The Kawa Model in Education: Supporting Students by Supporting Teachers

Dive into the OT Schoolhouse Podcast's latest episode, where Jayson welcomes Amy Crosby, whose innovative application of the Kawa Model in education is cultivating an oasis of calm for educators amidst the tempest of school day chaos.

Join us as Amy reveals how a simple yet profound shift in supporting teachers can ripple into improved classroom dynamics and personal well-being, backed by her engaging workshop results.

Don't miss out on this insightful journey through the lens of the Kawa Model to cultivate professional and personal fulfillment for you and the teachers you serve.

Tune in, and let's navigate the turbulent waters of education together!

Learning Objectives: 

• Identify and describe the core concepts of using the Kawa model to support teachers as introduced by Amy Crosby in school-based occupational therapy.
  
  
• Recognize the environmental and personal stress factors in educational settings that were highlighted during the workshop.
  
  
• Recall the strategies for stress reduction taught in the workshop, including deep breathing and thought reframing.

Click here to view the full show notes

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Transcript

Jayson Davies  
Hello and welcome to episode 144 of the OT schoolhouse podcast. I'm your host Jayson Davies, Mao TRL. That just feels so weird to say, you know, you write it at the end of your name so often or MS OTRS, or whatever it might be cotpa. But to actually say it out loud, it's just a little weird. Anyways, as you often hear me say on the podcast, school based occupational therapy is not just about serving the students. It's also about serving the teachers so that they can best support the students. After all, they are with the students a significant amount of more time than we get with our 30 minutes a week or whatever it might be so supporting the students by supporting the teachers. And that is why in today's episode, I want to introduce you to Dr. Amy Crosby. As part of her OTD Capstone, Amy had the idea to support teachers by introducing them to the column model and the associated life metaphors of the water riverbank rocks and driftwood. Through this episode with Dr. Crosby, you'll learn how Amy introduced the column model to her teachers the impact it had, and how you can even replicate this tier one strategy to support a group of teachers. If you have a deep burning desire to support teachers in order to make changes in the way that they support their students. This episode is for you. I hope you enjoy.

Amazing Narrator  
Hello, and welcome to the OT schoolhouse podcast, your source for school based occupational therapy, tips, interviews and professional development. Now to get the conversation started. Here's your host, Jayson Davies, glass is officially in session.

Jayson Davies  
Amy, welcome to the OT schoolhouse podcast today. How are things over in South Carolina. They

Amy Crosby  
are wonderful. Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here. I

Jayson Davies  
am so happy to have you here. We're gonna be talking about the column model. I really love the column model. I use it both like in my own practice, I use it in my business. And even sometimes it works its way out into real world applications, kind of like what we're going to be talking about today. So so that's exciting to be talking about. I gotta say, before we get started, you have some lovely decor behind you. And it's completely natural. I love the trees. I know people listening can't see it. But share with us a little bit about where you are, where you're located and the surrounding area.

Speaker 1  
Yes, I'm in the beautiful low country of South Carolina. And it's mid afternoon. It's a beautiful day today. I think it's getting up in the 60s. It's sunny, and I'm in my sunroom which is my happy place. We'll be talking about power of environment here in a little bit. And this is where I get a lot of clarity. I'm closed off so I have my parameters. But we have a lot of greenery in our yard. And yeah, it's a beautiful sunshiny day here.

Jayson Davies  
I love it. Yeah, you've got nice big windows that just open up to beautiful trees outside. I just I just want to be in that room right there. And just like with a book Yeah. be so wonderful.

Speaker 1  
Thank you. You are here virtually. Yep.

Jayson Davies  
Yep. All right. Hopefully we can bring all the listeners into our nice calm, wonderful South Carolina space right now. But yeah, wonderful. All right, well, let's dive into it. I, you're an occupational therapy practitioner, you just completed your doctorate last year, we're going to talk about the Kawamata, which you use to do that, in a sense. But first, just share with us a little bit about where you are in your OT world right now. I'd love to hear about that. Okay,

Speaker 1  
yeah, so I've been an OT for 20 years. And most of that time, like 15 years, I was counting I've been school based in some way. And so I'll go out I love to try new things and new settings. So I tend to go out every few years and try a new setting. And I always enjoy that. But the school tends to be my happy place. So right now I'm a school based ote full time working in a local public school district. I was part time last year while I was doing my doctorate, I was lucky enough to be part time and finish that schooling. And then started this year part time and then took on to cover someone's maternity leave. So I'm full time now. And I'm looking ahead next year like what am I going to do? Am I going to go part time again and maybe dabble in acute care? That's what I'm considering going back. I love to change it up. I really love all of the settings but right now full time school based. That's

Jayson Davies  
awesome. You know, just I believe it was yesterday just posted on LinkedIn about how awesome occupational therapy is kind of for that reason, right? Like if you get tired or sick of one setting or it's just you're not happy in that setting. There's too many other settings to go try out to stick around and be unhappy. So that's completely awesome. I love that you kind of take that opportunity to go try out different places at school. Absolutely.

