WHAT WE'VE LEARNED

This year we studied the book, Brain Rules, throughout the year. We used the format of meeting twice a month, on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month. We took one chapter and studied it for those two weeks, then came back together as a group (about 15 of us consistently) and talked about our own learning and the implications as classroom teachers.

Below you'll find the synthesized notes and implications based upon discussions. Keep in mind that we didn't finish all the chapters this year. We chose the ones best-suited for education. We didn't cover Rule ##2, #7, #8, #11, #12. If you're curious on what those brain rules are, we encourage you to purchase or check out the book.

RULE #1: Exercise Boosts Brainpower

OUR LEARNING:

• "A lifetime of exercise can result in a sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performance, compared with those who are sedentary."

• "The role of exercise on mood is so pronounced that many psychiatrists have begun adding a regimen of physical activity to the normal course of therapy."

• "Kids pay better attention to their subjects when they've been active. Kids are less likely to be disruptive in terms of their classroom behavior when they're active. Kids feel better about themselves, have higher self-esteem, less depression, less anxiety. All of those things can impair academic performance and attentiveness." 

We talked about the need to get our students moving more often. We had already read the Attention chapter and knew that we don't have a lot of time before kids check out of what we want them to learn. Not that we're going to do 100 push ups every ten minutes but . . . it has made us more cognizant about what we can do in the classroom to ensure we are maximizing our time by getting kids moving. As we have looked at our schedule for next school year, we've implemented a few more recesses for grades that haven't had them because, according to Dr. Yancey, kids do better academically that receive more opportunities to get out and move.

RULE #3: Wiring: Every brain is wired differently.

OUR LEARNING:

• "Learning results in physical changes in the brain, and these changes are unique to each individual. Not even identical twins having identical experiences possess brains that wire themselves exactly the same way. And you can trace the whole thing to experience."
• "Given these data, does it make sense to have school systems that expect every brain to learn like every other? The current system is founded on a series of expectations that certain learning goals should be achieved by a certain age. Students of the same age show a great deal of intellectual variability. These differences cna profoundly influence classroom performance. Lockstep models based simply on age are guaranteed to create a counterproductive mismatch to brain biology. YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT THE HUMAN BRAIN IS INDIVIDUALLY WIRED."

One of the biggest pieces we discussed with this chapter was permission to understand that all brains are wired differently and that some students won't be able to understand the depth of a concept, for example, as well as others and that's okay. We recognize that every brain is unique. The massive challenge, naturally, is how do we find what works for that one individual student and can we get that child the help he/she needs?

RULE #4: Attention: We don't pay attention to boring things

OUR LEARNING: 

• In everyday life, we use previous experience to predict where we should pay attention.
• That's how memory works . . . by recording the gist of what we encounter, not by retaining a literal record of the experience.
• Memory is enhanced by creating associations between concepts.
• Always start with key ideas and, in hierarchical fashion, form the details around these larger notions.
• Lecture Design: Modules that last in 10 min segments
• Each segment would cover a single core concept...always large, always general, always filled with "gist" AND ALWAYS EXPLAINABLE IN ONE MINUTE.
• It's important throughout the lesson to have liberal repetitions of "where we are"
• At the 9 minute, 50 sec. mark, make sure to set the ECS (the hook) to tie into the next concept or segment.

This chapter was some of the most important learning we did in this study. It made us very cognizant about our delivery and the time and structure of which we are delivering the material. How many of us to way too long before we give students think or analysis time, along with time to talk to one another about the new material they've learned? And as this chapter implies, we have to make the learning relevant to the child, linking to real world concepts and connections. Let's face it, we have some boring material that we have to cover, but if we keep this brain rule in mind and really look at our delivery of material, we can capitalize on the best learning environment.

