News from the South - Arkansas News Feed

Calm in chaos: Equipping young learners with life skills to navigate emotions

Published

5 months ago

February 17, 2025

Staff Editor

arkansasadvocate.com – Amy Griffin, Guest Commentary – 2025-02-17 05:00:00

by Amy Griffin, Guest Commentary, Arkansas Advocate
February 17, 2025

I was in my PreK classroom working with students, when suddenly a shoe buzzed past my ear.

I had noticed that Billy had left out the Legos he had been playing with. When I told him to clean these up, he threw his shoe at me in response.

That same day, Sue pushed another student who wouldn’t do what Sue wanted her to do. As soon as I started talking to Sue about her behavior, she screamed and kicked.

Not long ago, I attended a brain-based behavioral program that focused on the three brain states: survival mode, emotional state, and executive frame. When we are in survival mode, our focus is on fight, flight, or freeze. In an emotional state, we talk back, yell, or scream.

The goal is for us to get to the executive frame where we are able to use our problem-solving skills.

It was only after I started integrating the workshop’s practices into my classroom that I realized how impactful this approach is. Teaching children to breathe through upset is one of the techniques that I learned.

Several things happen when we take deep breaths. Our heart rate slows down, and adrenaline diminishes; we are able to focus because more oxygen is reaching our brain. One of my students, Benjamin, loved Spiderman. Benjamin would breathe in and as he blew out his breath, he would imitate shooting webs out of his fingers. This helped Benjamin calm down and get back to learning.

Finding our voice and using appropriate language is another strategy I use with my students. When one of the boys in my classroom pulled a girl’s hair, we approached the boy together. When the girl said, “I don’t like it when you pull my hair, please stop,” the boy looked at her and said, “Okay, I won’t.” When young children find their voice in this way, it’s a big win for all of us.

A third approach for an upset child is to learn how to remove themselves from the situation and calm themselves.

In my classroom, we have an area where students can spend time alone. They decide what might help them calm down. It might be a visually calming toy like watching the bubbles float in the oil in a bubble bottle. It might be a tube you can pull and stretch or it might be walking away and curling up on the pillows with a stuffed animal.

The important thing for me is to teach my students that there are many different ways to self-regulate.

If we don’t teach explicitly the strategies children need to handle emotional upset, they will continue with their inappropriate strategies — possibly through adulthood.

There are many incidents that occur in the classroom that can be solved by my students without adult intervention. When we teach our students the brain-based strategies for resolving conflict, we are turning the power over to them. Instead of intervening everytime something goes wrong, we are enabling them to push past fight or flight and to choose not to use hurtful words or physical actions. In this way, my students gain the ability to resolve conflict without damaging words or harmful actions. They become empowered to solve problems wherever they are.

Bill and Sue are still sometimes upset at school. As the two of them have learned and practiced calming strategies, both have been able to handle their upset in a better way. Bill uses the “Birthday Cake” breathing technique, breathing in and then pretending to blow out candles on a cake. When Sue is feeling overwhelmed, she goes to the regulation corner and plays with stuffed animals.

Sue’s mom told me that at home Sue will sometimes tell her brother and sister, “I don’t like it when you do that. Stop.” At first Sue’s siblings didn’t know what to do because they were so used to Sue pushing and shoving. Mom said sometimes she still sees Sue beginning to put her arms out to push, but will pull back her arms and then use her words. Now that’s a success story worth shouting about.

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.

The post Calm in chaos: Equipping young learners with life skills to navigate emotions appeared first on arkansasadvocate.com

Up Next

Timing out the incoming winter weather

Don't Miss

Frigid Sunday conditions in Northwest Arkansas

News from the South - Arkansas News Feed

Re-live the Beatles epic 1964 tour stop in Cincinnati

Published

15 hours ago

July 10, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – 40/29 News – 2025-07-10 09:35:38

SUMMARY: The Beatles’ 1964 Cincinnati tour stop featured lively interactions and candid remarks. The band discussed their trip, politics—expressing skepticism about Goldwater—and addressed rumors about being banned in the U.S., dismissing them as baseless. They talked about novelty merchandise like mugs but denied inventing such items. The Beatles shared impressions of American movie stars like Burt Lancaster and Gordon, describing encounters as mixed but mostly positive. Their unique hairstyles were playfully explained as natural. The clip captures the group’s playful, down-to-earth nature amid their historic U.S. visit, blending humor, music, and cultural observations.

