“Attention is how we learn and integrate new knowledge, but it is also how we love and care for ourselves and one another.” - Cora Crisman, Integral Steps instructor. Last year, we talked about this in a newsletter titled “Attention is the purest form of love,” which stated: “To give someone our complete attention is to let them know they matter enough to spend my energy and my time exclusively on them. As parents, teachers and caregivers… moments of true attention allow the other to feel our care, our love.”
With this idea of attention, so central to the development of our self, skills and abilities, and feelings of safety, how can we create spaces to promote its cultivation? Especially during the digital era, which is asking us to pay attention to so many things at once, and to move our tasks into a solely cerebral place sometimes (we aren’t making something with our hands, moving our bodies, or even using our voices, we are just engaging our eyes and minds).
In conversation with Cora about fostering attention in the classroom, she mentions one central concept: “I have to enter the space being calmed and making sure my own needs are met.” Otherwise, there could be a surface level of attention (making sure kids are physically safe during class, or playing the song they were asked, for instance, but not necessarily aware of how they’re feeling) but the teacher won’t be able to either enter or foster a deeper level of attention (where students are engaged, feel heard and seen, and real learning occurs). 
Once these central requirements are in place, here are some ways to cultivate attention in children (the examples are explained based on a classroom dynamic, but they can be extrapolated to other spaces, like the household):

1. Promote experiential play and learning: instead of explaining instructions, jump right into the exercise. Allow children to figure out what they have to do while they’re on it. Make a pause in the middle of the activity to reflect on what’s happening, instead of only at the end. This will increase the chances they’re active and involved throughout the activities. 
2. Deliver content in smaller chunks: this is key, especially if things are not necessarily fun or easy to learn. There’s a connection between interest and attention; once children learn something, and realize they can do it, they have even more interest in it and attention grows. This could mean teaching just one line instead of a whole song, or asking kids to collect and save the red Legos while the adult picks the other ones at cleaning up time. 
3. Bring them back to their breath in a kind friendly way: this always helps to bring attention back or deal with frustration.
4. Deal with emotions directly: if someone is noticeably frustrated, you can ask them directly how they are feeling. If they feel something is too challenging, and not participating causes them to feel angry/frustrated, chances are they will zone out and stop paying attention. 
5. Access students’ attention through different learning modalities: as we mentioned in our last newsletter, we all learn in different ways, which is why it is so important to engage the different learning modalities throughout the class (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic or tactile). Click here to see how this can be done. 

In our Stepping Stones newsletter, we’ve talked about the importance of engaging the different human centers to ensure a balanced development of the self. One way of doing this is by addressing the different learning modalities. In order to explore this topic, we talked with a member of our staff, Melissa Overbury-Howland, who was a high-school teacher in England prior to moving to the States. 
Different research, including this BBC documentary which Melissa was a part of, has shown that we do not all learn in the same way; so there is tremendous value in understanding the different learning modalities. This is especially important when we want to make sure our children (or even ourselves) are learning in the best possible way. 
There are 3 main learning modalities: 

• Visual - understanding and remembering things by sight, often being able to ‘picture’ your learning in your head
• Auditory - learning through hearing and listening
• Kinesthetic/Tactile - a “hands-on”, active approach that can include learning through touch, movement, building or drawing 

Most people are “multi-modal”, meaning they learn better in a combination of these, not  just one. This is the reason why it is so important to create learning spaces where children or adults engage with the content through the different modalities. Doing so will allow all students to digest the information, regardless of how they learn. 
In BAMM, for example - an Integral Steps program that combines Biology, Art, Music, and Motion, children who learn about notes for the first time use the different modalities: for the kinesthetic/tactile, they march to the rhythm of the note, clapping as they feel the beat; for the auditory, they play the note and hear how it sounds; for the visual, they see the note on the music sheet in a specific color to further enhance memorization.
For adults, playing in a chamber music group is a great example of a multi-modal learning experience. You'll learn to watch the other group members and read their body language to know when to start playing together (Visual). You'll feel the music by swaying side to side, nodding your head, and moving your fingers and lips to play your instrument (Tactile/Kinesthetic). You'll read the music (Visual) and convert it to sound (Auditory), listening closely for the intonation and color of the note so you can blend together and play as a unified group. 
In our examples, you may remember one experience better than the other, and that’s because that experience engaged directly with how you learn. For teachers, the different learning modalities mean that it is important to design classes like BAMM, in order to ensure everyone is learning. For non-teaching adults, it means we should be paying attention to how we or our children learn. You’ll notice when your child gravitates towards a specific learning modality because they will be noticeably actively engaged. 
Active steps you can take to help address a range of learning modalities: 

1. If children are struggling to read a book, try using an audible version (Auditory).
2. Is a piece of text too dense? Break it up with colored highlighters or create a mindmap of what you are reading as you digest it (Visual and Kinesthetic).
3. Finding it hard to get to grips with a math question? Have a jar of beans or buttons handy to give to children so they can ‘physically touch’ the numbers they are working on. This works wonders for kinesthetic/tactile learners.
4. Use songs, silly sounds and movement to help with memorization. For example, to learn the names of the planets, say the word Mercury in a very high voice, spin while saying Saturn, utter Neptune in a chattering voice, and belt out Jupiter in a loud booming voice to emphasize mass, appearance or temperature difference (Kinesthetic and Auditory).
5. Make any exercise kinesthetic/tactile by engaging your senses. Go outside if you are learning about nature, smell the air, touch the grass. Are you learning about quantities and fractions? Bake cookies and explore how ¼ tsp of cinnamon tastes different from ½ tsp. This is extremely memorable (and helpful) to tactile learners!

Although it’s already a month into 2022, we wish you a Happy New Year! At Integral Steps, we are thrilled to continue strengthening our community and working around an integrative education. What are you thrilled about this 2022?
Last year, we talked about the relationship between emotions and memory, emotions and attention, and the idea that real learning occurs through experience. In conversation about these ideas with Weronika Balewski, IS Instructor and Director of Development, a new fundamental element was brought up: the importance of the group to enhance positive emotions and learning experience in children or adults. Here is some of the takeaway from Weronika:


What does it mean to take into account your students’ emotions when planning a lesson?
- WB: Thinking about the emotional experience of students in a classroom means that I [as a teacher], have to think differently about my goals. The result is that, if students are engaged emotionally, they will really care about what they are learning and their attention will be put into the day’s lesson. For this, I have to come up with exercises and activities that will allow me to move the theory into experiences, and thus, emotions. What if we learn about different ways of grouping beats into meters by imitating how different animals jump? I definitely have to think of activities that the students will absolutely be thrilled about… 
What is the importance of the group for an integrative musical education?
- WB: The group allows students to live the experience that music is created in community; music is a creative personal expression, it is a conversation and it is created in collaboration, in community. In a classroom, it is clear that once the imagination of some students begins to burst, others follow, and more and more ideas are created. Creativity ignites creativity… We want to perform and create music that is relevant for our community, so we must be connected to it, emotionally. 

- WB: Another important aspect of the group is that it creates a safety net for each student to perceive and acknowledge their emotions. Often, not all the students will be in the same emotional state or energy level to participate in the class. However, seeing how others interact provides a baseline for them to understand how they are feeling (even if they cannot change it). As a group, we work towards not judging these different states, but integrate them. If some students are up and need to release that energy, then maybe we can all move to a fast beat, but if some students are low, then we could bring the whole class to a calmer way of expressing the topic of the day. 
 How do you feel the group has been an important aspect of your integrative educational experience? Let us know! ​