RULE #5: Short Term Memory: Repeat to Remember

OUR LEARNING:

• We now know that the space between repetitions is the critical component for  transforming temporary memories into more persistent forms. Spaced learning is greatly superior to massed learning.
• The brain has a natural predilection for pattern matching. Information is more readily processed if it can be immediatlely assoicated with inofrmation already present in the learner's brain. Give students examples because providing examples makes the information more elaborative, more complex, better encoded, and therefore better learned.
• The events that happen the first time you are exposed to given information play a disproportionately greater role in your ability to accurately retrieve it at a later date. If you are trying to get information across to someone, your ability to create a compelling introduction may be the most important single factor in the later success of your mission.
• You can improve your chances of remembering something if you reproduce the environment in which you first put it into your brain.

The big piece for us from the chapter are found in bullets 2 and 3. We have to provide student constant examples (as many real world as possible) and make sure we have a compelling introduction since this sets up the learning for the entire lesson.

RULE #6: Long Term Memory: Remember to Repeat

OUR LEARNING:

• The relationship between repetition and memory is clear. Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later. Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately if you want the retrieval to be higher quality. Learning occurs best when new information is incorporated gradually into the memory store rather than when it is jammed in all at once.
• The way to make long-term memory more reliable is to incorporate new information gradually and repeat it in timed intervals.

RULE #9: Sensory Integration

OUR LEARNING: 

• Multimedia principle: Students learn better from words and pictures than from words alone. Students learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near to each other rather than far from each on the page or screen. 
• Students learn better from animation and narration from animation and on-screen text.
• The opening moments of a presentation are critical, and incorporating multisensory presententations can really help.
• Our senses work together which means that we learn best if we stimulate several senses at once.

This chapter really hit home how we need to incorporate multimedia into what we do. The practical side to that though is that it's admittedly tough to do initially. Setting up multimedia takes time and planning, something we're already strapped for. We are, however, moving forward to ensure that every classroom has project the computer's screen as well as the document camera's. That's our first step.

RULE #10: Vision: Vision trumps all other senses.

OUR LEARNING: 

• The more visual you make something, the easier it is to recall. Tests performed years ago showed that people could remember more than 2,500 pictures with at least 90% accuracy several days post-exposure, even though subjects saw each picture for about 10 seconds. Accuracy rates a year later still hovered around 63%.
• If information is presented orally, people remember about 10% when tested 72 hours later. That figure goes up to 65% if you add a picture!
• We pay lots of attention to color, shape and size, and we pay special attention to objects in motion.
• Vision is by far our most dominant sense, taking up half of our brain's resources.

This chapter, like Sensory Integration, has huge impacts for us when we present material to students. We have to remember that combining a picture with what we are doing hits home with memory. We have to try and incorporate as much visually stimulating support material for our core delivery as possible.

V I S I O N: Trumps All

So we met this last week in regards to Vision and the implications it has in our classroom. No doubt that we need to be including more VISUALS with our materials. The research is clear: Put a picture with the information and students retain the info better.

Next year, we will ensure that all computers have the means to project their screens in every room. Right now, we have the equipment but not the adapters and cables.

Great dialogue today from everyone. I especially liked Kim's idea about printing off the pictures from the Open Court Resources website to use with vocabulary. She reports that kids remembered better! Great idea. Let's keep those coming.

Latest Update (4/12)

This last week we met over long term memory and it was a good discussion. One of the things we had to do is create a schedule with what we've learned in mind. There were no rules, only to create a class day that had Brain Rules in mind. It was interesting to see those that turned in schedules.


We will begin next year's schedule work when things get a bit more solidified with the budget. Waiting for the state legislature gets a bit old, but there's not much we can do except wait.

Our next chapter is Wiring and we'll meet in 2 weeks. Will post afterward.

ATTENTION IS OVER . . . well, sorta

15 of us met this week to discuss the ATTENTION CHAPTER. We shared out our learning to each other and then as a group. I think one of the biggest pieces for me was what one of our fourth grade teachers said: "It's made me more aware."

Awareness. It's made me more aware of the time intervals, linking interest, and providing the gist are other keys from this chapter. Another gem that came out of this chapter was the use of novel things to keep students interested. For example, one of our fifth grade teachers had her students write spelling words in shaving cream. That's not necessarily a new idea, but by mixing up, she felt that students paid better attention.

