Teaching our young people, whether in a public or private setting, is one of the most important jobs a person could commit to.

There is no doubt that considering the importance of the job, teachers are under valued and under paid. One of the reasons that teaching is so important is because teachers end up spending more time with our children then we do as parents. Consequently, the teacher becomes a powerful role-model and example of professionalism; one the students will examine closely and will naturally imitate to some degree.

So, how can parents appropriately raise concerns when they see and hear ineffective teaching and destructive role modeling from their children’s teachers?

One of the issues we all face is the fact that teachers are relatively ‘unsupervised’ from a professional perspective. When our children report what they’ve seen or heard in a classroom there is an issue with how a parent can even begin to address the problem.

First of all, it’s the student’s word against the teacher’s. As a parent, if I choose to step in and advocate for my child, the teacher sits in a position of power and control. The student’s motivation for reporting is instantly questioned, and unless the principal just happened to be in that room at that time, then the parent and the principal are both lacking first hand knowledge of what really happened. Certainly we can all agree that many teachers take their profession and their own professionalism seriously! There are so many great people sharing their genius with our children and performing their job at a high level despite the socioeconomic status afforded them by the lower paying nature of teaching.

Nevertheless, there are also teachers who do not perform at a high level, who do not provide professional role-modeling and a passion for learning and often times make statements that point out their own lack of integrity. Consider the teacher who tells his or her students that the reason their test grades are not available is because, “I don’t do any work past 4:00, they don’t pay me to work at home.” A simple comment with a very legitimate point to be made, however, very poor modeling for the students and the instant detriment to the reputation of the teacher, the school and the profession in general.

As another example, consider the teacher of a class titled, “Healthy Lifestyles.” A student who happens to be on the swim team representing the school has participated in an early morning workout as well as workouts after school each and every day. If you know anything about swimming you know that workouts, especially morning conditioning, are demanding and exhausting. The student then shows less than 100% effort in a first period “Healthy Lifestyles” class. When asked by the teacher, ‘Why are you not putting forth more effort?”, the student replies, “I had an early morning workout in the pool and I’m pretty tired.”

Now you might think that a ‘health and wellness’ teacher would have some appreciation for the incredible fitness benefits that swimming provides. They might suggest a modified workout in class or at least acknowledge the effort being exerted by the student. Or, the teacher can say, “Well, I didn’t tell you to go to that workout.” Now the student athlete trying hard to satisfy the expectations of his parents, coaches and teachers, is made to feel as though he or she has been admonished by the health and wellness teacher for being physically fit! The student goes away feeling exhausted and inadequate, instant destruction of the value that was gained from the swim workout and a poor impression of the health and wellness teacher’s professionalism.

How then does a parent advocate for their child? What can be done to remedy a situation when the teacher can act this way free from supervision and in position to say that the student was not accurate? How can parents ever hope to stand up for their children?

Going to the principal and expressing concern is for now, the only way short of confronting the actual teacher. Most people are not very comfortable taking such action and will choose to try to modify the child’s behavior, “you’ll just have to deal with it,” or “you just have to work harder,” or even worse, the parent has to explain to their child that teachers can do or say whatever they want with no concern for the repercussions of their actions. It is situations like these that then make teaching attractive to the person who wants autonomy and reduced supervision as a way to conceal professional deficiencies and to avoid the performance based assessment model that is in place in most professions outside of teaching. This situation also reinforces the old saying, “those that can: DO, those that can’t: TEACH” and this has always been a thorn in the side of the teaching profession. When parents experience these kind of situations with their own children, the old saying starts to gain validity! We, as educators, must not let this happen!

S0…please, educators of all kind…if your passion is teaching AND learning keep up the incredible work! We are here to help! If it’s not…well, please consider a different career! Our future will benefit greatly!

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Social Studies Plans

Lesson ideas that invite the task of drawing a visual representation of the main ideas are excellent for developing an understanding of important and necessary learning objectives.

I’m always amazed and excited to see the learning strategies for the brain demonstrated and practiced by real, day-to-day learners in middle schools.

These 6th grade student examples are creations of ‘non-linguistic representation’ as we worked through the objectives described in the social studies curriculum. These objectives connected to the history and current day democracy of Canada.

Geography of Canada

The students were asked to draw a visual representation of key vocabulary and concepts of the Canada unit of study.

