Coping and Regulation Supports for Test Anxiety with Caroline Koehler

Kirsten 0:09

This is the social studies teacher podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm Kirsten at the southern teach, an educator and mom who is passionate about all things social studies. I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

Kirsten 0:47

Hi there. Welcome to another episode of the social studies teacher podcast. This is part three of the test prep series. Today we're going to be talking with Caroline Koehler about test anxiety and just being able to regulate emotions and stress, because with testing may come some high emotions, big feelings about test day or the moments leading up to test day and we want to best support our students in a variety of ways that will help them. So join me in this conversation. It was super great to be able to talk to her, and I know you will enjoy this conversation. So without further ado, let's dive into the interview.

Kirsten 1:28

All right, I am so excited to introduce Caroline Koehler to the podcast. Thank you for being here.

Caroline 1:35

Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate taking time out to talk about test and anxiety and all the different things we can do to help kiddos get through the not most exciting time of the school year.

Kirsten 1:46

For sure, I can definitely attest to that. Well, let's start off with just sharing a little bit about who you are, your background and experience in the education world.

Caroline 1:57

Yeah, I was a teacher for about 20 years before, I moved into complete resource creation, that's what I do now, but I've been a general education kindergarten teacher, I've taught special education in the self contained settings for kids with autism and severe needs, and I've also worked with infants and toddlers with some severe needs as well, and done inclusion and resource room for third grade and six through eight in the special ed realm. So I'm a paperwork guru, I love being efficient, and I love positive behavior management.

Kirsten 2:31

Wonderful. That's always helpful to have somebody, whether it's on your team or school support, to be able to have that knowledge that you can go to and find that information. So it's always great what you do. Our topic today is about test anxiety, because whether or not it may be known or students may not even realize it themselves, I think there can be a lot of feelings that bubble during the test taking season, especially when you know, maybe students feel the pressure around like parents or other educators and like, there's this thing and there's this test happening, and I have to, like, do good, or however it is, there's something bubbling. So I really wanted to bring this topic and share this with my audience, so that is why you're here. So let's just start off at the beginning, just explaining what is test anxiety and how does it typically show in students?

Caroline 3:29

Yeah, and I mean, it obviously is going to look a little different in different ages and just across the board. But some general ideas is test anxiety is just that fear, especially of knowing that there's a test getting ready to happen or is actually happening, and combine that with the person's inability to regulate their body, that includes their emotions and that like physiological response as well. So ways that that might show up, it might show up as a dry mouth, where the student wants a drink all the time, which we're a little more flexible with that, these days, we let kids typically have water bottles. Kiddos get upset stomach, they want to go to the nurse all the time. You'll have kids that cry. And you also have misbehaviors that happen, including unusual social responses, like you might have a student who, all of a sudden doesn't want to transition, or starts making loud noises that are annoying and not helpful for testing situation where you should have somebody turn into that class clown, where you're just like, Oh, what is going on here? But then there's harmless little things too, that you can watch as kids are taking tests. You might see them start squirming, or they might do that, like rock back and forth soothe thing. But one of my favorites, that is actually a coping strategy I do all the time, is hair tugging. So if you're listening to this, I'm going to describe but if you are watching on YouTube, I'm going to show you as well. So when I take a test, I have to have my hair down, because I will always pull my hair, my hand back through my hair, and I'll probably pause for a little bit and pull lightly as I go. I've taught that strategy to many, many kids. It's a shame that some of our boys don't have longer hair, because it would benefit them too. If you actually read about this, it is a real thing. When you're pulling lightly on those hair follicles, it releases relaxation throughout the body, gives you a little bit of a break there. So it's a really easy tell to see kids starting to do that, where they're kind of playing in their hair all of a sudden.

