Teaching with the Brain in Mind

As I read this book, especially chapters 3-6, I constantly reflect back to students and classrooms that I have worked in. For nearly every topic discussed I could think of both good and bad examples of how the brain grows and what it needs to learn most efficiently.

In chapter 3, “Getting Ready to Learn,” I thought of how my sister raises her three children in contrast to what I pick up through conversations with the students in my classes. My sister rarely lets her kids watch TV and when they do it is a special treat. Often, when I talk to students about their night or weekend they will reply, “I watched TV all night.” Or “I just played video games this weekend.”  Granted these responses come from middle school children who are not engaged in the conversation very often but I do think it might speak to some of the challenges that many of my students face. The comparisons only go on from there; diet, sleep schedules, home life/environment. 

I admit that my sister has the education, time and resources to be able to parent the way that she does and many other people do not. It is to this point that the end of chapter 3 that I found the most useful and actionable ideas. The authors suggest many ways to inform and educate parents on how to get their children ready to learn. I personally do not see this happening in our school district and I think it would be a great use of some of our resources. I do know that the Head Start program is very good at distributing this information and providing classes for parents. This program targets pre K students, which as the book suggests is a massively important time in development.

Chapter 4 breaks down the total number of hours a student will spend in a class in their life time, over 14,000, and the ethical responsibility teachers have to use this time to enrich their lives.  I notice a growing trend, at least at my school, to maximize classroom time. While I do think that this is coming from a good place and backed by research, there are many more ways to enrich the lives of students at school that are not class room instructional times. In just a few years I have seen a drastic decrease in field trips, music assemblies, and school community activities. I feel that these events can be equally enriching and help students build bonds and the feeling of community that will only help their academic enrichment.  (my soap box moment for this blog.)

Finally, I found chapters 4 and 5 to be very thought provoking. The combination of the two relating the brains attention capabilities and the environment that the student is in made me reflect on my classroom.  As a classroom teacher I do not have control of a student’s brain chemistry but I can control the environment for the most part. Creating a classroom environment that allows students to feel safe and engaged can make a huge difference in attention, discipline and ultimately learning.  I think that this can be achieved by changing seating charts, decorations, routines (slightly) and classroom jobs frequently.