Celebrating Change.. Doing What Works MAS/FPS Brain Research Implications for the Classroom Linda L. Jordan Hope College February 4, 2010.

Celebrating Change..Doing What Works

MAS/FPSBrain Research

Implications for the Classroom

Linda L. JordanHope College

February 4, 2010

Agenda

Thoughtful Thursday

WELCOME

Action Plans The Brain at School

The Brain

Why do we need to get to know the teacher? (Linda)

• Emotion is the gatekeeper to learning

• Relationship is a key element in every classroom

• Builds trust

• Models inclusion in a safe way

• Find common threads of interest

• Fun

Goals for the Session

My Goals: Your Goals:~Give you a basic understandingof the brain~Give you some applications of brain information to your jobs,personal lives, and the RR Framework.~Create an action plan as a resultof being here today.

“A journey of a thousand

miles begins with a

single step.”~ Confucius ~

Do you Own a Million-Dollar Racehorse?

If you did, would you…• Keep him up until the wee hours of the morning?• Permit him to skip 90% of his training rituals?• Let him maintain a poor non-nutritious diet? (pop and potato

chips)• Endorse an almost completely sedentary lifestyle?• Find it okay for him to play video games for 3-4 hours a day?• Experiment on him with habit-forming and destructive drugs

and/or hallucinogens? Sometimes combining them with alcohol?

• Let him “hang out” with other un-ambitious horses listening to music for most of the day?

Do you Own a Million-Dollar Racehorse?

If you did, would you…

• Allow him to watch 1,400 hours of TV each year, complete with 18,000 gratuitous horse murders and expect him to be well-adjusted with a healthy self concept, and to see the world as a supportive, friendly place to grow, develop and a place where he will maximize his full potential?

Do you Own a Million-Dollar Racehorse?

If you did, what would he be worth to you or himself?

Our students and children have multi-billion dollar brains.

We should not allow their brains to be treated in ways far worse than we would ever treat a horse.

Kenneth Wesson

The BrainSO WHY DOES INFORMATION FROM

THE NEUROSCIENCES MATTER?

IT HAS BEEN A CURIOSITY FOR MUCH OF HUMAN HISTORY!

Yesterday’s thinking…..Phrenology – 1840s and 50s

An early practice at the end of the 19th century that claimed to be able to identify mental capacity and character by feeling the bumps of the skull.

Today’s Science…

“LEARNING IS

THE BRAIN’S

PRIMARY FUNCTION…”Frank Smith, Insult to Intelligence

Lobes of the Brain

Communication of Neurons

Actual Photograph of NEURONS

Amygdala

•The psychological sentinel of the brain because it plays a major role in the control of emotion.

•It is connected to many parts of the brain and plays a critical part in learning, cognition and emotional memories.

Hippocampus

•It helps us remember events in recent past, as well as responsible for sending new information and experiences to be stored in the cortex in long-term memory.

•Critical to learning and memory formation.

FEED THE HIPPO!

Reticular Activating System

•The RAS receives information from all over the body and acts as a central, initial regulator for attention, arousal, sleep-wakefulness and consciousness. Uses this information to change the cell excitation to meet the changing conditions in the environment.

•It filters out distractions or trivial sensory information.

Learning is Firing and Wiring

• Thinking- neurons must communicate

Input….Output– Firing….(thinking)– Wiring (learning)

• Learning is about dendrites communicating and growing– Example: Pathways around new building

“Fire it until you wire it!” -S. Feinstein

Firing and Wiring

• Within in 5 minutes of firing bumps form on dendrites branches

• Within 20 minutes branches begin to grow• Chemical Bust is arousal- easiest way to learn• Harder to learn without the burst…..

“Fire it until you wire it’ “Use it or Lose it”

(Example: Roots on a plant with or without water)

Mirror Neurons in the Brain

A new class of brain cells -- mirror neurons are active both when people perform an action and when they watch it being performed.

Mirror Neurons

• Social Ability– Empathy– The ability to tap into others emotions and feel the

same• Addictive Behaviors

– Hard to recover after rehab when they return to the same friends

• Violence (Video Games)– Boys frontal lobes go to sleep, need reaction not

reflection and thought– Can stay in the this state for 3-4 days– Desensitized

“Neurons that fire together, wire together” -P. Wolfe

Teach Others/Immediate Use of Learning

Practice By Doing

Discussion Groups

Demonstration

Audiovisual

Reading

LectureAverage Retention Rate After 24 Hours 5%

10%

20%

30%

50%

75%

90%

-David Sousa p. 95

Absence of Threat/Nurturing Reflecting

Thinking

Meaningful Content

Adequate Time

Enriched Environment

Immediate Feedback

Movement

Choices

Collaboration

Mastery/Application

Bodybrain

Compatible

Elements

We are the only species

that creates the

environment that

creates who we become!Land of Childhood

LIFELONG GUIDELINES/LIFESKILLS

LIFESKILLof theWEEK

CARING

CONCEPT~INTERDEPENDENCE

GOING BUGGY!TOPIC: INSECT

MONARCH BUTTERFLYHABITAT

UNCLUTTERED—BUT RICH

© Exceeding Expectations by Susan Kovalik & Karen D. Olsen, p. 7.18

Wall displays reflect the itinerary for the topic and yearlong theme Print and non-print materials support the content being learned Real objects are available

Aesthetically pleasing

Seating is arranged in clusters with easy access to work tools

ABSENCE of THREATABSENCE of THREAT

• Absence of threat does not mean absence of challenge or lack of consequences for misbehavior or bad choices.