The Beatles came to Cincinnati to play a show in August 1964 as part of a 25-city North American tour. In this rare footage, see John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr as they land at the airport to the delight of throngs of die-hard fans. The Fab Four also chatted with local media about whether they should be banned, what they knew about the upcoming presidential election and how they felt about American movie stars.

Subscribe to WLWT on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1ipUX3c

Get more Cincinnati news: http://www.wlwt.com
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/wlwt5
Follow us: http://twitter.com/WLWT
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wlwt5/

Source

News from the South - Arkansas News Feed

US Education Department to revive student loan interest for borrowers in SAVE program

Published

1 day ago

July 9, 2025

Staff Editor

arkansasadvocate.com – Shauneen Miranda – 2025-07-09 16:06:00

by Shauneen Miranda, Arkansas Advocate
July 9, 2025

WASHINGTON — Interest accrual on the debt of nearly 7.7 million student loan borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education plan will resume Aug. 1, the U.S. Education Department said Wednesday.

The Biden-era income-driven repayment plan better known as SAVE saw legal challenges from several GOP-led states beginning in 2024, creating uncertainty for borrowers who were placed in an interest-free forbearance amid that legal limbo.

The SAVE plan, created in 2023, aimed to provide lower monthly loan payments for borrowers and forgive remaining debt after a certain period of time.

In February, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court injunction that blocked the SAVE plan from going into effect. The department said Wednesday that it’s instructing its federal student loan servicers to start charging interest Aug. 1 to comply with court orders.

When the SAVE plan forbearance ends, “borrowers will be responsible for making monthly payments that include any accrued interest as well as their principal amounts,” the department said in a written announcement.

“For years, the Biden Administration used so-called ‘loan forgiveness’ promises to win votes, but federal courts repeatedly ruled that those actions were unlawful,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement alongside the announcement.

“Congress designed these programs to ensure that borrowers repay their loans, yet the Biden Administration tried to illegally force taxpayers to foot the bill instead,” she added.

McMahon said her department is urging borrowers under the SAVE plan to “quickly transition to a legally compliant repayment plan.”

“Borrowers in SAVE cannot access important loan benefits and cannot make progress toward loan discharge programs authorized by Congress,” she said.

‘Unnecessary interest charges’

Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, blasted the department’s decision in a statement Wednesday.

“Instead of fixing the broken student loan system, Secretary McMahon is choosing to drown millions of people in unnecessary interest charges and blaming unrelated court cases for her own mismanagement,” he said.

“Every day, we hear from borrowers waiting on hold with their servicer for hours, begging the government to let them out of this forbearance, and help them get back on track — instead, McMahon is choosing to jack up the cost of their student debt without giving them a way out.”

The agency has taken heat for its sweeping actions in the months since President Donald Trump took office as he and his administration look to dismantle the department.

The department is also mired in a legal challenge over some of its most significant efforts so far, including laying off more than 1,300 employees earlier this year as part of a reduction in force effort, an executive order calling on McMahon to facilitate the closure of her own agency and Trump’s proposal to transfer some services to other federal agencies. These actions have been temporarily halted in court.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump signed a massive tax and spending cut bill into law last week, part of which forces any borrower under the SAVE plan to opt in to a different repayment plan by July 1, 2028, or be automatically placed in a new, income-based repayment plan.

The post US Education Department to revive student loan interest for borrowers in SAVE program appeared first on arkansasadvocate.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

This article presents the developments around the federal student loan SAVE plan primarily through a critical lens toward the Biden administration’s policies, emphasizing legal challenges and statements from Education Secretary Linda McMahon, a Trump appointee, who frames the administration’s actions as unlawful and fiscally irresponsible. It includes critical commentary from conservative officials and frames the Biden-era policies as politically motivated. Although it also quotes critics of the Education Department’s decision, the overall tone and source choices suggest a center-right leaning, reflecting skepticism of progressive loan forgiveness policies while focusing on legal and fiscal accountability.

News from the South - Arkansas News Feed

Ceasefire & trade deal talks ongoing at White House

Published

2 days ago

July 9, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – THV11 – 2025-07-09 09:03:54

SUMMARY: The White House expects a Gaza ceasefire deal by the end of the week following Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s third visit to Washington in the Trump administration. Talks involve a 60-day pause in fighting, hostage releases, and partial Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, aiming to resolve the conflict while dismantling Hamas’s military and governance. Meanwhile, President Trump reiterated an August 1 tariff deadline, refusing extensions for trade deals. The Supreme Court has also allowed the president to proceed with significant federal workforce layoffs, impacting nearly two dozen agencies, as part of government downsizing efforts.