Speaker 1  
I love having a level two students with me. And I always will, I really will tell anyone who will listen. I have my oldest daughter is 17. So I talk a lot to her friends and the middle daughter is 15. That and then the youngest is 11. They've always been a part of my OT world, of course, but especially with the older ones, we have a lot of conversation about looking forward and their lives, what do they want to do choose something you love to do? And, you know, people who are getting, you know, young people getting ready to go to college? I really do I celebrate our career and educate them about the fact that what you just said, you can choose any setting. And then as you grow and your you know, if you're a family as you're if you have a family and your family grows, you can adjust and modify your work to match your family needs. Yeah. And yeah, it's we're so blessed that we chose this.

Jayson Davies  
Absolutely. And we had this wonderful model called the column model, which I mean, it's just awesome. And, you know, you talked about that, right? I mean, our skill sets almost act as the driftwood in a way and we'll talk about that in a little bit. I'm sure, you know, our driftwood, our skills can knock down rocks and move them out of the way and open up the river for us. And we have some great skills as occupational therapy practitioners to support us in that. So let's discuss the caller model. You Ready?

Unknown Speaker  
Ready? All right.

Jayson Davies  
So I got to ask What first got you kind of interested in the Calvo model? Did you sit in some, you know, professional development course one day where you're reading in a textbook? Do you learn it in school? What What got you interested in the column model? Well,

Speaker 1  
I did not even know about the column model, just full transparency until I was in school for this post professional doctorate. And Dr. Allama, came to one of our classes virtually, and introduced his column model, because I graduated in oh three, I think it was developed in Oh, six. So, you know, it wasn't in existence when I was in school. But he came and it just, he captivated me. He was on your show. I know. And yeah, listen to that podcast. And his just, his whole manner captivated me how gracious and humble. Yes. And in the model I just fell in love with right away. Yeah,

Jayson Davies  
it was episode 126. And I remember it vividly. And he's just a very calm presence. But at the same time, like so knowledgeable if he wants to just really help with the column model. And so yeah, I remember learning it briefly in my school career. But it wasn't until I have attended a few different professional development courses that I really started to understand its true potential. So yeah, I agree. If you're not familiar with the column model out there, if you're listening, go back, listen to episode 126. We'll finish this episode first. And then go back and listen to episode 126. With Dr. awam. It's, it's a really good one. So then what made you decide to take the column model and Bridget with school based occupational therapy? Because as far as I know, no one's really done that before.

Speaker 1  
Yeah, I know. That's correct. And Dr. Obama, concurs with that. When I was starting, I reached out to him and he was my content expert for this prop my capstone project. And he said, Yeah, to his knowledge. You know, at the time of a year ago, when I did my project, there wasn't a study done using Kawa and early elementary education. But I, my classmates laugh at me, because I said that my capstone project kind of found me instead of me going to find it. I guess, like I said, the schools have always been my resting place, and teachers have always had my heart. And going into the post professional program. A lot of people to Capstone is what kind of drew them in to do that get their doctorate. It wasn't that way. With me. It was an interesting but also very intimidating because I didn't have a thing. I want to do this thing, you know, and I, so I'll go get my doctorate and I can do the thing. And that wasn't the case with me. But I just It honestly, the opportunity, you know, just for me, I was working. All the seeds were planted at all the right times just different. I took here's here's the deal, okay. For the greater part of 20 years, I've worked in schools account from a family of educators, and teachers personally and professionally, I've always had my heart. So I've done like private OT and then the private OT and daycares and private preschools. I've been the school based OT. I've done a lot of doing teacher trainings and So I've been, you know, the educator for staff teaching staff, teaching them different things in the scope of OT. And I've been a consultant role. And so I've worked. So I love working with teachers. And I took three years off before and during COVID, not due to COVID. But I took the year before COVID, we decided to homeschool our three and and then COVID happened. And we were thankful we'd already decided that, but I was there, you know, primary teacher, and I took a break from my professional OT. And when I re entered, that we went back to main mainstream traditional school. After that three years, and when I re entered my professional role, I was setting up a training with a preschool director who we've been working together for 15 years. And I went on to visit with her and we met in person, and we're so excited to see each other. And she just looked at me and said, Miss Amy, it's been, it's terrible. And that was the first seed that was planted. I'm like, wait, what's terrible. So it was just so excited to be with her and plan our next training. And she just proceeded to film in kind of on what they had experienced last year, while I was not there and hadn't experienced that, and that manner. And that was the first seed that was planted. And then as I reached out, have more conversations, and then I, you know, went to work back part time to work while I was doing my cat, my doctorate. And that that was just restated in, across the board, you know, consistently among all of my teachers. That's what I say it came to me, You know what I mean? It says, I was just going through real organically reentering the world, my professional role. I just was so discouraged and sad for them. And shocked, again, and again and again, you know, going in the classrooms and seeing there, they were just depleted. From the last three years, it really had taken like a chronic toll on them. So that was the nietos right in front of me. I mean, I didn't go looking, you know what I mean? It was just it was right there, that I was blessed to be in that position at that time, you know, with this opportunity, hey, you know, what project do you want to do, but like I said, a couple years before I, I never had a thing, a project I was dreaming up, but it just it was right there in front of me. So I was blessed to have that opportunity. And then I learned about the caller model. Yeah. It's it just, I felt that would be a nice match for the teachers. I love spreading good news, when I do trainings, that's what I feel like I'm doing is just sharing good news with them, that I want them to notice it's gonna make their life better. You know, that's what I always feel like I'm doing I'm doing a training. And I had that same feeling with the caller model. Like they need to know this, they need to know about it. If they know about it, they'll use it, you know, as they use it, it's going to help them which is going to help their students. So that's kind of how it started.

