Part of effective education is knowing when they are in a mind set to learn, how to move them to one if they are not, and when to just move on. Sometimes it is more effective to delay the lesson for a few minutes to have the students take a breath than to loose ten minutes to the disruptions of overly- excited students. This is not easy, nor is it easy to switch gears to accommodate the need for a break or time to resettle students. My teacher had an amazing book in the class called “Breath Like a Bear” written by Kira Willey which is a collection of children friendly breathing exercises designed to move students into the mindset necessary for the lesson. It was an incredibly valuable tool once I learned to recognize the signs that students needed a moment to switch gears. As the practicum went on I got better about recognizing the need prior to actually starting the lesson, and would lead students in the exercise of their choosing before trying to hold a discussion or do an activity. The category of breathing exercises the one we used was from depended on the activity; ones to calm students or relax them tended to be used after lunch or snack, focusing ones helped students when we were going to be learning new information, and ones to develop imaginations were used before creative projects (like building leprechaun traps). I never had to use the breathing exercises meant to increase student energy, but I have been told that kindergarten students can in fact be lethargic. Overall, the use of this book in particular was a catalyst to me developing the practice of making sure student mindset matched the lesson goals, and developing skills to achieve that.