Purpose Statement
The purpose of my study was to determine if the implementation of The Zones of Regulation would improve competencies in social-emotional development and self-regulation skills.
Rationale
I taught at a school where there were 572 students enrolled in the building. 78.5% of those students were Caucasian, and 1.1% of those students qualified for free and reduced lunch. All students lived within a one mile school boundary, with many students involved in extracurricular activities together in my classroom. I taught 23 second graders, 12 boys and 11 girls. I had 2 students on identified behavior plans, 7 students received additional enrichment from the High Ability Learner Education (HALE) teacher, 1 student received support from the Reading Specialist, and 3 students received additional reading or math interventions.
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Both qualitative and quantitative data showed a need to focus on classroom behaviors. Our school-wide behavior plan was loosely based around PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports). In addition to PBIS, all classrooms used a clip-up clip-down chart. Each student started their day on “ready to learn.” When students made good or great choices they could clip-up and be recognized for their positive behavior. When students were being disruptive or making choices that were not respectful, responsible, safe, or kind the teacher would tell the student they were not ready to learn and had to clip-down, and be publicly recognized for the choices they made. This often led to escalated behavior, and did not provide them with ways to get ready to learn. My quantitative data showed that 48% (11/23) of students were struggling to control their body or voices during instructional time. It also showed that 35% (8/23) of students were struggling to control their body or voices during independent work time. 6 instructional minutes were being spent redirecting students, and correcting behaviors. From 10 days of collective data 52% of my students clipped down (showing behaviors that were not “ready to learn”) at least once, and 17% of my students ended their day below green (ready to learn). In my classroom, we used practice cards when students were presenting behaviors throughout the day that were distracting to others or taking away from instructional time. At the end of the day during “earn time” if a student received a practice card throughout the day then that student had to come meet with the teacher to practice what they could not achieve before, and work through different strategies to get “ready to learn” next time. From 10 days of collective data 28% (5/23) of my students received practice cards.
From my observations I saw students lacked ability to monitor their own behavior. I was able to acknowledge for students their positive behaviors, and to point out when students were not ready to learn. When students were not ready to learn, they were struggling with telling me how or why they are behaving the way they are. When asked, 100% of my students have told me they do not know how they could calm down and show they are ready to move forward. When asked to clip down due to choices made, I saw that unexpected behaviors and emotions escalated even further. Once asked to clip down, they were still unable to access tools to regulate their emotions. This information led me to the conclusion that my students needed curriculum based instruction to teach them self-regulation skills and social-emotional control. With that information, I researched the best curriculum for my students and identified the best delivery for instruction. The Zones of Regulation is a framework to foster self-regulation and emotional control. This curriculum teaches students about different emotional states, what feelings/reactions are appropriate depending on the social setting, and gives students a toolbox to self-regulate when feeling escalated emotions.
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The information gained from this study is important because it will allow me to identify if the implementation of Zones of Regulation improves behavior in the classroom. With our school-wide implementation of the clip-up, clip-down chart I am seeing inconsistent expectations and follow-through with behaviors. I struggle with clipping students down, with the fear it may escalate their negative behaviors and make matters worse. I am seeing a lack of Social Emotional development in my group of students. My students are struggling with the ability to balance and control their emotions and energies, and to maintain a level of “ready to learn” in a classroom setting. This skill and process is so important for students to practice and understand, so I can make the instructional minutes we have together about instruction, and not about managing behaviors. It is so important for students to be able to understand how to process their emotions for a variety of reasons. Not only do I want them to be able to process through different emotions that they have, but also help them to understand it is okay to have those emotions and then knowing how to get them under control. I strongly believe this skill will set them up for success throughout their time in school, and help them achieve their highest potential. Looking ahead, Zones of Regulation could become a school-wide initiative in the very near future. If I can find success in this study, I can support my colleagues in the years ahead with this development.
HISTORY
NEED
IMPORTANCE
Action Plan
What was implemented?