Jayson Davies  
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, and, you know, the column model is so it's so vivid, right, you have the picture of the river. And it's so easy to like, understand, even just by looking at the pictures even and so, I think that really lends itself working well. And like the the case that you're talking about with supporting teachers using the column model, I want to ask you, did you ever consider using it almost in a way with the students as opposed to the teachers? Or was it always kind of your idea? You know, what, I'm just gonna go straight to the teachers, because I can imagine also potentially using it with students.

Speaker 1  
I agree. I've focused from thus far on teachers. I just did this always, like I said, that's always when I go on a classroom, like always push in. And I'm always like, what do you need? What can you know, to the teacher? Yeah. And so I really have primarily focused on teacher teachers, the greater part of my caseload right now. I love the preschool world. So they're little, and then my older kids are moderately involved. So um, so that, you know, so that the population I'm serving right now wouldn't be able to actively, like, visualize that participant in the river, I think with all certain populations. Yeah, it'd be great. I've done it with my own children. And there's, you know, typically developing children and they've enjoyed it. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome.

Jayson Davies  
Well, let's talk about the needs assessment a little bit. You already I mean, you kind of front loaded us with this kind of was right after COVID, that you're getting back into the schools starting to have these conversations with teachers. And I think we are all very well aware of the stress that came with COVID. And even kind of still continues to this day beyond COVID. And so I guess as you got started, what was the first part of your capstone project? How did you start to develop the need for it?

Speaker 1  
What we did was in the fall of 21, we did a needs assessment, and that I did I polled preschool teachers and public and private schools. And I just used REDCap survey, it was very simple. It was six questions that all had a branch. So if they said, Yes, it branched, okay, and asked them to rate they're the only one at what didn't branch was to rate their current level of stress on a zero to five, five being the most stress. And then it went on they all the things we've been talking about thus far. Has your stress increased in the last three years? If yes, why? Are there personal factors that affect your level of stress? If yes, why? The same with environmental factors? Are there strategies you use to decrease your stress? If yes, why? And would you be willing to participate in a class to learn more

Unknown Speaker  
call to action.

Speaker 1  
But it was interesting it and then yeah, so that's what I, that's what I did in September of 21. Prior to that, I did a literature review, you know, to dig into what the research the existing research out there, and that was interesting, because some key points from that, that are relevant, that are so relevant, or that that we know this, we already know that just to see the research, you know, in black and white is so powerful. So we already know this, but the research that students can sense their teachers stress level, and that has a negative or positive yet well, a negative that their stress has a negative effect on their learning. There was several research articles of the column model being used in interdisciplinary healthcare teams, to increase collaboration. And so, you know, based upon that, you could assume predict that it would also be successful in a multi in an AI, you know, multidisciplinary school based team to increase collaboration, which I did get to witness firsthand, you know, so it was it was interesting to do the literature review, and then to match that up with the needs assessment. And then originally, I was gonna do my project at the preschool that I spoke about earlier, where I met with the director, and she planted that first seed of what it was really like, out there, but just logistically, once we get into the the nitty gritty of planning it, it wouldn't line up with their like their half day, preschool. The teachers leave right at the kids leave, they don't have planning and they don't have teacher work days. And so we couldn't fit me in there. On a weekly basis. Yeah, gotcha. Gotcha. So I changed to the public school where I was working in, which was a beautiful, yeah. And it made the project I think more what the findings of the project more far reaching, it has 700 to 1000 students at the elementary school. And so, you know, to do it there a greater population. City there. Yeah.

Jayson Davies  
Yeah, absolutely. And, I mean, I know we have a lot of OTs that work in OT practitioners that work in charter schools, private schools, but a majority of us are in that public setting. So it could be more widespread the results could be used for there. Let's talk about some of that needs assessment data a little bit. But first question is, is you know, how many teachers were you able to get to to support you with that questionnaire that you sent out?

Speaker 1  
So for the needs assessment in the fall, so they I had 29 Teachers filled it out. And for me, which was great, and I just sent it out, you know, just word of mouth. Like all my school based ote friends, please send this to your preschool teachers. My sister's a teacher, you know, everyone just kind of sent it out for me. And it was throughout the state. So I was very pleased with that. Yeah. 29 Yeah,

Jayson Davies  
absolutely. And yeah, What were some of the key points that kind of came back from that? What did you learn?

Speaker 1  
So what what I learned was that, that it was really true what I thought was happening, you know that that teachers really were depleted 20 out of 29 of them reported their stress, SBN, three are higher on that scale of zero to five. So they all that triad turned on record, they're moderately to highly stressed. That same number of them said that their stress had increased in the last three years, which is what I had, you know, seen from leaving that world for those three years. And coming back, it was, it was so palpable, you know, the difference. So, the needs assessment echoed that. And when asked why hat, you know, what the question was, Has your stress increased in the last three years? If they say yes, then why. And four of the most popular answers were increased procedures due to COVID, increased demands or expectations, lack of parental support, and high teacher turnover. So, all things that we know, but just to see it in black and white and concur, that is powerful. Yeah, so absolutely.

Jayson Davies  
I have a question for you, because you were doing this right after COVID? How much of this do you think you can contribute directly to COVID? versus how much of this is, you know, just how much do you feel is just the day to day stuff? COVID, or whether whether or not COVID is part of the picture? I mean, I know you didn't ask this question. But what were what was your takeaway?

