Brains and Learning

Right now, we are going through a professional development that deals with brains, learning and ways to help students do better at school.  What makes this training different, is that the trainer spends time during the school day working with the kids, helping them learn ways to become better students.

Last night we learned that providing activities with verbal, auditory, and physical can help but add color into the activities.  Throw in some little games here and there to break things up.

This afternoon, the trainer went through below the line and above the line.  Below the line were behaviors such as denial, justification, blaming others or quitting which kept them from taking ownership of their work and behavior.  On the other hand, above the line included responsible actions, choice, ownership and personal power all of which help a student become responsible and able to learn successfully.  This part actually brought up a discussion on consequence between another teacher and myself. 

I am used to consequence being used to mean something resulting or being effected by an action and could be either good or bad.  I was informed that it now means something bad and I was out of touch with current meaning.  I checked my dictionary, it has not evolved to mean only something bad.  Yeah.   Back to the training.  One reason many students have difficulty moving from below the line to above the line is that the part of the brain that helps make reasonable choices does not fully develop till around 25 or 26.

We have some more training tomorrow night but I've already got a few new tools to use in my classes.  Yeah!