Kirsten 5:21

Yeah, that's really interesting. And I didn't realize even something as simple as, like, they keep asking you to get water. I would have never registered that, because usually I was pretty like, yeah, get water when, you know, as long as I'm not in the middle of teaching or whatever. And yes, with water bottles, it's pretty, like, they can have it with them. So it's really interesting, of all the different ways test anxiety can manifest just depending on the student and how they are able to cope and regulate their body, I guess.

Caroline 5:53

Yeah, for sure.

Kirsten 5:54

Well, in your experience, how prevalent is test anxiety in elementary students, and what are some signs teachers should be looking for? Is it pretty common in the elementary age group?

Caroline 6:06

Yeah, unfortunately, I think it is, and I think it's becoming more and more common just because of the high stake testing that we're all doing. So the first really big thing that I always look for is that pattern with attendance, including tardies on testing time. And that me, like, state time yhat means, like, if you have a spelling test that's always on, like, Thursday or whatever, and the kid says, like, you know, like Thursdays, or the parents, like, you can barely get them out the door on Thursdays and that could be an indicator. The bathroom is a big one, those kids that all of a sudden are like - you're like, oh my gosh, we just went 10 minutes ago, test anxiety avoidance, or truly, an actual physiological response that's happening in their body. So that's just a big red flag. Headaches, and that's not always specifically at the time that testing occurs, it could just be, you know, it might manifest later, or they might just be a worrier that they're prone to headaches, so that's another big one to watch for. And also like start watching if they ask to sit somewhere different. There could literally be a student next to them that bothers them, and they're more in a different area, lights and vent fans coming through can just be enough to throw their bodies off. And then some of the worst that I like is hard for me, is chewing. The kids will chew on their hair, they will chew on their pencils, and they will chew on their clothing. So if you think that, yeah, if you have a kid that has, like, wet right here, if you haven't heard of chewelry before, chewelry is this fantastic thing we use in special ed all the time. It can be a little necklace, and flip it up and just kind of chew on it. It's usually a hard, hard silicone. It's pretty life changing and it also takes that ick level down that really gets me with that, that slimy, slimy shirt.

Kirsten 7:54

Yeah,

Caroline 7:54

Sometimes you find it by accident too. Like I had one girl that was just a high achieving student, and she missed a test one time she had a doctor's appointment or something, and the way that it worked out, the next time, I had to pull her individually, and it was just the two of us in my classroom, and I give her the test, and she didn't have read aloud accomodations, so just give it to her, and I go to sit down, and she just starts talking and talking, and then she's arguing, and she's getting, like, adamant. I'm like, whoa, whoa, what's what's happening? She's like, Oh, I just have to talk it through. And I'm like, oh, she'd never done that before in a testing situation with like, 20 some of their kids, so I, like, did all this research to call her mom and, like, she did this at home, and she's like, Oh yeah, all the time. It's like, this crazy thing happening up in her bedroom when she's doing homework. So because of that, we actually ended up testing her one to one. So can you imagine needing to do that?

Kirsten 8:43

Right?

Caroline 8:44

Hold that in the whole time she was 12 before we figured out that this was an issue for her. So sometimes it's luck, and thinking back, I'm like, oh, I should have seen that, because she was one of those kids that no inner monologue, talked all the time,

Kirsten 8:57

yeah.

Caroline 8:58

But, um, so, so sometimes you find it by accident, but, but the big ones are, are usually right in front of you, right?

Kirsten 9:04

Oh, wow. That's a really interesting one. And I would have never thought of like, like, I can see that like, it's hard because you're expected to have complete silence during the test, and you're not really able to really think it out like you normally do. But that's just a - it just goes to show of like, how what we think of students is just what kind of completely different than what parents might see at home or even in other classes, what other teachers might see. There's so much more to it,

Caroline 9:34

for sure.

Kirsten 9:35

All right, so let's talk about some ideas, coping strategies to help those students to manage test anxiety, whether or not we might be aware of it.