Speaker 1  
I think the setting schools are, they're a beautiful place to be. And a lot of a lot of good happens there. It's there is very hard work. Yeah, that the teachers are doing every day. And you know, as as OTs, we go in and we support the child in the room, or the few children in the room, or the many children in the room. And then we leave and go down the hall to the next classroom. And my heart is that's, you know, another reason hats off to them, because the teacher is in there all day, every day. Yeah, with the students. And so I think, at baseline, it's tough. And then you throw in COVID On top of that, and it exacerbated all of the stressors. Yeah, you know, if there were behaviors before they were heightened, if there were definitely, you know, the paperwork, everything just got get amped up. aggravated. Yeah, absolutely.

Jayson Davies  
I'm right on with you. On that one, I see the same thing my wife is, is an educator. And I tell her all the time, like, I couldn't be in a classroom with 30 kids for the entire day. Like I just got it. I'm very fortunate in the OT spaces, many of us are that, like you said, we can we're in with one or one or a group of kids for 30 minutes, and then we're on to the next group or individuals. So yeah, that we have it. Good. And I think it's very important for us to recognize that with teachers and understand that that is a tough situation to be in. And yeah, I think that kind of leads us to our next aspect. Because after you did do the needs assessment, where did you go from there? Did you start to find new participants for your actual workshop? Did you develop your workshop? Or where did that? Where did that lead you?

Speaker 1  
Okay, so after the needs, it says that we had decided it wasn't going to work for me to do the workshop at the preschool that I mentioned earlier because of logistics. And I was working in a public school elementary school and they agreed to be the Capstone site that was there, two to three days a week. And it's has 700 to 1000 students, and k are pre K to fifth grade. So there that became the Capstone site. And I gathered my team, my team, I gathered my my capstone population, it was 10. Teachers. Well, educators, one was a school psychologist to speech pathologist and then seven teachers, and they were all on special education, pre K through fifth grade. Okay, that those

Jayson Davies  
are the typical population that most of us would be working with in any elementary school.

Speaker 1  
Yes, exactly. Yes. They were with me through the duration. It was five the whole process five weeks, and they all 10 out of 10. Were there for the the duration of the workshop. Gotcha. Okay,

Jayson Davies  
so what did the what did the five weeks just broadly look like really quickly? Okay,

Speaker 1  
so what we did is we met every Wednesday. Originally, I wanted to do it for 30 to 45 minutes. But that was pie in the sky. And we had to condense it to 20 minutes. And it was it was very hard starting 10 times it was two to was like, right before it was two to 220. And people would come early, a few minutes early, but we started right at two and we ended at 220. Some lingered, because I would hang out, but IEP meeting started at 230. And the kids were out of the school by 150. So that was it. That was the one that was the one window. But um, but they would if they didn't have a meeting, we would you know, we would stay and chat. And like I said somewhat come early, but it was that hard, hard starting in time. And then I they all knew that. Our stay, I would be there again, the following day for anyone who couldn't make it. Okay. Yeah. So all

Jayson Davies  
right. So before we get into some of the pre and post testing, what did the workshop actually come to look like? What was the what was the ideal message you're trying to get across? And how were you trying to get that across?

Speaker 1  
Well, it was, it was really cool how we did it, I thought about I wanted to my goal was to teach them the column model components of it, to teach it to them so that they could, you know, understand it, and they could use it to help themselves. And ultimately, then the children who, who they teach, and I thought about doing it a few different ways, I thought, originally, I was going to do like a two hour course and teach it to them. And I actually tried that I did, I tried it two different ways, which was very interesting, I tried, I did that I did a two hour course with a group of entry level doctoral students at Presbyterian College here in South Carolina. And it was very well received there. Okay, I did it also, I call it a community class. And I gathered, it was all women from ages like 13 to 70. And I guess it was eight to 10 of us, and I tried it on them. And it was it didn't work. Because and what I kind of came to understand from that experience is they just didn't have the foundational knowledge that those entry level OT students did, about all the things that I was just ready, I was throwing at them, like the components of, of the river and what they like what the riverbed stands for, and context. Like they don't know what context means, when I'm talking when we're talking about context, you know. So, from those two experiences, I realized I needed to break this down. And I wanted to give the participants time in between sessions to process everything and deal and self reflect. So I think that was a good move and unnecessary move. So we had four weeks of content, that delivery, and then the fifth week was feedback and reflection. So in the so we broke down the components of the river model each week. So week one was I just gave him a, like I said, we had 20 minutes. So most most of the heavy work of this workshop where was you know, it was done in between sessions by these individuals. But we wanted a very brief overview of like, why we're here, you know, what, what is this, you know, that I was doing my cast, and, and all of that, and a very good overview of the column model, too. So they would kind of know where we're going with this. But we focused on the water. We focused on the river water that first week. And it was, it was so fun and amazing because what we focused on I explained to them the concept, what it symbolizes our life flow. And we really dug into how balanced is our water or imbalanced is our water. And I defined for them. So this is back to those. Like when I did that community class and that OTD class. These were things that I just didn't anticipate until I had done that community class. You know, things I needed to explain like this. We're talking about balance and I explained to them, what we as OTs mean when buying occupation. You know what, why to find out Be patient to them and our context. And I had them pick, go through a week, day and a weekend day, and go through all of their occupations that they could remember, you know, all goes through every thing that they did in a day, all their occupations, and sort them in either productivity, leisure or self care. Put every occupation, each occupation in one of those categories. And, and look at that and reflect on that. So they did that for a week day and a weekend day. That was very enlightening. Because many, many, many, many, most, were out of balance, like we all are, yeah, randomly picked three, everybody, I should have said the beginning, everybody got a manual, a folder with the materials in it. And I randomly picked three of those at the end with their permission. And two of the three that I picked and looked at their inventory of their occupations, their productivity occupations, were four times that of any of the other categories. Cuz that's, that's what we know that. Yeah. I know. I mean, we know that, you know, but just to see it. And for that, you know, it's powerful, it's powerful to see it in black and white for it was for them. And for me, too, so that we call those um, theory application tasks like they did that I went through the instruction. This is what you're gonna do, you know, examples of it and defined occupation and define those three categories. And once I felt confident, they understood what they were going to do that week, you know, then they took it. And they did that on their own time that week. Another thing they did that week, that was enlightening was the Moho, the model of human occupation, that role checklist and the interest checklist. And that was powerful for them, too. Because it had them on the interest checklist. It's like two pages of, of all kinds of hobbies, you know, all kinds of hobbies from gardening to drawing, I mean, every hobby, and they go through and literally check in the I think it's like in the last five years. Was this a hobby? Would you like to get into it in the future? It hasn't just reflect on Yeah, that used to be an interest of mine. And I'm not doing it currently, what I like to do it in the future. And that was from the feedback from the participants. That was a powerful exercise as well. Yeah. So those, those three things, the Oculus sword in their occupations, during the inventory checklist and the role checklist, those were the self reflective theory, application tasks that they did that first week. Gotcha. Okay. Together. Yeah.

