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Before distributing the strips, I collaborated with school counselors and our district’s
board-certified behavior analyst to design a lesson to provide direct instruction on
how to use the calm strip and why intentional breathing is vital for self-regulating.
Such breathing is imperative not just in times of distress but also preventatively to
maintain a regulated body and mind. I delivered 23 lessons to all English Language
Arts (ELA) classes in the school in the fall of 2023 (Figure 4) and distributed the calm
strips. Students were unsure at first but, by the end of the lesson, were buzzing with
excitement when they got to select their own strip and place it somewhere useful.
All teachers and support staff received the strips, too. I overheard our technology
education teacher sharing about the calm strip with our secretary, and our custodian
told me she put her calm strip on her cart. The school was filled with chatter about
the calm strips by kids and adults alike! Calm strips were put on iPads, phones, water
bottles, and computers, as well as in lockers. The repositionable stickers allowed
people to test out the place that worked best for them. Some students even asked if
they could have another strip to put somewhere at home.

Figure 3
Selecting a Calm Strip

Photo copyright: A. Rutledge, 2024

46 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin: International Journal for Professional Educators