The different expressions of the same idea would show up in their visual representations.

The way the students’ organized information was very different when using the strategy of non-linguistic representation.They had the same concepts, yet they expressed them differently. The rubric of the three Cs – Complete, Correct and Comprehensive was used to assess the correct information as it connects to the objectives in the curriculum.

Students’ images of the ideas presented in the text book became incredible examples of key vocabulary. Their ability to represent the ideas this clearly show expert learning skills.

Each student had their own SCRAPBOOK to complete with all non-linguistic representations of the key concepts and big ideas in the unit of study.

A weekly schedule was followed:

• Monday and Tuesday: Reading for understanding .
• Wednesday: Graphic organizers and group discussions of key concepts and big ideas.
• Thursday and Friday: creating and designing the scrapbook page of big ideas using non-linguistic representation throughout the book.

The detail some students added was evidence of brain energy and thinking. They enjoyed this part of the project immensely.

Storyboard mapping was also introduce. Even here they created very different pathways to show what they know…

Example of a traditional storyboard format…It tell the story of the settlement of Canada.

…and here is another way to organize a story board…

Additionally, they continued to share their non-linguistic ideas of the unified Canada of today.

Lesson plans for how to lead students to these types of final products are coming soon!

Look for plans on ‘how to’ make scrapbooks and covers with very little cost or expertise. Coming soon from Teach to the Brain.

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What Brain Research Implies of the Nature of the Brain

All Brains Move Through Developmental Stages

Our unique brain changes as we age. The brain develops on different, but normal timetables which can be from 1 to 3 years apart in early developmental and pubescent adolescence stages. Knowing this, should we hold boys and girls or particular grade-level learners to the same standards?

Energy Moves Through Our Brains in Cycles and Rhythms

Our brain is designed for ups and downs, not constant attention. Hormones, diet and emotions trigger chemical fluctuations that affect attention, memory, and learning.

The term “on” or “off” task is irrelevant to the brain as chemical and electrical activity is determining the ability to ‘attend.’ We increase the chance of success with variety and choice since each of us may be on different chronological, biological, and hemispheric timetables.

Presence of Safety Helps the Brain Thrive

Creating a presence of safety in the learning and nurturing environment counteracts high anxiety, threat and learner helplessness, creating a calm, friendly, engaging state. It’s important to remember that the brain is well equipped to protect itself; so well equipped that when presented with perceived threat, the brain actually priorities and dictates that coping with the threat is first and foremost. A cascade of ‘new’ chemicals literally dump from the brain’s system.  These chemicals affect everything from body temperature and heart rate to attention and survival. As the brain attempts to learn something new and is interrupted due to the need to pay attention to a threat it works even harder to maintain a spirit of motivation and desire. The brain will always work to survive first, then thrive. It’s how the mechanics work. This is so important when we know threat and stress can impact the body’s chemistry resulting in a reduced capacity for learning, memory, and higher order thinking.

Emotions: Critical to Survive and Critical to Thrive

While excessive emotions can impair rational thinking, the absence of emotion and feelings are equally damaging to reason and rationality. Positive emotions create excitement, motivation, and love of learning. Strong emotions that are not acknowledged or expressed can lead to cognitive, emotional, and academic problems.

Finding Meaning by Identifying Patterns and Connections

We gain meaning three ways; through patterns, emotions, and relevance. The brain is poor at learning isolated facts. We learn best in real-life context, by seeing the big picture, identifying relevance, and recognizing interdisciplinary relationships.

Holding learners’ attention in a lecture format does not provide choice and should be limited to 20 percent or less of any class time.

The Brain Thrives on Enrichment i.e., Music, Theater, Debate, Dance, etc…

Optimal learning happens with multi-sensory, real-life stimulation. The brain is rarely over- stimulated; it perceives parts and wholes simultaneously. It thrives on music, role-play, dance, arts, and movement. Learning happens at the visual, auditory, kinesthetic, conscious, and non conscious level. The arts, especially music, can increase spatial-temporal reasoning and most certainly help manage states or micro-moods.

Memory: The Pathways in the Brain

Our brain does not store memories; it creates them, very approximately, every time you recall. It is poorly designed for textbook, rote and semantic learning. It is better at learning in contextual, episodic, event-oriented situations, or by using motor learning, location changes, music, and rhythm. Use of multiple strategies works best followed by daily and weekly reflection.

