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!