In 100 words or more, comment on the following:
How is the brain and learning affected by physical activity? How can you use that knowledge in your own classroom? What are some changes you could make today to use physical activity to stimulate learning?
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12 comments:
The research is showing that students who are physically active do better in school. They are happier and have better concentration. I can use that knowledge in my classroom by incorporating physical activity into my lessons. Food labs are an important part of my curriculum and a great way for students to get to spend time learning things without having to sit in a desk. When we studied vegetables this year, I gave the students pictures of different vegetables, and then they placed them on the correct place on a diagram on the board. It isn’t much activity, but it still got them moving. For a review activity I have put different review questions at different places in the room, broke the students into groups, and then they rotated around the room answering the questions. When learning recipe vocabulary words or equipment names, I have the students pantomime. For example, for “whisk” they would pretend to hold a bowl and whisk eggs. I pretty much have to include movement in most of lesson plans, or my little middle-schoolers would squirm themselves frustrated everyday!
Our brains are stimulated by physical activity! It is a must have for our bodies and well being. I find that movement is a VITAL part of my teaching. When working with kids that are very young I am consistantly taking bits of breaks in our learning day to get up and move. I have found that taking a 5 minute break to get up and "go on a bear hunt" with our music CD not only gets them moving but refocused as well. After ten years of teaching kindergarten I have seen the absolute difference physical movement "breaks" have made in stimulating and calming my little learners!
A: response to Sheri
I like to keep moving when I was in Kindergarten, too, but I also loved nap time! When I taught high-school students, juniors and seniors seemed pretty happy to sit in their desks, but kids any younger than that definitely have to be able to move from time to time, and I can only imagine how important it would be to keep your little ones active!
A:response to dstark
I think getting your students moving around as best as you can is great. Yes the activity level at the age of your students is very different than my little ones, but just knowing that moving can increase those brain cells helps all of us as we plan our lessons.
Initial Response to Question 5C
Physical activity has been associated with increased brain mass, better cognition, mood regulation, and new cell production. Evidence also suggests a decrease in adolescent depression which can lead to suicide. While "there are still questions about when and how much physical activity is needed, what kind, and whether it should be voluntary," the benefits make this a worthwhile classroom pursuit. I know from personal experience that incorporating movement into an all-day in service workshop leads to a higher level of concentration. The movement activity may be very brief, but the physical act of getting the blood flowing to the brain and circulating oxygen throughout the body is very beneficial in maintaining attentiveness. I do try to change activities for my lower elementary classes at least every ten minutes. A great deal of research has been conducted on body kinesthetics and music education. Certain movement combinations have been designed and set to music in order to stimulate the brain. Perhaps I will look into these activities and incorporate them into my warm ups.
Responding to dstark & Sheri,
I have found that students of all ages enjoy movement activities, whether they will admit it or not. When I taught middle school and high school music, I used to have my students stand occasionally while learning new pieces of music. I would also incorporate choreography whenever possible. Now, I find that the children learn new pieces of music much more quickly when the song has simple actions. (I am glad you mentioned the Bear Hunt song, Sheri. I will have to get that one out after the winter programs!)
The brain is positively impacted by physical activity. We need to get kids up and moving and get all of their available neurons firing. I have been working on getting my kids up and moving during transitions. There are ways to do it that are effective and efficient. They don’t waste time, but by giving the kids an opportunity to get up and move for a second, we are gaining valuable instruction time where the kids are much more likely to learn something. There are even ways that you can do this that apply to the learning. For example, one way that I recently learned in a brain research workshop applies vocabulary to movement, i.e. “swiftly touch something rough” . This gives the students the opportunity to move, and show us what they know.
in response to dstark;
I have heard that kids can only sit for about a minute for every year old that they are between breaks of getting up and moving. I like the ideas you have for getting the middle school aged kids up and moving, and still incorporating their learning.
5C
Physical activity has proven to lead to the production of new brain cells, or neurogensis. Nueruogenesis is correlated with improved learning and memory as well as inversely correlated with depression.
In addition to movement, it is important to know the age, and developmental age of the students one is teaching. Although not mentioned, the attention span for an elementary aged student typically is much less than that of a middle school student. Therefore, schools defend recess in elementary schools, but not middle or high schools. To counter not having recess, a school could use mandatory wake-up and move time with adjustments based on age. I remember watching a video of a school in Japan complete activities throughout the school day (in addition to recess and gym class). Everyone, not just the students, need activity and time to increase their neurogenesis…hey, got neurogenesis?
THe studies show that learning is longer lasting and more effective when physical activity is involved in the learning process. This indicates to me that the worst thing I could do is keep students in their chairs taking notes. Instead, I need to come up with creative ways that students can move around and interact with the material they are learning. I already do a variety of games, but could still use this strategy more often. One of the biggest goals I have is to increase student retention and application of the concepts I teach, so I will give this some more thought when planning future lessons.
response to Chrissie
I know that many people advocate the use of brain gym techniques to stimulate the brain to learn. I have used some of these in the middle of standardized testing. It does seem to help with focus. I also remember that we had an inservice where the presenter tauht a lesson about the brain where she incorporated movements, pantomime, and brain gym/cross body movements to facilitate learning, and it really did work!
response to amanda
I like the use of the words "waste time." I fear that too many people view physical activity in the classroom as a time wasted activity. I think using this brain-based research helps support the need to move around.
If done as Amanda describes, the activity by the students is not time wasted, but time invested. The investments will pay out great dividends for all of us to enjoy. After all, these kids will be the CEO's and Presidents of our world!
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