Brain Rules

The head of the PE Department at Naperville Central High School teaches teachers about the brain and he uses a book by John Medina called Brain Rules. An excellent web site with some great introductory videos to watch.

This speaks to schools, churches, business and home with some very simple learnings about maximizing the brain that come from studies that have been published in peer review journals and replicated.

Things like exercise, the eyes, sleep and more...

Happens that John Medina is a Christian as well. Cool.

Muscles and the brain

Some very exciting connections between moving your muscles - exercise - and increased capacity to learn.

Dr John Ratey has written a book called Spark that explores the connection between exercise and brain performance. His web site has a must see video - 'brain gains' .

"Exercise doesn't make you smarter but it puts the brain of the learner in the optimal position for them to learn."

A school in Naperville, IL (Naperville Central High School) has worked with Dr Ratey and the PE Department is at the forefront of the school's academic success.

Digital Natives

Another post that fits in both my Brain and my Family blog. Check it out on the family side.

Mirror Neurons

Check out my Family Ministry blog for a quick post on Mirror Neurons.

Counting to Five

How hard can it be to count to five? Here is one among a very large list of brain games available online to 'exercise' your brain. It is the 60 second brain game. An interesting exercise in the brain dealing with conflicting information/input.

Active Attention

This teacher gets it. Things stick better (at all?) when the student is actively engaged and focused. He knows from his work as a neuroscientist about how the brain works and he puts it to good use in the classroom.

Here is the critical sentence in the article: “The brain rewires itself in response to every meaningful experience. Like students, neurons simply ignore passive stimulation. I am willing to use every tool at my disposal to motivate my students, because nothing I say will stick without their active attention."

Teachers have lots of competition, to be sure, but I think its our job to engage them with everything we've got in our arsenal to help them focus and learn.

Importance of play

Came across more affirmation of the brain's need for play. This is a podcast with lots of links to books and articles on the subject.

Interesting shift with all this new knowledge about the brain that we have:
"Play used to be fun... now I have to do it for my mental health!" Hope it doesn't get to be that way. Rather we affirm the playfulness that is part of who/how God made us - resting (playing?) on the sabbath.

Have fun sometime today!

Neuroplasticity

You'll see two names quite a bit when you read around in brain research - or more correctly, in interpretation of brain research. Back in the day (that is only a few years ago!) it was Eric Jensen. He is still active but two new names I see lots are Marc Prensky and Ian Jukes.

I posted on Prensky last time. Jukes has some interesting things to say about neuroplasticity which means that the brain is always able to reconfigure/reconnect based on the things it experiences and the intensity of those experiences vs the static understanding we had until recently that said the brain is set by age 3 and not much can change after that.

His short video clip and pdf file on that blog challenge us to think in new ways about how we teach. Are we preparing students for the future or for the present/past we know/knew and experienced? He has some provocative things to say about left brain and right brain thinking. The blog says some thought provoking things about the differences between the way digital natives and digital immigrants learn.

Digital Natives, Immigrants, Wisdom...

Check out a blog from Dr Robert Sylvester. He always does a great job of making things understandable - and applicable. A recent post on his blog is discussing Prensky's concept from 2001 (Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants) and a recent update in 2009 (digital wisdom).

Things HAVE really changed. Prensky/Sylvester do a nice job of acknowledging the need to learn from each other, the native AND the immigrant... the need to live in the electronic AND in the physical world. The electronic is not going to go away (it will likely become more ubiquitous), but neither is our physical body going away and the need to relate to people around us.

Structure. Anticipation. Resolution.

In my reading around on the brain I checked through Rich Melheim's blog and came across one called "On Intelligence" from a book by that name from Jeff Hawkins. Some of what Rich said in his blog reinforced the "short hand" I have been working with to get a handle on how the brain works.
Rich talked of the importance of patterns and of surprise. I think I got my three part short hand from Jourdains book: Music, the Brain and Ecstacy. I can't find it stated exactly that way in the book but I was reading that book when I started using the three part short hand.