Caroline 9:47

I think one of the best things that you can do in your classroom, I don't care if you're teaching the littles or if you're teaching college level, is doing some kind of daily regulation activity. So it's like a coping thing. And I think truly, if you start doing this, you will love it, and you'll be like, this is the best job perk in the world. I get to do a five minute like, coping relaxation strategy. So I have all kinds of wonderful things that I use, that I have strategies listed out of what the strategy for the day is going to be, but I'll just show you, just kind of share a couple. Like, tighten all your muscles and then go limp. So that's literally the strategy that you're going to practice that day. So you're just going it's you're just going to kind of just, and then you're going to relax your body. And doing that, you know, a few times you can do that and this doesn't have to be on a test date. You're just doing this, some strategy like this every day. Throw your worries into a fire built in your imagination, and think of all of those burning up into the fire. Spinning in 10 directions both ways. That is very fun. And yeah, do that right before recess.

Kirsten: 10:50

Yeah, yeah.

Caroline: 10:50

So look, look for the colors of the rainbow in the room and around you. So really, what you're doing is you are just normalizing that. Hey, our bodies have stress, and you know, sometimes we need to get back in touch with our mind to our body, take a breath, slow down, and those are literally some of the things we do, as well as breathing strategies. So teaching those coping strategies every day throughout the school year, it doesn't have to be new. You can repeat them as many times as often, have the kids pick one of their favorites, but then you do those during testing time more. So let's say you only did your coping skills, maybe once in the morning and once, like before you guys leave to go home on the bus, right? Well, testing day, you might want to do that like five times, you know. And it can be five different ones. It could be the same one five times over. But regardless, you're just giving them. Okay, here are all the tools that we've looked at. So now let's use them. So it's totally great to introduce these, like at the start of a test, but you are teaching someone something new then at that point it's just like, Oh, I'm going to practice breathing all of a sudden, wait, am I doing it right? You start questioning yourself if you're a high anxiety individual. But if you've been doing these for weeks and hopefully months, then you just fall right into that rhythm, and you can relax your body a little easier that way. So that is absolutely what I would recommend, is teach the tools all year round and then just bump them up during testing time.

Kirsten: 12:12

Right. I love that idea. It reminds me of brain breaks kind of but at the same time, it's not just for getting the wiggles out. It's they're actually learning those coping supports, regulation, and being able to really, like think truly about their emotions and how they're feeling in that moment, and finding ways to ground themselves in a way. So I really love those ideas that you have there, and hopefully you're going to share resources about that similar to that so if anybody listening is interested in we can make sure to link those in the show notes.

Caroline: 12:46

Yeah, absolutely, for sure. And yeah, it's just, it's just so important to these are lifelong skills that you're teaching. Because most of the kids that we have, if you're an upper elementary school teacher, you know, they've got a lot of years left of testing, and you know, many, many of our students are going to go into college, and we want them to be able to them to be able to regulate their bodies, and we also need them to not have shame that, oh my gosh, I'm stressed out. No, we all get stressed out.

Kirsten: 13:09

Yes, I love that thought process. So thinking about how teachers can balance preparing students for tests because it is a lot going on, it's like, okay, we've got to teach them these certain skills, we've got to teach them all of the test taking skills, not just content, and then just thinking about all that entails standardized testing. How can teachers balance prepping students for tests while also not making it so overwhelming and not too much pressure. I know, for me personally, I was, like, some schools I worked at, it was a big deal. Other schools it wasn't a big deal. And I made sure as much as possible to like, we are not gonna, like, make this, you know, high stakes or pressure wise, it's just, like, you just do your best kind of thing. But what are some ideas that you have?

