ENGAGING STUDENTS using the wheel of positivity 

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​We start with the Wheel of Positivity and the NeuroWell frameworks to help teachers:
  • build positive relationships with students and their families
  • design relevant and engaging pedagogy
  • structure motivating classroom practices 
  • create safe, supportive, and proactive classroom culture
We also help teachers remove the barriers that prevent all students, including students with special needs and our most at-risk students, to become motivated and engaged in education. 
  • Designing and managing effective Tier 1 practices
  • Working with students with ADHD and executive functioning disorder. 
  • Understanding ETR and IEP data to improve special education services

Learn about JAKAPA - a tool that builds the essential skills students need to engage


​ Dr. Riegel is one of the founders of JAKAPA, a learning system that measures, trains, and tracks 32 essential skills in five areas: self management, emotional resilience, cooperation, social engagement, and innovation. Her system engages students daily and helps them build the habits of mind that lead to happiness, health, and success. It works like a fitness tracker where the user enters data daily on positivity, goal attainment, and stress. They also write a short journal to help them learn expressive communication. Weekly they take short assessments, ask others for feedback, and engage in reflection with data analysis questions. Many times the root cause for student disengagement is a lack of these essential skills, so JAKAPA is designed to help them gain self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-control. To learn more, visit JAKAPA.com.  





​Hear Dr. Riegel discussing JAKAPA and its importance for helping students become ready for their future.

Check out Dr. Riegel's book 

When Lisa first introduced this new concept of teaching, I was a little unsure that this would work with our type of students.  Once Lisa explained what she had envisioned and gave different scenarios of how the school day would look, I began to understand the picture a little better.  The biggest adjustment that I am going through for this new style of teaching is getting away from lecturing every day and being more of a teacher who provides intervention to students when they are struggling with a lesson.  I am now able to work more with students in small groups and one on one to give them the more attention I could not give them before. This change is also forcing me to better organize and plan out my curriculum for the year and better group the chapters together by standards.  I am also being able to focus more on the major points that the students need to learn and make what I am teaching them geared more towards what they need.  

At this point, I have a good grasp on what I have to do in the planning stage to get ready for the school year.  I am working to create my lessons and the assignments to show mastery. I am using what I have already as a base and working on condensing things to make it more focused on what they need to know.  I have to remember that less is more and that students don’t need tons of assignments everyday to earn mastery. 

I feel like this is making us do more planning ahead of time and we are going to have to adjust to communicating with each other and working together. I believe this will only work if all of us are willing to change and be on the same page with this new style of teaching. 

Katelin, high school math teacher​
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