Jayson Davies  
Yeah. So then you move on to week two, and you? What did you What was the theme for week two? And then what was the exercise?

Speaker 1  
So week two was super cool, too. This was so fun for us. And they loved it, too. They love the FaceTime. And the the fellowship? Yeah. So the week two was riverbed, our riverbed and we'd choose it. So what if so I defined context, which we as OTs, it's just kind of part of our, you know, mental framework, like it's just we just think that way, but it's not for everybody else? Yeah. So I defined context and how our personal and environmental factors comprise our context. Gotcha. Okay. And this was a super enlightening time that we had when we went over the content. And then discussions and reflections thereafter. It was very enlightening. And like you talked about where I am right now and the sunroom and the windows. One thing we did there and person that they reflected on in more depth on their own was and I had visuals to support this was I wanted them to envision their ideal office. And I wanted them to in all of the categories of sensation. I wanted them to envision what it looked like. And then I showed them examples of classrooms for them. I should have classrooms that were very visually organized and ones that were kind of a hot mess, you know, and the effect that had on them. And that generated some fun conversation you can imagine. And then we went through, what does it sound like in there? And in your ideal office? What does it sound like? You know, do you hear children? Is it better? Is it loud and chaotic? And you can't even hear yourself think, isn't totally silent year. Like, if you could just dream it up? What would your ideal office be? Where you're most available for creative work? Not where you go to get on the wheel and do rote work. But for creative Ben inspired work? You know, that was that was powerful. We went through all that, what would your seat look like? Would it be a yoga chair? Would you have a stand up desk? Would you be on a treadmill, you know, but just to get them thinking about the power of environment? Yeah. So that that was powerful for them. And we talked about their own classrooms. And they did a lot there were all of their each of their classrooms were very different per their styles and the effect that that had on them. And, and then we also, a powerful thing that we got great feedback from was are the personal factors affecting our context. And we talked about self narratives, the power of that we believe the voice we hear, most often we believe, what we what we tell ourselves most often. And so we had a lot of great discussion, productive discussion about that. And you know that, but to the model, how that affects, they really gained an understanding of how those personal factors and the environmental factors comprise our context, which is the riverbed and how that has such a direct effect on how our life flow, you know? Yeah, yeah. So that was week two. And they were just, they didn't have something to turn in, you know, to complete for week two, but to go further with creating their own dream office. And further in that way, oh, another thing we did in that week two was, they're supposed to just take some practical steps to simplify their environment. So I gave him I think it was 10 or so practical steps to simplify their environment. And it was things that we had talked about in class in our session, but stuff like minimizing your clutter, minimizing your time on social media, eliminating your news intake, minimizing your time with toxic people, you know. But yeah, that was an impactful week.

Jayson Davies  
Yeah. Okay, so that was week two. Yeah. Week one was the was the Water Week to the riverbed. I'm assuming we're getting into the rocks and Driftwood here. And week three,

Speaker 1  
yeah, wave three was rocks and driftwood. So rocks are our problems, quote, unquote, our challenges, things that are difficult to us that impede our flow. And then our driftwood are the personal characteristics that can be worked for us or against us. But there's, you know, so unique to us. And so that week are in session time was, we had a case study about a teacher named Sally. And Sally had a lot in common with them. And we discussed Sally she was thriving in some areas, and then she was struggling in some areas personally and professionally. And we identified together we identified Sally's rocks, and her River and her driftwood and her river. So we did that together. And then their theory application tasks that week was to do the same one themselves. Awesome to identify some of their rocks and some of their driftwood.

