I've been nerding out about the science of emotions for nearly two decades, but my knowledge wasn't fully tested until my son was born ten years ago.

My son has long struggled with emotional regulation -- due in large part to his ADHD and Anxiety.

Despite spending my career trying to understand how emotions affect learning and decision-making, I continue to be surprised by how his regulation struggles show up in different contexts, particularly school contexts.

Here's one: Which academic area do you think my son -- a highly ADHD student -- gets the lowest marks on when we get his report card?

Reading? Writing? Math? Art? Nope.

Physical Education.

To be clear, my son LOVES P.E. Can't get enough P.E. Says it's his favorite class. But it's the context he often becomes the most dysregulated. Why? Because with physical activity comes an increased heart rate, more shallow breathing, and increased blood pressure -- all cues that can slide a brain from "alert" to "hyper" to "fight/flight," especially a neurodivergent brain like my son's.

Seeing this play out over the years has prompted me to go deeper into understanding emotional regulation, seeing it not as a dichotomy of regulated/dysregulated but a far more nuanced continuum. This shift transformed how I approach regulation as a teacher, a parent, and a human being.

My most recent column in Educational Leadership unpacks some of this nuance and what it means for humans trying to human a little better.

Read: Partners in Calm​: How Affective Teachers Help Students Regulate​

Cheers!

Many of you are on spring break or heading there soon. I hope you all are able to relax, recharge, and re-center. I also hope that you can apply some of the concepts from the Continuum of Calm 🙂

You won't hear from me next week, but I'm excited to recommence the nerd fest in a couple weeks.

Air five!

Your nerd next door,

Chase Mielke