The Zones of Regulation was identified as the best fit for my classroom for a variety of reasons. This curriculum is a framework to foster self-regulation and emotional control. My students struggled with regulating their emotions, demonstrating appropriate behavior, and problem solving when presented with a conflict. Simply stated, The Zones of Regulation used common vocabulary across grade levels to increase students ability to identify states of emotion and regulate those emotions in different social settings. One of the big components of why this curriculum was chosen over the other is because of the focus it has on unexpected vs. expected behaviors in different social settings, how to identify unexpected behaviors, and how to express the feelings we have when we personally experience unexpected behaviors and when others around us are experiencing them. Along with that, the common vocabulary used across the curriculum that becomes a part of the classroom culture was another big factor in choosing this curriculum. Because my students had a hard time identifying when they were escalating or escalated, and also how to react and communicate with others who were presenting with those same emotions, The Zones of Regulation best supported their needs in these areas.
How was it implemented?
Over the course of 6 weeks, The Zones of Regulation curriculum was implemented in parts. Due to the curriculum being designed to be taught across grade levels, not all lessons were applicable for my 2nd grade students. I went through and chose the lessons that would best fit the needs of my students, which can be seen mapped out from the calendar attached. Some lessons include, but were not limited to, identification of the zones and emotions, social scenarios, toolbox, vocabulary, different behaviors, and more. The lessons and implementation were taught whole group, with all students receiving the same instruction. Lessons ranged from 30-60 minutes of whole group instruction, resulting in a variety of lesson times and days. On top of the whole group instruction, daily routines were implemented in regards of The Zones of Regulation. Morning meetings now consisted on students identifying their own zone and emotional state using The Zones of Regulation vocabulary- for example, "This morning I am in the blue zone because I feel tired from not getting enough sleep. I will think happy thoughts and do an exercise to get to the green zone" (anonymous student).
How was instruction differentiated?
Due to the reality that all students started at different levels of social-emotional capabilities, differentiation was necessary throughout this process. As I noticed students struggling through different lessons, requiring more behavior interventions, or struggling to self-regulate, individual and small group instruction was sometimes taught on top of the whole-group lessons. This could often take place of a small group reading lesson. Self-regulation tools were taught through different lessons, and students chose which tools best helped them and they added them to their individual toolbox. Some students needed some extra assistance when thinking of a tool to help them find the green zone. These student were provided with an individual flip-book to refer to as needed. Other students could simply self-regulate with the tools provided and referred classroom posters when needed. As I saw students getting more comfortable with the curriculum, I began to incorporate different activities within other content areas. For example, we would use our descriptive writing to often reflect on which zone students were in using prompts like, “I am..” “I feel..” “I will..” and discussing our writing along with promoting The Zones of Regulation curriculum. Students were able to take what they were learning through the curriculum and practice those skills in the classroom, throughout the school, and in their daily lives. With my two students on identified behavior plans, they were able to take the self-regulation skills they were learning through The Zones of Regulation and have those tools support them with their own daily goals.
Why was this curriculum best for student population?
My study was based around the ability to self-regulate emotions, which I saw a need across my entire classroom. To say that each student needed the same amount of behavior interventions each day, the same supports, and the same exact instruction would be a ridiculous assumption. I had 23 students that came from 23 different homes, 23 different families, 23 different backgrounds, and 23 different experiences. By definition, self-regulation is the fact of something such as an organization regulating itself without intervention from external bodies, which comes with rate of development, instruction, and social experiences. To say that 23 different 2nd graders are developing at the same rate, experiencing the same things outside of the school setting would not be realistic. Compared to Second-Step SEL (social-emotional learning) curriculum (a universal social-emotional curriculum designed by grade-level), The Zones of Regulation had more flexibility and ways to differentiate to fit my own classroom. To make an impact on my students, I felt the culture of our environment needed a change, and not just daily lesson plans. The Zones of Regulation allowed me to introduce my students to a new vocabulary, toolbox, and way of regulating inside and outside of the classroom daily.
How did this study promote culturally responsive teaching?
I found myself providing different students with extra support when needed, as well as less supports as I saw growth with this curriculum and skill. With my students that began with high self-regulation skills, I often challenged them to be the leaders of the classroom, and encouraged others to learn from them. With my students that often struggled with self-regulation and being ready to learn in the classroom, they needed more help guiding them to self-regulate and be ready to learn in the classroom. All students were taught the same lessons, and were given the same resources and materials throughout implementation. My students that needed more supports due to the slower development of their self-regulation skills, were provided with a personal toolbox to reference when needed. The Zones of Regulation curriculum not only gave me the freedom to implement lessons that best fit the needs of my students, but it also taught them to have the capability to handle problems and emotions on their own. For example, it is no longer just a teacher or adult telling them what behaviors are and are not okay, but the perspective of peers as well. Students are able to take ownership of their actions, and help one another through expressing how one feels or reacts.