Jayson Davies  
Gotcha. Okay. I think we'll go with week four. And then we can when we talk about the discussion or the results, we can kind of dive into what some of their driftwood in the in the rocks were. But first let's let's talk about week four.

Speaker 1  
So week four, which is the kind of the big purpose for the kala Haleakala model can be used is to we try to identify spaces, you know, for greater flow, greater engagement and meaningful activity. And so week two we we went during our in session time, we talked about Sally our case study again, and we created SMART goals for Sally and Do you know and what was greatest since these were all special education educators and professionals, they were familiar with smart goals from IEPs. They had no trouble with that. Yeah, with creating the goal, and that was, that was very interesting, we created some for Sally together. Of course, that was easier for them than it was to create them for them for, for your own self, you know, it's easier to do that for someone else than yourself. But, um, it was interesting, because some of them just to give you an idea of where they were, and their kind of process and what they were learning. One, I was looking through some of my notes, but one, her goal was by March, so that was like, she gave herself a month that she would so five rose crochet five rose on her blanket. That was obviously a hobby that she had maybe put aside, you know, for a while. And one was, she was gonna make a list, that she would look prioritize her to do list, and just focus and complete three of the top five on her list each day, because she was getting overwhelmed. One was that she would go to the gym, she was one who realized that she was way out of balance in terms of not having any self care and her when she took inventory. So she wanted to her goal was that she would go to the gym straight from school. It was either one to two times a week, which was hard because she had a new child at home and yeah, all of that. But they were great goals aimed at increasing the flow of the river, or increasing the moving a rock out of the way a little bit or widening the riverbed, you know. But that was week four, is their theory application task was they would they create it to smart goals for themselves? Gotcha. Very cool. Yeah.

Jayson Davies  
All right. Well, I think that that goes through most of the content with in the column model. So then week five was the left for some feedback.

Speaker 1  
Yes. So week five, I asked them questions about not not survey questions, not about their stress. And all of that. I asked them questions about about the workshop. Was this helpful? Do you think this is something that would be helpful to be implemented in the schools? What would you change? And what was the best part? Is there anything you would eliminate this questions like that in terms of the workshop to help me moving forward with it? You know, if it was something to offer again? Or to you know, how to modify it to make it better? Yeah. What did they all everybody loved it, we kind of it's, it's hard because really all 10 out of 10 loved what they loved about it is what makes it so hard to do, but they loved the in person aspect. Because they loved the the fellowship, like I said, the dialogue that was started there. And they love they said they loved getting together and, and talking and learning and studying something outside of what they do all day. You know, but they wish they had more time. I don't know how to fix that, you know, because of the me within that setting. I don't know how to fix that. Yeah. We talked about different ideas. They said like at a Tomorrow's a staff education day. And you know that we could do one there. But then you're back to doing it all. All at once. So anyways, it was good conversation. We didn't, it didn't end with with a nice neat answer of how to implement it. The whole workshop. pieces and parts. Yes. pieces and parts. Yes. And I think that this work, I might be getting ahead of myself, but I do think that this workshop pretty much as its outlined can can be replicated in another school with really good results. It just leaves you wanting more it does because of the content you know not and not because of the instructor or the, you know, the content? And because of the, the effects? Yeah. Because you learn things that actually do make your life better. And yeah, I do help you do help you to manage to manage in that setting to manage all of your roles. And yeah, it makes you make the time. Yeah.

Jayson Davies  
So So before we get into that, so I could I do want to ask you about, you know, if anyone wants to kind of implement this, maybe some tips you have, but before that, talking about the actual pre workshop and post workshop survey, what, what were some of the key results that you found from the pre to post survey?

Speaker 1  
Okay, so one thing that we found is there was a 10%, but I'll take it, there was a reduction in overall reported stress levels. And that's powerful, because I didn't take any of their work demands off of them, you know, what I mean, I nothing came off of them, this is actually something additional inserted into their day, it was helpful, but it was work, you know, and then them having not having but choosing to make time to do the activities, that was all extra. And even in spite of all of that, there was a 10% reduction in stress levels report, when you compare the pre and post workshop surveys, there was a greater use of stress reducing strategies afterwards, compared to before, so specifically to deep breathing and thought reframing strategies. So meaning, the self narrative, changing that from a negative to a positive, and visualizing the river and the components of the river during the day. So I should have said that at the end of every session, in person, we did a stress reducing, we introduced a stress reducing strategy. And when I picked it, I picked ones that, you know, intentionally they could use in their classroom. So and they were so simple. So the first one, what two of them were deep breathing activities with a visual, and, like, one was the rainbow and they, you it's just pretty and colorful and happy, of course, but you you trace, as you trace over, it has the arrows that tell you like, you trace, left to right, and inhale. And then you get and you switch rows, you switch colors, and you come back on the exhale. And you do that through the through the rainbow. We do did that together. And then now there's rainbows and all of the classrooms, really in there calm down corners and, and stuff like that. But um, we did the deep breathing and we did a visualization. One, but I think that um, so back to the pre and pose before, in the pre survey, I think it was one of them. One person reported doing, I'm gonna pull it up. One person reported doing deep breathing, and then that went up to four and the end and the in the post survey. And then Okay, so what we found was in the pre workshop survey, one participant said she used deep breathing to help manage stress after the workshop for said they use deep breathing. That's, that's pretty impressive to me. Yeah, very positive. And before the workshop, no participants reported using reframing thought strategies, which would be like visualizing the column model as a whole or a component of the column model. Or it would also be like changing your self narrative from negative to positive, but none of the participants reported using that pre workshop, and four of them reported using it after. So those were the two biggest changes and noteworthy changes in terms of Strad energies that they use to manage the stress that I would attribute to the workshop, also. So in terms of environmental factors in the pre workshop survey, 60% says six out of 10 of the teachers reported that there were environmental factors at work that increased their stress. And then after the workshop that increased to 80%. And I think this points to an increased awareness of what environment environmental factors are. So before they knew they were stressed, but they couldn't, perhaps necessarily articulate what was causing that stress and their environment. And they, you know, through the workshop and the study of context and all of that they gained an awareness of that. Yeah. And as I

