Share a New Link with Students: Attention = Control

A fifth grade student quiets himself during a mindfulness exercise to learn self-control skills.

Hi and welcome back to Attentionology for K – 5 Teachers!

Try this new link in your thinking and share it with students…

Concept behind the link:

the ability to pay attention is a must-have skill to gain control in any situation.

Gaining control isn’t always a goal, but control is key to achieving universally desired outcomes in school settings .

Two outcomes predicated on attention = control:

• effective classroom management – mandatory for student achievement.
• students learning self-control skills, gaining the ability to pay attention in class.

Some BIG problems can interfere with this link between attention and control, however, and that’s the focus of this post.

Background: I recently read a “rant” by a meteorologist who is well-respected in the US and known in other parts of the world, as well.

His “rant,” as you might imagine, was about social media posts related to the science of climate change. No debate here about that.

The words that caught MY attention were (paraphrased) “we live in an era where higher education and research are no longer respected.”

This meteorologist mused with a half measure of sarcasm that his parents had “wasted money on his education; that he could have waited for the age of social media and simply declared himself online as an expert in any field of his choice.”

Wow!

Those stunning words prompted my thinking about a new link for educators to consider and share with students: Attention = Control.

Let’s explore what that means… (more…)