Session 4: Focus in Flight – Directing Attention in a Distracted World
Welcome aboard your fourth flight in the Mockingbird onboarding series. In this flight, we’ll navigate the airspace of attention, overload, and mental clutter—because in today’s learning environments, attention isn’t something we demand... it’s something we guide.
When learners are distracted, dysregulated, or drifting, our job isn’t to control their focus—it’s to redirect it with purpose and care. Attention is the first step to engagement, regulation, and coaching. It’s the runway we guide learners onto before we ever take off toward deeper learning.
In this flight session, we’ll explore:
How attention, working memory, and behavior are connected—and how all three impact a learner’s readiness
Why attention is a tool for co-regulation and trust-building, not just task-completion
How to use attention cues to create psychological safety and classroom rhythm
Why learning can’t begin (or be sustained) without having the learner’s eyes, ears, and emotions in the room
🧰 Flight Tools & Strategies:
The Facilitator Diamond – your cockpit controls for attention
Start/Stop Cues – setting tone and structure from the jump
Redirection Cues – gentle rerouting when attention drifts
Multi-Sensory Cues – engaging the body to anchor the brain
Call and Response & Here, There, Everywhere – interactive habits that pull learners back into the moment
You’ll leave this session with small, powerful shifts that bring order to chaos, and rhythm to the room. These strategies don’t require more energy from learners—just better direction from us.
Your post-flight resources and optional tools for reflection and practice will be waiting in Echo after landing.
This flight is about more than getting attention. It’s about using attention to get connection.