Introduction + Using the Notecatcher (5 min)
Welcome participants and frame the purpose.
Introduce the Notecatcher to capture takeaways and quick classroom applications.
Anchor goal: Build and model systems that teach time management, focus, and ownership, not just for efficiency, but for agency.
Part 1: Building Executive Functioning Skills (25 min)
Defining Executive Functioning (5 min)
Interactive opening: Ask, “When have you caught yourself assuming students should just know how to manage their time or focus?”
Define EF in accessible classroom terms: planning, prioritizing, task initiation, focus, and self-monitoring.
Timeboxing and Planning (7 min)
Model how to teach students to see time.
Use a short example lesson or writing block and demonstrate how to break it into chunks (“We’re working for 15 focused minutes, then reflecting for 3”).
Share visual tools (timers, digital trackers, or analog checklists).
Discuss how this builds awareness and decreases overwhelm for neurodiverse and overloaded students alike.
Prioritization + Decision-Making (7 min)
Teach students to separate urgent vs. important tasks.
Introduce the “student version” of the Eisenhower Matrix: help them label tasks as “must do, should do, could do.”
Reflection prompt: “What’s the one thing that will make everything else easier?”
Connect to executive functioning skill of cognitive flexibility: deciding where to focus when everything feels equally important.
Stamina, Focus, and Task Initiation (6 min)
Share how to explicitly teach “getting started” as a skill: using micro-goals, visual timers, or “start with five” strategies.
Demonstrate how brief focus blocks with built-in reflection grow stamina over time.
Tie back: “We’re teaching students to regulate energy and attention, not just behavior.”
Part 2: Classroom Systems That Support Executive Functioning (25 min)
The Help Ticket System (8 min)
Show how this routine builds self-advocacy and problem-solving.
Students identify their challenge, try three peers, then request support, practicing persistence and reflection before asking for help.
Discuss how to model this explicitly and when to pull small groups based on patterns.
Peer Coaching (7 min)
Model what peer coaching looks like and sounds like.
Share norms (“ask before touching,” “coach with questions”).
Highlight leadership and communication skills: collaboration, empathy, and reflection.
Reflection: “When students coach, they reinforce their own understanding, and save us time.”
Kid-Managed Work Day (7 min)
Walk through setup: grade sheets, self-prioritization, grouping by task.
Explain how this strategy embeds EF practice: students plan, monitor, and adapt as they move through work.
Share optional twist: use peer coaching or stand-up meetings to extend accountability.
Putting It All Together (3 min)
Participants identify one EF skill and one system they’ll pair together in their classroom (e.g., teaching prioritization through Kid-Managed Work Day).
Making Actionable Commitments (3 min)
Prompt: “What’s one EF skill you’ll teach explicitly in the new school year?”
Q+A and Closing Reflection (2 min)
After this session, participants will be able to:
Teach students to plan, prioritize, and reflect on their own work using classroom-tested routines.
Implement systems like Help Ticket Boards, Peer Coaching, and Kid-Managed Work Days to increase student ownership and self-direction.
Redefine classroom time management as a shared skill that benefits both teachers and students.
Design systems that scaffold executive-function skills such as prioritization, self-monitoring, and task completion.
Build sustainable routines that free up instructional time while empowering students to take initiative.
Zimmerman, B. (2002). Becoming a Self-Regulated Learner. Theory Into Practice.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/helping-students-develop-executive-function-skills/
Back
Trips and Tours