Jayson Davies  
really quickly as I, as I look at your slide here, the top three factors, environmental factors in your post were staffing issues, student behaviors and paperwork, which, you know, some people don't view paperwork as an environmental factor, they might think, oh, that's more of a personal factor. That's something that I'm not good at. It takes me personally a long time to do paperwork. But in reality, that can be an environmental factor related to your specific job. It's not a you thing, it's a your job thing.

Speaker 1  
Yes, yes. Yes, there are personal factors listed were anxiety and depression that was listed both pre and post, that's not not changing, you know, we can't change that. I'm feeling overwhelmed, and being worried about children and family. So those are factors definitely unique to the person. Yeah, yeah.

Jayson Davies  
All right. So at the end of the day, what are your thoughts on this just kind of in general, like, is this something that you hope to do again? Are you already doing it again? Are you still using what you learned in your everyday practice? Just kind of overall, what what were your takeaways?

Speaker 1  
So I would love to do this, again, I would have thought of a few different things. But what has happened thus far as we've kept the language going? Because you still work at the same school, right? Yeah, I'm at the same school, 10 out of 10 of us are still there. Now, eight out of 10, eight out of the two speech therapists left, eight out of 10 of us are still there, and the language is Go is definitely still go. And the deep breathing is still going, I learned that if I this is some powerful takeaways. Teachers will utilize strategies, if they can use them for the children in their classroom. Do you know what I mean? You know, like with the rainbow breathing when we that's, that's just a prime example. It helps the teachers manage their stress. But they use them immediately. Their first response was, oh, I'm printing that out for my for my classroom. And that's their buy in almost. That's my, that's my weigh in, you know,

Jayson Davies  
yeah, it's funny because we, we do more for others than we do for ourselves. We want to take care of the kids that we serve. So if we do it for them, we're more likely to do for ourselves.

Speaker 1  
Yeah. Yeah. So. So that's important. When I think about reaching a teacher, I need to do it, where she or he understands that it will ultimately help the their students, do you know what I mean? Then I have their buy in. Same with strategies when we when we go in the classroom, you know, and we're like, what Johnny needs to be set up on an angle surface, and that'll help his grasp or Sally needs to have this visually blocked over here. And but but when they when the when we get buy in from the teacher because she sees the effectiveness of that strategy. You don't I mean, that's when she's going to use it. You know, so it's the same with this when she or he says that? Oh, yeah, if I learned this, and I can model it for my students, you know, I'll do it. I'll do it. But, um, so so the language has still is going. I've learned it's just reminded me of the OT, I do think that what I learned from this is it's different than when I went into OT in the schools. I didn't anticipate kind of serving teachers in this way. You know, because what we think of was school based or tea or is all of the fine motor or visual motor sensory processing strategies and services to help the student. And not I mean, I know we've always support the teacher and work alongside the teacher, and we're professional partner partners with them, but to, to serve the teacher in this way, as is a different kind of addition to our OT role that I think is, is definitely worthy of studying and highlighting and continuing to do. Yeah,

Jayson Davies  
absolutely. I mean, and that's why that's one of the reasons that I am so particular, you'll often hear me there, say it here on the podcast, or my emails that we're there to serve both students and teachers is not just students, it's not just the teachers, we're really there to support all of them. And that's why I really wanted to have you on today to really talk about how you serve the teachers, because, as you mentioned, you know, way back, when we got started in that literature review, it's not new to understand that if teachers are feeling good or feeling supported, they're, you know, de stressed, then they're going to help the students improve more. And so by focusing in on the teachers here, you have probably made a big difference. I know, we can't quantify it, but you've, you've probably made a difference on those students that that have been able to learn. So that's quite, quite a feature. So quick question. Have you seen any of the teachers? Mention the column model? Use the column model, like in their classroom at all? With the kids particularly? Or Not yet?

Speaker 1  
Not directly? Now, and again, my my class, my, my classrooms that I serve are a lot of preschool and then the moderate severe classrooms. So no, not directly.

Jayson Davies  
Yeah. I wonder, too. I mean, like the you said, you mentioned you worked with, like the school, Psych was part of it as both the speech therapists and I could definitely see, especially maybe a speech therapists kind of working on that during the session or something. But know that that's super cool, that you were able to get through to all the staff. Before we wrap up here really quickly, some quick tips that you might have, for anyone who might be interested in kind of running this type of a group with their teachers at their school site.

