This chapter focused strongly on the ideas behind brain based teaching. It gave its correlation to middle school. The chapter gave many different ways to make information/knowledge stay with students. Students tend to memorize for tests and then forget it as soon as the test it over. Chunking is one way to help students learn information. Chunking helps students organize information by relationships, similarities, differences, functions, and classifications. Chunking is about understanding and thinking and producing your own ideas, not merely reciting or spitting information back out on tests. The chapter also talked about Bloom's Taxonomy and the "heirarchy of thinking." Another way to help students is to constantly reinforce concepts. Class periods are often set up incorrectly. This chapter states that the most learning happens at the beginning of the period. Unfortunatly, most of the time, teachers do not really start a lesson until the middle of the class. By then, students have lost interest and will not retain important concepts. The chapter also talks about the importance of water. The human body is composed primarily of water, so to keep hydrated, one should drink water more often. And finally, the chapter closes up with a section on teaching students to reason and another part on student misconceptions and how to avoid them.
Overall, the class really enjoyed the chapter. Many of us were really surprised to hear about the benefits of drinking more water. Again, this makes sense because the human body is mostly water. Many of us also enjoyed the chunking section. We agree that chunking is an effective way to learn rather than recite. Others of us were really interested in the misconceptions part. Many of us saw that we were guilty of some of the use of misconceptions. Teachers need to make sure that their students can argue effectively. All of us also agreed that teachers need to find different ways of teaching to help students learn rather than "parrot." Each of us recalled that throughout a lot of our middle school careers, we were "parrots." We all agreed that motivation was key to students learning. If it was something that was engaging to them, they will want to learn it. If they do not find the lesson engaging, it won't matter how the teacher teaches the lesson, that student will not want to learn. Students need to be motivated. The biggest message we have is that students need to learn rather than recite, and teachers need to make that change happen.
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This is an interesting post I really can see you did some research about brain based teaching especially because we just presented on it. It has a lot of information on all the links. The motivation piece is cool, i like how we all agreed that it is key in the classroom.
I really liked the links from this section. The one about water and it's positive effects is something that I don't think can be stressed enough. If a student is dehydrated, they are going to feel slow and sluggish and learning will be hard. I also really like the link on middle school student motivation. The SCORE model would be really helpful to use in the classroom. Overall, I think you did a really good job with this reflection.
I think that the link for brain based teaching is awesome. There are so many resources on that one page that you can access that all provide great information and tie into what we have been learning. I read the article about the 10% myth. I think it is interesting that we have all heard this before and we tend to believe it. It provides evidence to the fact that the media has a huge role in what we believe a lot of the time. That's something to think about when you are a teacher and maybe something you might want to explore with your students. It's a great article. Also, the other links are great too. Nice job.
I really found the water article fascinating. Like many of us I was completely unaware of the effects (and benefits) of water. From less headaches and joint aches to increasing attention, drinking more water is a definite plus for educators. I am thinking about putting my own water cooler inside my classroom when I get a job (and the district will even pay for it if I show them this website!). Very cool.
I really liked the link about water, and it reminds me of all the broken water fountains that schools have. I'm also surprised that the article did not include the studies done by Masaru Emoto. He found that if you just sent "good thoughts" towards water, it made for a "healthier" ice crystal, and it has huge ramifications for us since we are made up of so much water.
I also liked the brain teasers, and I think it's important for our students to exercise their minds in new ways.
I like the research and information on the first web site. I'm sure its filled with great stuff, but its a little long. I think that 10 myths about the brain seemed interesting, overall this page seems to have a lot of great resources. I think that the water link is good to show students, but i had heard about most of these facts before. I think they are valuable facts to know especially for adolescents. I agree with the motivation link. Also, i think that motivation must be a factor in education no matter what age group. I like that ideas to motivate middle school students.
I really liked your links. The first website had so many websites about the brain and how it functions in education. You can spend so much time in that one website.
My favorite website was the one on water. Water is very important for children, especially young adolescents because they're growing so much in that time period. Promoting water in the classroom is a good thing for all teachers to do.
The article about motivation had some good information about getting middle school students motivated in the classroom. Teachers definitely need to know how to do this. Good job!
The first link is so great, I actually hav it tagged on my computer already. I think it is available through our (Green Monkeys) wiki also. Check it out. The second link leads to a site about healthy water and how important it is for our well being. It also has other health areas to explore. The last link related to what motivates students, I really liked the section on convincing kids they can succeed.
Your links are great. The brain-based teaching link has some real eye-opening information. The water website would be great to share with our students to get them drinking water more; I think the author actually said he's getting a water cooler in his classroom. Nice job.
Courtney, I think this blog was very informational. I love the first link and the last link especially. It is very true that students won't care about their work unless they have the motivation to do that, and it is very hard to create motivation for them. I like the first link because of the resources that are possible from it. Good job!
I really like the water site and the motivation article. I mentioned this in my reflection too, that I took a course called BrainGym that stressed the importance of drinking water and how it influences your performance. From that I learned that water is a great destressor. Too many students rely on soda or other such drinks and really add to their anxiety in the classroom - a reason those drinks should be removed from the school setting.
You blog about water and the brain is a really good resource to show our students. It would show them why they need water so much. I also liked you link about what really motivates middle school students. The SCORE idea is really great. This is a great resource for teachers. Great job!
I enjoyed all three articles, but I really liked the article on water. As a health major, I understand how important water is to the body and its functions. I did not however realize the effects it has on the brain. Water is defiantly something that many individuals underestimate. It helps create healthy bodies which in return creates healthy minds. I also want to mention the confidence building section of the motivation article. I really feel that confidence has a lot to do with what and how well people do things. I think all teachers should work to build students confidence and make them believe they can do anything.
The brain-based link was an awesome link. I went on it and read some of the articles and little tidbits that were on there. It was awesome information. You really should read the first article I can't remember the name but it was really good.
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