One of the difficult questions I posed was: "How do we quantify this data?" So if we had a control group and an experimental group, what would be the parameters around ATTENTION? No one had an answer for that one. We'll wait and see.

We're off now to Chapter 5 and short term memory. Love this chapter. We meet again in two weeks.

BRAIN . . . RULES!

First Readers Meeting: ATTENTION

On February 11th we met to discuss the first chapter we were geared up to read on ATTENTION. Folks shared with each other and then as a group what the "BIG IDEAS" were. Discussion was rich and authentic.

For the next two weeks were going to attempt to apply these BIG IDEAS by:
a) remembering the 10 minute rule and trying to use effective ECS. (This is not easy to do!)
b) start your lessons with overall context and tie in it with previous learning before getting to details.

In two weeks we come back and discuss how it went.

Staff Meeting 1/14/2010

Our first staff meeting of the new year. We focused on reviewing our last presentations, which really encompasses talking about Brain Rule #1: Exercise Boosts Brain Power. Our next section of study is Brain Rule #4: Attention - We don't pay attention to boring things. Which is common sense, but as Stephen Covey writes, "common sense isn't common practice."

We compete with digital media in the classroom. It's unfair really. Twenty, thirty years ago, it was bad enough competing against television and movies. Now, we have an abundance of media, whether that's five hundred channels, Youtube, and a gaming console or perhaps a game of Second Life. And yet, here we are in the classroom, facing a lack of attention. As Dr. Medina sites in his work, vision trumps all other senses. Thus, we have to provide students with stimulating images that relate to the content we're delivering. On top of that, we need to know how the brain works, specifically how it behaves when it comes to attention.

Ten minutes is the magic number, then you need to provide the hook or emotion response that keeps the audience going. Now that's one thing say with a 50 min. presentation. It's a totally different scenario when it's a 90 minute reading block . . . or is it?

That's what we intend to find out. Those staff that signed up for full implementation will be getting their books soon and we'll be delving into Brain Rule #4. I'll be the first one to take this plunge. In early February, I'll be teaching a 5th grade class for a week, specifically math. I'm going to record the lessons and analyze them. The reason I want to be so reflective is so I can see what happens when I structure and plan the lesson based on Dr. Medina's model presented in Brain Rules. It's obviously worked for him at the college level. What about the elementary level with instructional materials? Hmm.

I undoubtedly will fall on my face for a couple of reasons. A) I'm out of practice. Sad really. In the principal chair you see lots of great pedagogy, but rarely do you get to keep your own skills up to snuff. I'll be a bit rusty. B) This structure is new to me and keeping track and making sure that I'm on target with the BR model will be taxing at first, I think.

Beginning in February, we're going to be studying Brain Rules more in depth and begin the planning process of what it could possibly look like next year in select classrooms. One of our first grade teachers is doing her doctoral dissertation on what we'll be trying to do. Should be a great ride.

3rd Staff Meeting

This was our third and final staff meeting for the '09 school year. We'll be starting back up in January. Today we finished up the cursory review of Brain Rule #1: Exercise Increased Brain Power.

Our next work is around Attention and I introduced a brief snippet from Dr. Median's tutorial from the book's web page (www.brainrules.net). One of the questions asked was "What do you think you know about attention?"

For the next two staff meetings, that's what we're going to discuss and jump into: Attention. The staff decided to meet 2x per month for staff meetings, rather than weekly on a count of 19 to 7. Fairly easy to assume that many people feel their time is precious!

During January, we're also starting up the full implementation cycle of the brain rules for those who have signed up for full implementation. This is both the planning and studying phase of the rules in anticipation for structural and classroom practice changes for the 2010-2011 year, not that some of the information will lead us to some change right away.

Currently, our official count of staff members that want to move forward with full implementation is: 18. That's a lot, especially with nearly half of those staff members wanting the full implementation with aerobic workout (see previous posts).