Structure - the brain looks for patterns, order; when it finds it, it looks for more patterns, order. Patterns that don't change don't hold the brain's attention, or allow for lots of wandering (have your driven a familiar route and not remembered any of the drive?) so...
Anticipation - it helps when there is a 'pattern' of surprises that happen - in teaching, a sermon, confirmation class, etc . The brain doesn't know exactly what is coming but it looks forward to something new, 'expects it' because there is a pattern of surprises happening. When nothing new comes, it easily checks out... looking for new patterns. That surprise helps the brain stay engaged. (And when something new comes along on that routine drive you engage back to the present quite nicely/quickly)
Resolution - since the brain likes patterns and order, too crazy or wild a surprise and there is no resolution. The brain can't/won't process the new thing since it is outside a comfort zone. Surprise is good, but there are limits to what we can/will "endure".

And remember, all the searching for patterns is really a search for meaning: "what's going on here and why is it important to me?"

To Do list

Check out the last three posts on play, exercise and diet to see the three best things for parents (and school administraters) to address if they want to help kids achieve academic excellence.

I almost said 'simplest' instead of 'best' in the first sentence. It is not the simplest - very do-able but not easy to do, given how our lifestyles have been geared to the fastest and not necessarily the healthiest way of doing things.

Our brains are capable of wonderful things. We need to feed them well, exercise lots and get lots of down time'/processing time. We totally underestimate the impact these three things have on academic excellence.

Change your diet for your...

OK, if you read my last post on exercise and the brain you probably had a hint. "Heart"? Good answer but "brain" is just as good an answer - and important for parents and educators to know.

You can check out more video (be sure to watch the second part)and an article about an Alternative High School in Appleton, WI that saw BIG changes with a healthy diet. Granted they also did some other things like the exercise thing but I'm personally convinced that diet is just as important as exercise in being healthy AND ready to learn.

Exercise for your...

Most of us would finish that answer with "heart". Good answer. But much current research indicates you could answer that with "brain". Exercise for your brain.

I just watched a 15 minute video from CBC in Canada called Brain Gains, about a small, alternative High School in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Exciting academic results from simple - but strenuous - exercise. The teacher got the idea from a Harvard MD, John Ratey. Treadmills in the math classroom made a huge difference in academics and behavior.

The video is definitely worth the time.

Kids and Play

Another great post from MediaWise and their blog on children and play. All the research I've seen agrees with this post. Kids need down time/play. In addition to the fact that physical activity is good for the brain due to increased circulation, the brain needs time to process. Things just need to simmer a bit and while we are 'doing nothing but play' the brain is busy making sense of the input it has recently experienced.

Middle of summer. How are your kids doing in the play department? How are you doing in the play department? Same thing goes for adult brains too! And the same thing goes for school settings. Input all day long is not helpful. Time for processing is necessary.

I think it might be time for a break...

Thinking and feeling

Excellent article in Fast Company Magazine - "In Defense of Feelings". It talks about an experiment by Chen-Bo Zhong in Toronto that put subjects in interaction with anonymous partners where they had two options: treat them fairly or lie to them. They were 'coached' to either a) think rationally or b) go with their gut. When advised to think rationally the subjects lied 69% of the time. When advised to base their decisions on gut feelings they only lied 27% of the time.

It is interesting that, even though the study shows we'd be treated better by people who trust their feelings we are leery of them. When given a choice, 75% chose the rational partner.

Reminds me of the account in Genesis 3 of the first temptation. The serpent knew to appeal to the brain ('you will know good and evil and be like God') and the 'gut' sounds a lot like our God-given conscience written on our hearts.

The article goes on to make application to the financial meltdown we just experienced, especially with mortgages that should never have been given. When the 'deliberative processes' took over, many used odd logic to justify what they were doing. They used historical data that made no sense. The article uses parallel logic: "I've never gained more than 2 pounds in a year, so let's go for all the Ben and Jerry's I can get my hands on".

And also an interesting story from Alcoa. When Paul O'Neill became CEO in 1987 he said: "No more deaths due to accidents". They had a pretty decent safety record as a company but O'Neill's gut said no deaths were acceptable and that is our ruler. He walled off the same 'deliberative processes' the experiment focused on and told his team: "If anyone ever calculates how much money we're saving by being safe, they're fired".
They went on to become one of the safest companies in the world even with the dangers inherent in the aluminum industry.

The brain and the emotions/feelings/our gut - an interesting combination.

Are they so different?

Back to Digital Kids...

Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj wrote an article back in 2006 called Understanding Digital Kids (DK). (They have had much more to say since then.) It is a long article, and challenging, in the implications on how we do education.