Professional and Learning Communities
The Zones of Regulation is not only a curriculum to increase self-regulation skills in my classroom, but an interest building wide as well. Although it is not yet implemented throughout the school, many leaders in my school have researched this program themselves, excited to see what this curriculum could accomplish. At my elementary school, we did a book study over The Zones of Regulation curriculum with a small group of interested educators. This group consisted of a variety of grade-level teachers, special education teachers, and others. We read the entire book over the course of the year, meeting monthly to discuss concepts, research, and implementation strategies. These stakeholders were people I could rely on for strong discussions and ideas for my own classroom. My building school psychologist is someone who would be considered an expert on this curriculum and social-emotional learning as a whole. Talking with her not only helped guide my instruction, but assisted me with materials and resources needed to implement it successfully. She guided my calendar, and helped me make instructional decisions on lessons chosen to implement. My principal was in full support, ready to lead the building towards this instruction in hopes to see success across grade levels. Throughout this process I continuously collaborated with my CADRE mentor to assist with instructional decisions, data collection, and helpful feedback. Overall these internal stakeholders not only engaged in my research by discussions, observations, and suggestions, but supported me instructionally along the way.
My CADRE cohort was a big help when it came to my purpose statement and direction of my research. I was able to collaborate with a variety of cohort members for ideas, importance, and need of this research in the classrooms. They assisted me when trying to identify my own classroom needs, and supported me with materials and research they had began to implement in their own classrooms. I loved learning from my peers, and it helped guide my instruction. Discussing my idea before creating a purpose statement with my Capstone professor, helped me identify the passion and high need in my classroom. With this discussion, I was able to identify the direction of my research. Collaborating with these external stakeholders throughout the process not only gave me direction, but confirmed that I was taking the steps needed to be successful in my study. These stakeholders supported me through the roadblocks throughout my study.
One form of my qualitative data collection was the classroom climate survey. This survey consisted of questions that addressed student feelings about the classroom environment, classmates, and teacher(s). Students reflected on their own feelings of the classroom environment in a safe format, stating if they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree. I related those responses to a 1-4 points scale so students could better understand their responses. Students were able to respond through a google survey, with digital responses. With the climate survey I was able to determine how impactful The Zones of Regulation had on the environment of the classroom as a whole, as well as with individual students. I found this important because as behavior interventions decreased throughout the study, their attitudes about the classroom environment (hopefully) increased.
Data Collection Methods
Daily Quantitative Data collection was taken daily, and reported weekly throughout implementation. Each day I would tally times instruction was interrupted due to student behaviors, times students had to owe “earn time” due to reminders during instruction, and times a think sheet was filled out and sent home. The other part of this data collection was tallying how many times The Zones of Regulation vocabulary was used or heard during implementation. I used this data collection format to demonstrate the amount of behavior interventions or times taken away from instruction due to behaviors and reflect results throughout the study. The purpose of my study was to analyze if The Zones of Regulation curriculum would improve self-regulation skills to decrease behavior interventions and increase productive instructional minutes. Tallying vocabulary was to analyze as The Zones of Regulation was being implemented and used in the classroom, what happened to daily behaviors.
This quantitative data collection was collected before and after the study (T-test). Students were given the pre-test before any instruction began on The Zones of Regulation. Again, I was able to revise the assessment to make it a 1-4 point scale, rather than “strongly disagree-strongly agree” to address confusion with students. Knowing that my students did not have any exposure to The Zones of Regulation curriculum, the pre-test was used to assess where each student felt with their own emotions, self-regulation, and behaviors in the classroom. Since decreasing behavior interventions was such a focus in my study, I felt this T-test would best reflect if students made growth with the curriculum. With their responses, I was able to determine their growth in self-regulation skills to reflect the purpose of my study.