• It does mean lack of real and perceived threat to physical and emotional safety.

Trustworthiness: To act in a manner that makes one worthy of confidence

Truthfulness: To act with personal responsibility and mental accountability

Active Listening: To listen with attention and intention

No Put-Downs: To never use words, actions and/or body language that degrade, humiliate, or dishonor others

Personal Best: To do one’s best given the circumstances and available resources

Lifelong GuidelinesLifelong Guidelines

LLIIFFEESSKKIILLLLSS

• INTEGRITY: To act according to what’s right and wrong• INITIATIVE: To do something because it needs to be

done• FLEXIBILITY: The ability to alter plans when necessary• PERSEVERANCE: To keep at it• ORGANIZATION: To work in an orderly way• SENSE OF HUMOR: To laugh and be playful without

hurting others• EFFORT: To do your best• COMMON SENSE: To think it through• PROBLEM SOLVING: To seek solutions• RESPONSIBILITY: To do what’s right• PATIENCE: To wait calmly• FRIENDSHIP: To make and keep a friend through

mutual trust and caring• CURIOSITY: To investigate and seek understanding• COOPERATION: To work together toward a common

goal (purpose)• CARING: To show/feel concern• COURAGE: To act according to one’s beliefs• PRIDE: Satisfaction from doing your personal best• RESOURCEFULNESS: To respond to challenges in

creative ways

PROCEDURES

BE

QUICK

BE

QUIET

BE

CLEAN

Restroom

Procedure

Written procedures list the agreed-upon behaviors related to a regular school or classroom routine.

When developing procedures…

Use easily read letters Support with an illustration Use two colors for one chart Have students help create

Agendas give students the security of knowing what is coming for the day and a tool for planning and organizing their time to meet the day’s objectives.

Marvelous Monday

Morning Business

Mapping Our

Neighborhood

Mapping A Story

Moving to Specials

Munch a Snack

Mental Notes About Today

AGENDAS

Why Should I Include Movement in My Lessons?

• 85% of school age children are natural kinesthetic learners.

• Bringing learning into a three dimensional format increases retention and retrieval of learning.

• Physical activity forces oxygen and glucose to the brain.

• Cross lateralization uses the same neural connections that the brain uses to read, write, spell, and compute math.

Meaningful Content

• Is from real life.• Depends heavily upon prior experience.• Is age-appropriate.• Is rich enough to allow for pattern-seeking as

a means of identifying/creating meaning.• Can be used within the life of the learner.• Does not involve an external rewards

system. The brain is a self-congratulator.

Progression of Instruction

SensoryInput fromBeing ThereExperiences

conceptconcept languagelanguage application application to to the real the real worldworld

GROWTH

Brain Compatible Classroom

Traditional Classroomlanguagelanguage

conceptconcept applicationapplication

When presenting a lesson remember…

-Build an Emotional Bridge

C.U.E.-Creative

-Useful

Community is a dynamic whole that emerges when a group of people:

•participate in common practices:

•make decisions together:

•identify themselves as part of something larger than the sum of their individual relationships: and

•commit themselves for the long term to their own, one another’s, and the group’s well-being.

Shaffer & Anundesen, Creating Community Anywhere, pg. 10

Gardner’s MULTIPLE Gardner’s MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCESINTELLIGENCES

Logical-mathematicalLogical-mathematical(logic/number smart)(logic/number smart)

LinguisticLinguistic(word smart)(word smart)

SpatialSpatial(picture smart)(picture smart)

Bodily-kinestheticBodily-kinesthetic(body smart)(body smart)

MusicalMusical(music smart)(music smart)

IntrapersonalIntrapersonal(self smart)(self smart)

InterpersonalInterpersonal(people smart)(people smart)

NaturalistNaturalist(nature smart)(nature smart)

Immediate Feedback

• Direct Instruction~ 16 minutes/hour– clear, concise, succinct, what’s most important

to understand

• Circulate, re-teach, discuss, support

• Students give feedback to peers

• Immediately assess effectiveness of direct

instruction and assignment

Adequate Time

• The brain is a pattern-seeking, meaning-making device.

• Using what we understand helps build mental programs.

Examples of Patterns to Programs:

• Driving a car

• Percentages in my 5th Grade Math Class

• Christopher

We must teach as though teaching for genuine expertise.

Caine/Caine, Making Connections: Teaching and The Human Brain, pg. 110

If we understand… we are responsible.

Linda L. JordanHope College

616-395-7435

jordan@hope.edu