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Teach to the Brain and the Heart Will Follow…

Smile.

Smile at them.

Smile with them.

Smile when you think and talk about them.

Be Aware!

Understand how your conscious thinking and behavior can send out signals that reflect your present states.

Smiling sends the message that you’re safe and happy.  Content with yourself.  Confident.  Growing brains like that.  They like that very much.

Brain Responsive strategies like ‘smile’ create conscious thinking about thinking.

Smiling sends a signal to those in the area that the environment is presently safe, free of harm.
This relaxes the brain and puts it into ‘learning mode’.
Understand…laughing with your students and smiling as funny things happen is what takes them off defense mode.

Genius brains thrive on this!

Also, smiling when you are thinking and talking about them sends a POSITIVE message to your subconscious mind.  That affects your choices directly when it comes to the strategies you implement and practice.  Your smiling is sure to be popular and reaches all types of brains. We know that positive messages generate positive chemicals in the brain which assist the learning process.  So come on…do it.  Smile.

A smile confuses an approaching frown.  ~Author Unknown

Remember…the overall goal is to learn from those that are brain minded.  That means to learn from those who demonstrate thought provoking teachings that stimulate innovative and creative instruction.  These ideas and words are spoken by professionals in their fields that courageously taught and shared their genius with us.  Do the same.  Feed it forward to those who don’t know…

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Mind Mapping, Memory and the Brain

Defined from Wikepedia:

A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea.

Scan from Mapping Inner Space by Nancy Margulies, M.A.)

Definition continued according to Wikepedia

Mind maps are used to help…

• generate
• visualize
• structure
• classify

IDEAS AND as an aid in:

• study
• organization
• problem solving and decision making
• and writing.

Using This Strategy  Students Gain Access to Higher Levels of Thought

They start to apply, synthesis and evaluate the ideas in their head!

Imagine, if every teacher, in every subject, with every age group implemented this strategy so their learners would be thinking at elevated states?

I’ve used mind mapping, also known as ‘non-linguistic representation’, as a strategy to comprehend and apply the ‘new’ learning I’ve been consumed with these days.  For me, It seems to make understanding much easier and quicker and it’s definitely more fun than the traditional note taking strategy.

Also…It builds creativity, the right, spacial side of the brain. Learners engage and understand this way of thinking. Often learners want to learn in more creative ways then the classroom teacher is trying. This visual representation strategy is powerful and very brain responsive.

The mind map I drew on our wall to organize and expand my thoughts of the website and book helped me immensely.  The ideas came fast when I started drawing.  This was brainstormed during October and November of 2009

This part represents my goals of the book and the websites.

This “I am Genius” was created while I listened to a recording of a training session put on by a business coach.  Wow, it was so motivating!

My garden of SELF!

More of my ‘garden of self’ as well as the ‘stamp of approval’ and endorsement from a millionaire coach! Excellent!

After listening to The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, by T. Harv Eker, this came out of me.

Most people aren’t aware of the fact that it’s one or the other; growing or dying.  The way I look at it, if you’re learning something new and thinking and pursuing more happiness and achievement then you’re growing.  If you’re not learning, not pursuing specific goals, existing in a habitual life of meaningless activity as you move through your days…then I would say you’re dying.  Maybe slowly, yes…although still dying…

I would very much like to keep growing!  In fact, I think I’ll be growing today.

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academe a•cad•a•me n (formal)
1. See academia 2. A place of learning, especially a college or university.

Link here for more info...www.brainacademe.com

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It is the nature of the human brain to integrate emotion, cognition and reflection as a means to survive and to thrive.

M. Dickmann, J. Quinn, Leadership in the Brain Compatible School, 2000

The brain naturally, at all ages, combines emotion, reasoning, intuition, perception and careful thought as a way to acquire knowledge. Real, measurable growth takes place when the learner is able to apply this new knowledge to new situations.  We, as educators, have known this fact for many years. Yet, too many teachers have ignored this information and continued to use outdated teaching methods in the classroom, ignoring how the BRAIN wants to learn and teaching only how THEY want to teach.  As a result, we have many discouraged learners and too many dropouts.

The solution is simple, TEACH TO THE BRAIN – desire and success will follow.  This is because when you match the instructional strategy to the nature of how that brain learns, the brain grows naturally and quickly!

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