Elementary Matters is an educational blog focused on Elementary grades 1-3. These posts will make an elementary teacher's life easier by sharing information about how the brain learns best. It includes time savers, suggestions for classroom management, hints on effective teaching of reading, writing, and math, and several ideas for squeezing Science and Social Studies into daily instruction. These posts include links to several videos, articles, resources, and plenty of free materials.
As I've mentioned on previous blogs, I'm fascinated by how the brain works, and have done a lot of reading about brain based learning.
I'm giving a workshop to my peers on Thursday, and I'm going over my notes. These are some of my key points:
1. Students can only take in 2 - 4 chunks of information per sitting. These sittings should never last more than 4 - 8 minutes. 2. Students need frequent review and reflection time for these chunks to become part of the long term memory.
3. The brain is a parallel processor. That means the brain needs to have more than one process happening at a time, such as seeing and hearing, or talking and moving. If only one thing is happening, the brain becomes bored and seeks other stimulation, such as daydreaming.
4. The brain needs to make associations and find patterns. We need to help students use prior knowledge in order to remember what they are learning.
5. Engaging emotions will help learning along. Emotions are key to memory.
6. Engaging the students socially will also help the brain. There should be a variety of large group, small group, and pairs. Independent work should take up less than 50% of the child's time in school.
7. Engaging students physically is another hook to learning. Finding ways to connect the learning to moving will ensure learning.
8. Music is magical. It connects us emotionally and helps the memory.
9. Practice does not make perfect, but good practice makes better. Practice can make learning harder if the practice is inaccurate. Feedback is essential. The best feedback is real, honest feedback.
10. Exercise and movement are essential to learning. Phys Ed, recess, and other forms of exercise ensure the brain will get sufficient oxygen. Thanks for helping me organize my thoughts! Wish me luck on Thursday!
I've been in the mood to tell you about my very first day of school.
Yes, it was a very long time ago, but if you recall, memories are connected to emotions, and I had some very strong emotions that day.
My mother was a teacher, my dad was the Phys Ed director in my town, and my older sister went to school. I had to stay home with the babysitter while everyone else in my family went to school. Needless to say, I wanted to go to school just like everyone else in my world.
I kept asking when I could go to school. My mother showed me on the calendar how many days had to go by before I could finally go. I counted, and counted, and finally, the day came.
School was canceled because of Hurricane Donna.
"But you promised." I was inconsolable. I remember my mother bringing me out to the front porch, trying to convince me that they wouldn't let children go to school when the weather was that bad.
I must have gone to school the next day, but I really don't remember!
It was the intense emotion that I remember to this day. Yet another lesson on the brain and emotions. And another hurricane story.
Here are a couple of videos about Hurricane Donna, if you're interested!
Hurricane Donna Newsreel:
This is pretty old but interesting! Apparently, Hurricane Donna caused a lot of damage because it hit so many different places and kept going! The newsreel does end rather abruptly, but technology has improved a lot since then!
Track of Hurricane Donna:
This shows why Hurricane Donna caused so much damage: it hit Puerto Rico and several islands, the Keys and up the coast of Florida, then the entire coast of the US through New England (where I lived.) Luckily, Hurricanes don't always follow that path!
Click HERE for more information about Hurricane Donna. (This one contains a slide show if you find "please click here" near the bottom of the text. Very interesting stuff if you're fascinated by the weather, as I am!
Want more about Hurricanes to share with your students?
Check out this informational text, which offers 3 different reading levels, text questions, sketching activities, and related brain breaks.
Want a digital resource? Try this resource on the Boom Learning resource!