Caroline: 14:00

Yeah, I think that, like the first thing you said is just so important is you make sure that the kids are ready for the test, but you also explain to them that this is important, but this is not dire. Okay, so one of the do that is to add that, like testing practice into your schedule, so that it's predictable, and that does not have to be like the coping skills, where it's like all year round. That sounds really, absolutely horrible to me, practice every day, but you know you could even do it like a couple weeks before this starts, so that hopefully you have a testing schedule for your school, for your grade, whatnot. And if you need examples of those, I have so many different examples of testing schedules, but yeah, have a testing schedule setup that's predictable, so that they know they're emotionally ready for that. But yeah, I've heard of teachers, and I've known teachers that have just tried to scare the living daylights out of their students about passing the test. But here's problem with that. Yeah, right. It's like, the kids that usually get like, super upset about this and like, like, they're like shaking those are your high achieving kids, and they're going to pass the test, typically with flying colors. Anyway. So as a special educator, who has worked with so many different levels of intelligence, I've had to pull kids out of class before and say, Hey, listen, no matter what happens in this test, you're going to go on to the next grade. And some believe me, and some of them don't. I had one that was like, no, no, you don't have that power. I had to take the child to the principal and be like, Please tell so and so that they are not going to be stuck in third grade for the rest of their lives. She was like, Oh my gosh, no. And some of the kids, of course, depending on special needs, they might be granted a waiver if they don't pass the test, depending on your state. But yeah, the kids that terrifies them, like, you know, they see themselves as this giant, grown up who's in the third grade forever. So let's not do that to kids. Let's just tell them, do your best. That's all that we're asking from you. Because remember, even though they're little people, this is really, really real to them. Like, I actually think some of them have had nightmares about this test before, so giving them that practice, making them understand that, yep, stress is real. We all have had it before. The coping skills that we're going to work on use these breathing exercises. This is another fun visual, and if you're just listing this, this is a countdown strip to make sure that someone is starting with 10 and working their way down to one, taking a breath in and out each time, just to help them regulate their body and and relax. Just all kinds of different strategies to do that. So, you know, throwing that in there too. Again, breathing exercises, another good job perk to have. Yeah. So, so yeah, make sure they understand it's important, but their life does not depend on this, and neither does yours.

Kirsten: 16:45

Exactly, yes, that's exactly what teachers have to think about too, even though it seems like at the end of the day, it's it's just a test and it's data that people are trying to find and know, and we take it and we move on to the next thing, and hopefully just kind of not make it a huge deal, or just like, let it consume us, right? That would not be, that would not be a good way to go through life in general.

Caroline: 17:13

And that wouldn't be using our coping strategies that we've been working all year long.

Kirsten: 17:17

So exactly right. Yeah. So I know we are talking, you know, in general, maybe students with mild to moderate or rare instances of anxiety. But what if there are students who do have severe test anxiety or other regulation challenges like I'm thinking, I've had several students that fit into this category, even like a student who would scream every time at drop off, every single day, like that kind of thing. So like thinking about how we could support those students that we might have in our classroom.

Caroline: 17:54

Yeah. I mean, it's just such a tough one, you know? I mean, first thing that I would like people to think about is your seating chart, which sounds really kind of bizarre, but if you think about a lot of times during testing, all of a sudden we'll move students, and people will spread out, or you need to go here, and you need to go there, or and some of the students, like, hopefully you're one that had extreme anxiety was being tested with someone else, so that it wasn't just the whole room hearing all of that.

