If the brain is the organ for learning, then why aren’t teachers brain experts?
Learning is constructed in the mind based on a student‘s experiences
The brains of students today are completely different than the brains of our students
even 10, 20 or 100 years ago
Emotion and Learning
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Appeal to a student’s emotion through
Storytelling- Story Chunking
Piquing curiosity
Questioning
Novelty
Prior knowledge
Movement
 Too many public schools focus on the measurable to the
exclusion of the possible. We are preparing for tests, but
are we preparing for skillful learners in the world beyond
school?
Brain Development and
Adolescence
 What we have to remember when teaching subject
matter and content standards
 Prefrontal lobe- looks like Swiss cheese- seat of logical
reasoning, problem solving, decision making
 Amygdala- clusters of neurons that are intimately tied
to our emotional responses and memory functions
Adolescent Development and
Learning
 Hormones surging
 Peers
 Sexual exploration
 Identity and Role Confusion
 Development of abstract thinking and metacognition
 Reactionary or thalamic responses come from the
amygdala which is usually stimulated and over
functioning
Stress and its effects on Learning
and Memory
 High stress levels- affect immune system, clarity of
thought, and memory function
 Causes of Stress
 Over packed curriculum
 Fear of being wrong
 Test-taking
 Frustration with difficult material
 Boredom from lack of stimulation!
 Embarrassment ( to read aloud)
What is the worst thing a parent or
teacher could do in the eyes of an
adolescent?
 A. Pile on added chores or assignments
 B. Scream and yell engaging in power struggles over
every issue that is irritating
 C. Embarrass the adolescent
Stress- The Diagnosis of the 21st
century
 Anytime there is perceived fear, there is stress and a
decrease in flow of information to the PFC.
 Boredom makes you do crazy things- it may create its
own fun or novelty
 Most often, it is not the child’s choice- misbehavior is
when the lower brain is in control
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Flight-withdrawal, look like ADD or ADHD
Fight- ODD
Freeze-Social Anxiety and Seizures or OCD
Dr. Judy Willis
Why do students drop out of
school?
 75%- material wasn’t interesting
 39% material wasn’t relevant
 37%no interactions with teachers
 Boredom is stressful!
 So what do we do?
 Create a community and classroom culture that feels safe
and accepting.
 Teach students ways to control their own responses –
MODEL!!!
 Visualizations and activities that are physical and tactilemovement engages 100% of the brain which no cognitive
skill or strategy can do this!
How May I Serve You?
 We ask the questions: what do you need?
 How can I help? What can I do?
 Brain processes questions long after they have been
asked
 Self-reflection time
 Story-telling in content areas
 Choices
Strategies
 Allow students to design quizzes and test questions
 There is a 95% or higher retention rate over a 24 hour
period when students are allowed to teach what they
need to learn
 Hand Exercise- when we are holding onto power or
control , there is no room for growth, novelty or
leadership from students
Strategies continued
 Writing with non-dominant hand
 Why do you need to know this? What professions or
jobs would ask for these skills?
 Self-reflection
 Feedback- informative, frequent and displayed with
variety
Environment is Key
 Genius is much more than genes! When you enrich the
environment and exercise the muscles of the brain and
power of the mind, you are literally creating neurons,
neural connections and stimulating IQ and brain
development
 Frequent informal assessment strengthens learning
 Self-assessment
Strategies that enhance Learning
 Prediction
 Multi-sensory
 Memory- manipulation of information and focused
attention
 Hooks at the beginning and end!
Memory Facts
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If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced
enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
(Hardly seems worth it.)
If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is
produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
(Now that’s more like it!)
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to
squirt blood 30 feet.
(O.M.G.!)
A pig’s orgasm lasts 30 minutes.
(In my next life, I want to be a pig.)
A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to
death. (Creepy.)
(I’m still not over the pig.)
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
(Do not try this at home. Maybe at work.)
The male pray mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its
body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male’s head off.
(“Honey, I’m home. What the….?!”)