from jennylu.wordpress.co posted with vodpod
Garr Reynolds has posted this on Slideshare – it’s his response to the new book Brain Rules by John Medina. He considers it a must read and after watching this slide presentation I’ll be getting myself a copy asap. Watch it and apply what you learn to your classrooms. I’ve been doing brain gym exercises with my Yr 7 class over the last two days as a result of a session from one of our classroom assistants who also practices Kinesiology. The kids are looking at me a bit strangely, but anything that can assist them with learning and staying motivated in class is worth a go as far as I’m concerned.
Coincidently, I attended the Hawker Brownlow thinking conference in Melbourne last week and attended sessions run by Rich Allen. He’d agree with the ideas presented by John Medina. He had us moving all day, switching tasks and used music to engage us in activities. It was very effective and made me rethink my approach to classroom teaching. In the days that followed I had my students moving around, high fiving one another and telling their classmates how great they were whenever we’d been sedentary for too long. It certainly added a new dynamic to the classroom and not a bad one at that.
I truly believe you’re on a continual learning journey as a teacher and you need to be open to new ideas. I’ve always felt that I am learning and growing as a teacher and never perfect my craft – there are always new ideas that can be applied -you need to be responsive and give things a go. Our kids deserve no less.
Check out this YouTube video with John Medina talking about the power of visual images in relation to learning. Makes sense – another lesson we need to apply to our classrooms. Take note.
6 Comments
May 22, 2008 at 11:45 am
Jenny,
Thanks for sharing this. I had seen Garr’s post about the book, but hadn’t seen the slideshow.
Not only interesting, but an amazing example of an interesting presentation too!
Thinking this book needs to end up on my reading list this summer!
May 28, 2008 at 4:31 am
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May 28, 2008 at 4:33 am
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May 29, 2008 at 12:35 am
Hi Jenny,
Your girls will love ‘meeting’ Laura. What a great kid she seems to be.
Cheers,
Faith
June 5, 2008 at 2:43 am
Hi Jenny,
What sort of Brain gym activities have you been doing with your class? I’ve done the colours one (read the colour not the word) and an alphabet one where they have to perform different actions.
July 2, 2008 at 1:10 pm
[...] Posted on May 23, 2008 by Nancy Jenny Luca had a couple of posts that really caught my attention. One is a Slideshare presentation by Garr Reynolds on Brain Rules by Dr. John Medina. | View | Upload [...]