Kirsten: 18:21

Yeah,

Caroline: 18:22

right, but, but regardless, they know where their spot is. Like, don't spring a new spot on them right away. So if your student that was struggling always went to went to the resource room with this teacher, and that's their spot in the room. That's what needs to stay the same. So make sure that you have all that ready to go. And I don't know, like, think about yourself, like, if you've been to um, church or a workout class or some other large social group and somebody, like, took your spot, and you're like, where are we supposed to go, it's kind of similar to that. Something that minor feeling to us is is can be a big deal. But for the the kiddos that need a lot of support, the easiest board to use is a first then board again. If you're watching this on YouTube, I'm going to kind of show off a little bit here, but we've got literally, first with a box underneath, and then with an arrow in between the two of them. And for this one, it's as easy as first finish your test, and then you get a reward. And this one, I put snack on there because I like food. But of course, I would ask, you know what they would like. It could be time on the computer, time outside, just relaxing, playing with a sensory fidget. This one's really, really good, because you don't actually have to write this accommodation into an IEP or a 504 because you could show them before, like, first you finish your test, and then you get your treat, and it doesn't need to be in a testing room. Now, this one's a little more challenging. This is a token board. A lot of us call them, and I'm working for or an IF board, but this one has five spots on it. Again, if you're just listening, there's a picture of what the student wants to work for over here and I put iPad on this one, and there are five little dots, and it would be as they were continuing through you would be sliding them tokens to encourage them to keep going. Um, this one I would want written an IEP or a 504, or whatnot, unless, of course, they had all four filled right before the test, and the fifth one would be the test - that would be a way to work around that one. And you know, you're always having a goal, so if your goal isn't finish the test, it's try your best, or work hard, work for X many minutes, all those different things. Those are huge, huge helpers for the kiddos that just really need that extra bump regulating. But I love visuals, too, and I have used visuals like the stress visual. And again, if you're listening, I'm showing a stress monitor that has five through one from top to bottom, and it's just explaining, like, the different levels of stress. And then I have some more detailed ones that say, like, Okay, this is what your body's doing. This is how you're feeling. And these are strategies they can do to either get yourself or keep yourself, depending on where you're at in each level. So those are wonderful. And again, these are things that I teach all year long. So if someone's in the middle of a crisis, like your student who came in who was screaming, I wouldn't just all of a sudden pull out the stress thing and be like, okay, need to cope with breathing over here with the middle of a tantrum. Now, if we had practiced this a dozen times, then I would and I would be like, remember, we practiced this deep breathing, and we would start doing it together, all that business. So monitors, visuals like this can be absolutely life changing. Reminding kids, like with if you're not taking a test, it's all about your effort. So again, if you're just listening, I'm showing a five point scale that's talking about all the different strategies for efforts and what effort looks like, and what you need to do if you are not in an effort zone. So many different visuals out there, and visuals are my jam. I love visuals. And one might work perfect for one student and one might work different for the next student. So a collection is super, super helpful. And we used to laugh too. In my self contained classroom, we were like, these stress visuals are more for us than the students.

Kirsten: 21:57

Yeah,

Caroline: 21:58

we need to make sure that we have you went to the restroom since you got to school today, it's two o'clock.

Kirsten: 22:03

That would have been one of the things I would have needed to do, because it would be four o'clock in the afternoon, like I have not used the restroom at all today. Not a good idea, I don't recommend it. But no, no, I just was on 100% all day.

Caroline: 22:17

Yeah, exactly.

Kirsten: 22:19

But I love those visual supports. I think those are some great ideas, super helpful. And I also love how you mentioned just how they know where they're going to be sitting for the specific test. I know personally when, like, maybe a week or so, it was about a week before we took the test, it was always back to back. One is math and the other one is reading. And we had, we had to have the desks in rows. This was pre COVID, so we had to take all the groups out and put the desks in rows. But I made sure that I assigned them in the spots that they were going to sit for the actual test day. So that wasn't like a surprise they come in and what happened to the room? where am I sitting? It was just like, Oh, I already know. Like, I sit here, I would recommend definitely changing before the test at some point, so that they not completely shocked.

Kirsten: 23:09

All right. Well, thinking about parents, because I know it's not just the teachers and the students. We also got to bring in the parents as much as we are able to, which I know is not always possible, but still, do you have any ideas on how teachers can involve parents in helping their children cope with test anxiety at home?

