This is only one small way in which we strive for self-regulation; however, it plays a vital role in becoming self-regulated. When we have self-regulated children, we have children that able to deal with an array of stressors in an effective fashion.

Sincerely,

Sara