Speaker 1  
I guess my first thing I would say is, it's doable, and it's worth it. Yeah, and a starting place. I mean, we've been thinking of other timeframes, but in the day in the school day, where you can capture all of those people, and I just, if you find one, email me, because we can't find it, but it's true. You know, so I would just say start with what you have, and you don't have to have it is so much content. But a lot of it is done individually. You know, one, you just do it on your own individually in between sessions. So this is a great starting place, 20 minutes, four weeks, five, if you know for that feedback week. And it really the it's worth it, and it's doable is what I would want to say. Yeah, yeah,

Jayson Davies  
absolutely. And you know, your your capstone project is available. And so anyone can go and read your capstone project for a little breakdown of how you did it. And then there's so many YouTube videos about the Calvo model. If you need to learn more about it, you can also go to column model.com, to learn more about the column model. So if you're not quite familiar with it yet, you can definitely learn more about it before you try something like this. Completely agree when it comes to working with teachers and providing like training to teachers, shorter is better, even 20 minutes is hard to get time for. So kudos to you for finding that 20 minutes, you know, for five consecutive weeks is that is definitely not easy. I do have one final question, I think. And that is in regards to the administrator. I know that the administrator was not necessarily part of your research, but the Did they have any thoughts either before or after you

Speaker 1  
completed this? They were just consistently supportive. It's one principal and two assistant principals. And they were just consistently supportive. And they would ask for updates of how my project was going. They were when I couldn't even get the question out initially to ask the principal can I I was telling her I'm in school and I've just kept you know, and before I'm gonna get up, she was like, yes, have it here. We'd love to be your capstone site. So just from the very beginning, very welcoming and encouraging and supportive. Yeah,

Jayson Davies  
awesome. That's great. Well, Amy me, thank you so much for joining us today really appreciate it. I'm really looking forward also to catching up with you maybe a year from now and seeing if you've had a chance to run it back with the teachers and what they've learned or maybe find a new group of teachers to try it out. I personally would love to see you retry this with the general education teachers, and maybe if it's, maybe it's just like the first grade team, or maybe it's just the kindergarten team, whatever it might be. But I would love to see what could even even come with that. That'd be fantastic. Any final words you'd like to share?

Speaker 1  
Um, no, I just, I do think there, I do think there's little pieces of this that could be embedded in the school, that would be something else that if someone else wanted to do a workshop like this, you know, how just visuals like at the end the teachers lounge or at the water, fill up station, and visuals or have pictures of the river, like once we once you do that workshop, to have a visual on the bathroom door, there's, I have memorized this, there's the positive affirmations that are on the bathroom doors, when I see them, and so that's the power of them. So like, it works, you know what I mean? And so I think little pieces and parts along the language will stick. And then there's those visuals that you could put up throughout the school that would add another layer of keeping the culture going, you know, the kala culture going. And, and I also thought of like a water relaxation station type place where you could go and have maybe the like the dream machine, you know, the sound of a river, and the positive affirmations posted on the wall. So I think that's another layer that you could do post workshop to keep the effects going. Yeah. I would love any any questions or any communication I have. We put my email,

Jayson Davies  
go ahead and share it here really quickly. And then so yeah, okay,

Speaker 1  
so it's Crosby, coastal therapy. Crosby as my last name. Coastal is along the coast. therapy@yahoo.com. Perfect. Yeah, reach out. Yeah, just chat about it. Yeah,

Jayson Davies  
we'll share that on the show notes for the episode as well as a link directly to to the Cala moto website, as well as your capstone project. So anyone who wants to take a read through or ponder through it can absolutely learn more about it and reach out to you so

Speaker 1  
great. Okay, thank you very much.

Jayson Davies  
Yeah. Thank you, Amy. It's been great talking. And we'll definitely stay in touch to learn more. So

Unknown Speaker  
thank you. I've enjoyed this.

Jayson Davies  
Thank you once again, for tuning in to the OT schoolhouse podcast. And thank you so much to Amy for sharing about how she used the column model to support teachers. If you would like to learn more about the COA model, be sure to go back and listen to episode 126 of the podcast with Dr. Hugh wama. He is the founder of the column model. And we dove into all the different parts of the model from the river to the riverbank to the driftwood and the rocks and how that really can apply to school based occupational therapy. And I really think that there are more school based OT practitioners that are starting to use the column model, especially as we dive into the world of mental health. I can't wait to hear how you implement the column model in your practice. Now that you have a little bit more information. Thanks again for tuning in. I appreciate you and I'll see you next time. Take care of school base Oh T crew.

Amazing Narrator  
Thank you for listening to the OT schoolhouse podcast. For more ways to help you and your students succeed right now head on over to OT schoolhouse.com Until next time, class is dismissed.

Jayson Davies  
Thanks again for listening to the OT schoolhouse podcast. Though to school house podcast is produced by myself Jayson Davies with support from Chandler cozy. The podcast is edited by James Endo. While we strive to provide accurate and up to date information. The content shared in this episode is intended for informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you or a loved one would benefit from occupational therapy services, we recommend consulting with a qualified occupational therapist or health care provider for your personal guidance. The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of those who schoolhouse. Remember your safety and well being are important, so please use discretion and seek appropriate support when implementing any strategies or recommendations discussed. If you would like more individualized support as a school based occupational therapy provider. Check out the OT schoolhouse collaborative at OTSchoolHouse.com slash collab where you can earn professional development access is our interactive gold bank and interact with myself and other school based OT practitioners I appreciate you see you next time