Data Analysis
Classroom Climate Survey
I found these two responses related very closely to The Zones of Regulation study. The purpose of my study directly reflected student behaviors, responses to behaviors, and self-regulation. I found it interesting that 18.2% of students still felt they did not behave in the classroom at the end of the study, and that 34.8% of students still felt others did not behave in the classroom. With the written response at the end of the survey, “if you could change one thing about the classroom, what would it be?”, 26% of my students responded with something along the lines of, “I wish students were nicer.” I think this directly reflects The Zones of Regulation curriculum and the awareness that students gained through the process. Not only are students reflecting on their own behaviors, but they were also becoming more aware of others around them. Yes, they still felt that students or themselves were not behaving in the classroom, but I also think that could reflect the fact they were holding each other accountable for their unexpected behaviors.
Another response that relates closely to classroom behaviors is their interest in school and learning. I found it interesting that 21.7% of my students stated they disagreed with liking school, and 13% of them stated they disagreed with having fun learning. That is a direct reflection on the classroom environment, instruction, and population of the classroom. I was surprised that so many of my students felt this way about learning and school. This information helped me decide to move forward with The Zones of Regulation even after my study. With more time, I hope that students can continue to take responsibility for their unexpected behaviors to improve our classroom environment as a whole. As students gain responsibility and strengthen self-regulation I will be able to bring in more activities to make learning more fun as they gain independency.
Although some numbers seemed lower than ideal, the impact on students and the classroom environment have still improved. The Zones of Regulation Curriculum lessons I taught put a big focus on self-regulation tools, unexpected vs. expected behaviors, and understanding the different zones. I think that part of the behavior results directly reflect the newness of The Zones of Regulation vocabulary and implementation whole class. With time we could work together to improve this process and ensure accountability is being done in a respectful manner.
Pre Test and Post Test
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Targets:
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I am able to identify a range of emotions
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I am able to read my own body's cues to determine emotions I'm experiencing
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I understand how my behavior affects how other people feel about me
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I am able to identify triggers that influence my behaviors
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I use tools to regulate myself when I'm experiencing intense emotions
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I know how to problem solve desirable solutions to problems I encounter
My pre test data demonstrated that students marked/felt they disagreed with the learning targets more than students agreed. This showed me that students had little to no understanding of The Zones of Regulation curriculum, self-regulation skills- including a toolbox, identifying emotions, identifying triggers, problem solving, and understanding how their behavior affects others. Across learning targets and my 23 students, almost 35% of students marked they can never demonstrate at least 1 or more learning target. 40% of students marked they can sometimes demonstrate at least 1 or more learning target. 27% of students marked they can either often or always demonstrate at least 1 or more learning target. These results were extremely alarming, as they communicated that over 70% of my class felt incompetent in self-regulation skills. This pre test data was a big indicator for my instruction. With the time frame, I was unable to implement each piece of The Zones of Regulation curriculum, but I was able to identify strong needs with my population of students. I chose lessons that really focused on identifying emotions within themselves and others, gaining a toolbox to support self-regulation, unexpected vs. expected behaviors, and within each lesson focused on strategies to problem solve.
My post test data showed there were extreme changes in a very positive manner. In the 6 weeks of implementation, I was able to teach 8 Zones of Regulation lessons. Just after those 8 lessons and daily implementation with routines there was a huge shift in the classroom environment reflecting on self-regulation and unexpected behaviors. The number of times students felt they could never demonstrate a learning target dropped from 35% to almost 13%. The number of times students felt they always demonstrated a learning target went from 6% to 27%. One of the targets I want to highlight is I understand how my behavior affects how other people feel about me. Pre test data showed 5 students agreed with this target, and by the end of the study that number improved to 13 students. Another target I want to highlight is I use tools to regulate myself when I am experiencing intense emotions. Pre test data showed 4 students agreed with this target, and by the end of the study that number improved to 11 students.
Student Interviews
Student B was able to identify a wider range of emotions by their second interview (sad, mad, bored, angry).
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Student A embraced their role of being a leader in the classroom, identifying how their behaviors could affect others around them.
Student A and Student B were my students on individual behavior plans. Student C was a student that often struggled with emotions.
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The biggest improvements across these students was the ability to identify many emotions and access a toolbox to regulate emotions.
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Student C's first interview took longer than the second interview because they were able to find their responses more quickly, because the curriculum became more of a habit than a thought process.
This showed me that in the little time we did have, The Zones of Regulation had an extremely positive impact on their self-regulation skills and social-emotional awareness. With such a strong focus on regulation tools and unexpected vs. expected behaviors, I found this data to be exciting! Less than half of the curriculum was taught and I still found some success. With a full implementation spanned across an entire year, I believe data would show even more growth.