Much of what I read in current brain research says that our brains wire based on what we experience. That seems to be how God made us. Jukes says that little concept has huge implications. He maintains kids ARE different because their experiences are so different than ours. And if they are different then we may (he would say "do") have to change how we do things in school and home to get through to them. Jukes has great links on his site to presentation notes on Understanding Digital Kids and many others.

Lots to wade through. Much to think about. More posts over time.

Digital Nation

No, I'm not posting on the switch from analog to digital TV. One of the many places I regularly watch for news and helpful info about brain development is MediaWise. There is a recent post on being a Digital Nation that is helpful.

Frontline is doing a series by that name as well. Check back to see what they say.

Here is an exerpt from the MediaWise blog linked above:
At the National Institute on Media and the Family we believe that who we are is wired into our brains a great deal from our experiences. The parent’s job has never been more important. From birth our children are wiring in the people they will become. The digital world is intrinsically powerful and enticing - our brains are hard wired to seek novelty, stimulation and to learn. It’s what’s kept us going as a species for thousands of years. We can control our environment in the digital world, the real world is harder to control. In this era of “disruptive technology” - an era where technology profoundly changes everything, we must learn, and teach our children, to live in both worlds. Core human values, core character traits and how to balance the digital and real world have to be learned.

Eric Jensen resources

Another pioneer in applying brain research is Eric Jensen and brain based learning. A bit commercialized now ("...special offer, buy now and save!") but still lots of good stuff. He has been at it a long time and has much to offer. Check out the downloads and resources.

And it is interesting that music always seems to crop up when you browse about brain based learning. More on that in another post.

Six Thinking Hats

Been away a bit... just finished a move back to MI and full time Fitz Family. Ready to be more consistent with these now.

Six thinking hats. An interesting way to consider how our brains work things out.
Came across this on Mind Tools.

Each "Thinking Hat" is a different style of thinking. These are explained below:

White Hat: focus on the data available, information, analyze past trends, extrapolate from historical data.

Red Hat: look at the decision using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion.

Black Hat: look at things pessimistically, cautiously and defensively. important because it highlights the weak points in a plan or course of action, allows you to prepare contingency plans to counter problems.

Yellow Hat: helps you to think positively, the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult.

Green Hat: creativity, freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas. A whole range of creativity tools can help you here.

Blue Hat: process control, worn by people chairing meetings. When running into difficulties because ideas are running dry, they may direct activity into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they will ask for Black Hat thinking, and so on.

Evernote - your external brain

This is less about the brain and more about a cool program that claims to be 'your external brain". The company tag line is "remember everything". Usable on a wide variety of devices. Full featured free version with a premium version available for a very affordable price. You really can remember everything with Evernote. I use it all the time. Very powerful search tools. Worth your time to check it out.

Digital Kids - Twitch speed

Here are some thoughts from an interesting article called Digital Kids by Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj and the Infosavy group back in 2006...
"This generation operates at what Marc Prensky describes as twitch speed. Children accept as normal that they should have instantaneous access to information, goods and services at the click of a mouse. They expect to be able to communicate with anyone or anything at anytime, anywhere day or night.

Such everyday expectations have led to the death of patience and the emergence of a society increasingly expecting, wanting and demanding instant gratification. This is one of the reasons why it’s harder and harder to get children to read today. Reading is a delayed gratification medium while TV, video games and the Web are immediate gratification media.

For example, I recently heard my son Kyler bitterly complain that it had taken him 20 minutes to register for his Spring courses at college, which he was doing ONLINE from his bedroom!!!!"

Anyone remember the good olds days of waiting in line for hours? So what do you think? Do you agree? If it is true, what are the implications for how we teach Sunday School, VBS, Day School, etc?

I'll post more from this article and from others that explore how our brain wires itself based on experience.

An early pioneer

Dr. Robert Sylvester, a Lutheran from the Northwest, has been a leader in the field for a long time. He continues to give helpful advice in a regular column and has some helpful books published as well, one from the early years and one more recent.

Back in the early days

Some of the early pioneers in interpreting research about brain function as it relates to teaching include Dr Robert Sylvester and Eric Jensen.

Both continue to be active in the field. I have been interested for about 10 years and have seen a very noticeable shift in the last few years towards highly commercialized endeavors... you have to sift through more commercials to get to the good stuff. But good stuff is out there so keep digging.