Caroline: 23:32

Yeah, definitely. So remember I talked about that schedule that you if you don't have a school wide schedule, hopefully at least have a grade level schedule sometimes, I mean, there's schools I've been at that we've had to move shipped lunch around and even recess so that so parents are hopefully aware of that, just just the big changes that are happening in school. But not just that they need to know so that they are not scheduling appointments that can be scheduled other times. Of course, there's emergencies when you need to go the doctor, but hopefully you can wait to go the dentist, not during the testing week, right? So that's super, super important. Just keeps everybody on the same page. But those coping skills that we talked about, that hopefully you were working on all year long, right? Send them home and explain what they're for, that they're this is a lifelong skill. We're going to use this even more during testing week, and then when testing week comes up. Remind them, hey, remember those coping skills we were working on. We're going to be super charging those this week because of honor testing. So make sure that they are just in tune with what you're doing in the classroom to help with this lifelong thing. I actually shared with a student, well, a whole class, but one of the students just like latched on to this. You know, our students are always wanting to be on YouTube, right? So I was like, I'm gonna use this to my advantage, and I'm going to show them how to look up relaxation and relaxing music to fall asleep to or to just decompress to. So I literally think I typed in, like, relaxing music, hertz, healing, something like that. And I pulled one up, and it was 11 and 12 year olds that I had in the in that group, and they were all just like stunned. It's like this, like, you know, nice scene, and it's just like this angelic music, and then there's this hertz behind it that helps relax your mind and body. And they were just in awe. It was the most funny thing. But one of my students went home that night and apparently tried it when it was bedtime, pressed play. She came in the next day, she was like, I fell asleep in less than five minutes. I never slept so good in my life. And her her dad, it was a single dad, and he reported the same thing. He was like, this is going to be a game changer for her. But she was only 11 years old, okay, and so she was already worried about her sleep quality. You know, she was high achieving student, she was stressed out. And so at 11, she's learned, okay, there are tools for me out there. She's already YouTube anyway, you know, it's just

Kirsten: 25:55

She might as well,

Caroline: 25:57

yeah, right. Things like that, sharing that with her and her family. You know you can remind families of that for for testing time, and how people get into the groove of being in tune with themselves, relaxing and yep, I have stress now. What am I going to do to bring myself down to a different level?

Kirsten: 26:15

I totally am there with that girl, because I am a YouTube ASMR girly like I almost not every day, but most days, I will go on and find an ASMR video and calm down, and sometimes I end up falling asleep with it. So you know, it's one of those things.

Caroline: 26:33

Yes, it is, for sure.

Kirsten: 26:35

Okay, well, you've shared so many great resources already and information and tips on helping students with test anxiety. Do you have any additional tools or resources to help and just like, recommend, in addition to like, where we can find you and connect with you and learn from you as well?

Caroline: 26:57

Yeah, you know, there's so many different monitors out there. Like, I like teaching speed monitor to kids that, again, it's a level chart that says just because you're not the first one finished doesn't mean you did anything wrong. You know, take your time, pace yourself. I have so many visuals. I love teaching kids tough cookie and crumbling cookie, of what a tough cookie does and how they work through problems, and what a crumbling cookie does. Again, you know, so many of these visuals I've used with kindergartners all the way up to eighth graders, and they're still applicable. I've never once had even an eighth grader be like, That's so babyish, put that away. Yeah, because, you know,

Kirsten: 27:37

they all connect with it

Caroline: 27:38

exactly we're trying to work through a problem. So behavior charts, sticker charts, I mean, you name it. It's just so dependent on the student. I think that's why I've ended up with hundreds of visuals out there to just help you regulate, but, but yeah, just keep looking for them and talk to your students. See what works with them, show them what you've got. But, yeah, I live at the website, celavora.com , you can find me on teachers pay teachers as well under Caroline Koehler, I am definitely out there. But if you need me and you can't find something that I've mentioned for some reason this, just reach out to me. I'd be happy to help.

Kirsten: 28:16

All right. Well, thank you so much for being here as a guest on the podcast.

Caroline: 28:20

Yeah, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Caroline: 28:23

Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode for more teacher tips and strategies.