Daily Behavior and Vocabulary Collection
Daily behavior and vocabulary collection was recorded weekly throughout the study. This quantitative data collection helped me monitor progress and differentiate my action plan based on needs in my classroom. Behavior was tallied anytime (as often as I could and remembered) instruction was interrupted due to an unexpected behavior, students had to fill out a think sheet, or students received “practice time” due to too many reminders during a subject area. Vocabulary was recorded any time students were observed using The Zones of Regulation vocabulary or tools during the school day- this excluded morning meetings, and direct Zones of Regulation lessons.
I found that behavior can be a complicated thing to keep data on, as it is often impacted by many outside factors. Some of these factors that contributed to this data could be: snow days, schedule changes, early outs, daylight savings, etc. So many factors can contribute to classroom behaviors, so each week looked differently to give an honest analysis of data. Behavior cannot be monitored by a test score, but can be monitored through daily interventions and collection. Throughout the study, behavior decreased at an inconsistent rate. Week 2 I was looking at 31 unexpected behaviors, and by week 6 I was looking at 15 unexpected behaviors, reducing my number by half. There was a spike in unexpected behaviors at week 4, 22 unexpected behaviors, but still never exceeded 31 unexpected
behaviors since week 2. After seeing the spike in behaviors at week 2, I realized I needed to be doing more up front instruction, to give the curriculum time to become habit with the students. Week 2 I taught 2 lessons, and week 3 I taught 3 lessons, with implementing morning meetings. I moved my lessons up, increasing to 2-3 times a week, rather than 1 lesson a week at times. After week 4 I became purposeful with the amount of Zones vocabulary I was modeling, hoping to increase that number by the end of the study. For example, I would prompt students to discover their zone when experiencing an unexpected behavior, or use problem solving skills we have discovered through the curriculum by sizing the problem and using their tools to stay calm and focused. The hope was that as Zones of Regulation vocabulary increased, unexpected behaviors would decrease, but this piece of data shows inconsistency across the weeks.
The implementation of The Zones of Regulation positively impacted student behaviors. Although the number of unexpected behaviors did not decrease at a consistent rate, the unexpected behaviors were cut in half from week 2 to week 6. Going from 31 unexpected behaviors to 15 unexpected behaviors in just a matter of 6 weeks created a huge shift in our classroom learning environment. Students were using tools to self regulate, which was noticed 8 times during week 6, and were more aware of how their behaviors affected others around them. I can only imagine with more time to teach and implement the curriculum with fidelity, the changes I would see across my student population.
Summary
Although this reflective data was all over the board, each piece of data brought important value back to the purpose of my study. Each piece of data highlighted the positive impact this study had on students. The behavior data collection, classroom climate survey, and t-test all added purposeful value to one another. The t-test really highlighted the behavior data collection, with the increase in tools and awareness of behaviors, the behaviors did decrease. Although I did not see a huge spike in use of vocabulary with my daily collection, I saw their knowledge of tools and vocabulary increase with the t-test. Knowing that the students are more aware of the curriculum and self-regulation tools, I can continue to implement and see their own implementation of vocabulary increase.
I found a strong connection between the classroom climate survey and the other two data points. Like I highlighted above, the classroom climate survey directly reflected the curriculum and where I was in implementation. As students’ awareness of behaviors increased, their feelings on classroom behaviors were becoming more relevant and they were aware of what was happening around them. Like in the t-test, they were comprehending how their behaviors affected others around them, so their feelings of how they behaved and others behaved in the classroom had a very negative response. With further implementation and use of the self-regulation tools across the classroom, I think unexpected behaviors would continue to decrease each week and their feelings of the classroom climate would become more positive.
Reflection
How action research impacted student learning
Action Research taught me and allowed me to identify an area of growth in the classroom that needed to be addressed. I identified many classroom needs based off quantitative and qualitative data, and narrowed it down to the most important focus area based off a variety of data points. For example, before I began researching I identified that my students fact fluency in math was low based off time tests, observations, and FASTT Math data (an online fact fluency tracker). But I also identified that unexpected behaviors were taking away from instructional minutes. From that data, I identified the higher area of need was too many unexpected behaviors, which led me to the research of social emotional development and self-regulation skills. I researched multiple resources to find the best fit for my student population and applied specific research based instruction strategies and curriculum (The Zones of Regulation). Due to action research, I knew that instructional decision was strongest for my students, and would be the best possible outcome on their learning. I was able to identify the highest need in the classroom, research multiple solutions and strategies, apply research based strategies, and strongly impact student achievement.
