The Focus Coach is a new tool for training attention during academic activities. To explore the tool as a teacher, click on Personal View, then click on Focus Coach.
The Focus Coach was designed to help students master the skills of anchoring, focusing, and releasing. Mastering these skills will take lots of practice. The Focus Coach creates a way for students to practice while they study, so they don’t have to set extra time aside for it.
There are two ways to use the Focus Coach: (1) all together as a class (using Synced Sessions) or (2) individually (using Personal Sessions where students can select their own settings). The main benefit of Synced Sessions is having a unified experience as a class. The main benefit of Personal Sessions is that students can customize the timing of their check-ins. For students who have difficulty maintaining focus, more frequent check-ins can be especially helpful. When using the Focus Coach individually through Personal Sessions, there’s also an “Auto” check-in option, where check-ins automatically adjust based on students’ preferences and previous focus levels.
Before students begin, encourage them to mentally set their anchor for where they want to focus.
Students should also keep the Focus Coach visible at all times, because otherwise it can become distracting to find the Focus Coach during each check-in. Students can keep the Focus Coach visible by either splitting their screen to have two windows side-by-side or using the Pop-Out Mode feature. To utilize Pop-Out Mode, students can click the button in the top right corner while a session is open.
While using the Focus Coach, students leave the tool open on their device while they do independent work. Students will be prompted periodically with a check-in sound, which cues them to tune into their current focus levels (a meta-awareness skill called introspection). Make sure students have their volume on to hear the check-ins. If students are using the Focus Coach during class time, then headphones will be especially important. Once they hear the sound, they will click their answer on the screen to indicate how focused they were in that moment.
Check-ins accomplish three things:
- Provide accountability to help students stay on task
- Pull students back to their work if they’ve drifted off
- Train students’ self-awareness, which makes them less prone to distraction
You can also encourage students to use the Focus Coach outside of the classroom while they complete homework. The more sessions they do, the more they will build their self-awareness and concentration.
The Focus Coach is available on the website and on the native Finding Focus app. When students use the Focus Coach for homework, it’s ideal to use the app. Although encouraging students to have their phone out while they study may sound counterproductive, the Focus Coach is designed to serve as a shield from digital distractions like social media and text messaging. While using the Focus Coach, after turning on “Do Not Disturb” students will not be able to use their phone for anything else.