How action research impacted current teaching
During implementation of action research, my teaching continuously changed, grew, and evolved . I began by considering each piece of curriculum and instructional strategy, and applying what I thought what would be best based on research alone. Throughout the study I monitored progress and growth, changed and adjusted my plan along the way. For example, with The Zones of Regulation, lessons were supposed to be taught and implemented one to two lessons per week. With limited time to implement an entire curriculum, I began with two lessons a week. As I monitored progress, I noticed that unexpected behaviors were not decreasing at a consistent rate, and use of vocabulary was not increasing. Due to that observation at week two of implementation, I was able to alter my plan at week three. Moving forward, I decided to begin teaching three lessons a week to increase exposure with my limited amount of time. By understanding the process and importance of the research, I was able to alter my action plan based on the needs of my students. Action research required me to be a reflective teacher to best impact student growth and achievement.
How action research impacted professional growth
Action research pushed me to go outside of my comfort zone and challenge myself as a professional in my first year of teaching. Before this action research project began, I did not know all the pieces that went into it and how to successfully conduct the research in the classroom. As a professional, I was able to identify a need in my classroom, research multiple perspectives, choose and implement best practice with my students, and collect multiple sources of data to monitor and report student growth. This skill was something I developed through this process, and can apply it continuously to positively impact each new group of students. Through this process I also made new connections with other professionals, and joined a committee to promote my research for school-wide building improvement. Collaboration is what made this process manageable, and the connections I made outside of my building created a support group I will be able to reach out to with future professional needs.
What I learned & remaining questions
I learned what action research consisted of, how to plan each step of the research, and analyzed and reflected on the research data. As it is represented in my product, each step of the action research took careful planning, consideration, and implementation. I learned how to plan each piece, and alter my instruction along the way if needed to better impact my students and meet their needs. I mostly learned how to be a reflective scholar to ensure I was continuously implementing best practice and not just going through the motions. I am still wondering if beginning this action research at the start of the year would have changed the outcome. Would the extra allotted time allow me to implement the curriculum with fidelity and see an increased amount of growth across my student population? The curriculum was designed to be taught not only through the span of a school year, but across grade levels as well. I am also wondering if my building adopted this curriculum, would there be further growth by the 2nd or 3rd year students are exposed to it? I believe this question can remain for all action research, when is the best time to start? After you get a strong feel of their needs with more time to implement? Right away after the first few assessments? Or later in the year when they have made growth but still need supports in a specific area, but with less time to implement?
Changes & modifications for the future
For this specific action research, The Zones of Regulation, I will begin implementing the curriculum earlier in the year. The curriculum is not only full of self-regulation tools, but it is designed around common vocabulary to be used across grade levels. The curriculum needs to be taught with fidelity, which is 18 lessons with multiple activities within each lesson. More than six weeks would be needed to not only implement the lessons, but create an environment around the curriculum. The process of the action research would remain the same (the planning, researching multiple perspectives, and implementing best practices for students), but the implementation time would change.
Future thinking, behaving, and interacting
Before finishing my action research, I looked at this as just an assignment, but it is so much more than that. The ability to apply research based strategies to improve student achievement is something that will drive my instruction for the rest of my career. The fact that I was lucky enough to learn this process and apply these skills so early is helpful for my profession. Districts provide curriculum and best practices to fit all classrooms, but groups of students have their own sets of needs. Sometimes, it is going to take researching and trying a new researched perspective to reach the needs of a new group of students. Needs in the classroom will be more than just a stress or area of growth, it will be an opportunity to be a learner and try new things in my classroom.
How action research will impact future teaching
Like I have stated before, action research has pushed me and allowed me to grow as a professional. The positive impact I was able to see with students due to action research has inspired me to continue this process with my future teaching. The education world is continuously changing with new findings and new successes, and I will make sure I do not get stuck in my ways. This process and program have allowed me to reflect on the learning process and re-discover the importance of lifelong learning. The learning will never stop, and I am excited to continue this process with my future students.