"Wiz"

I thought your presentation went really well. All of you seemed as though you knew the book very well and knew which parts you were all presenting. I liked the activities that you had us do during class, but your presentation was a little boring. I think you talked too fast and presented too much information in a little span of time. Also, you basically had us sit there for the entire presentation instead of getting up and moving out of our chairs in order to re-energize our brains. However, I love your wiki page and the different links and information that you have presented there. Good Job!

WBBT

Becoming a Wiz at Brain Based Teaching expanded on last weeks presentation by going more in depth on the brain and how classroom strategies can positively or negatively affect it. When educators have a rough idea of how students brains work, its easier to develop classroom activities and themes that help them connect more with the material and enhance their chances of placing it in their long term memory.

I really enjoyed the information that was presented and thought all of you did a good job of going in depth and making it easy for me to understand. The wiki was filled with lots of information and good links, which makes it easier for me to understand and remember when I want to go back in the future and refresh on it. I liked all of the pages and links, but the ones I really liked where the charts from "if I only had a memory," and the "Dorothy" page. The information that was covered on those pages fascinated me more then the others. I also enjoyed the class activities, especially the personal characteristics chart.

Though I really enjoyed the presentation, I could have used more activities, especially one that involved movement. After sitting down the whole class, I was extremely antsy at the end and struggled to pay attention to "Which witch is which," and "No place like home". I think if the information wasn’t so strong and interesting, you might have lost me after the first twenty minutes. There was a lot of lecture, and I traditionally struggle to pay attention when I’m not as involved and have to sit down and listen.

Great job overall, I gained a lot of valuable information and am defiantly interested in reading the book at some point.

MMM chapter 3

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.

Becoming a "Wiz"

I thought you did an amazing job on your presentation. I agree that the Wizard of Oz theme could get a little annoying (my mother used to force me to watch it EVERY year at Thanksgiving!) I have always found the human brain fascinating, so your presentation really interested me even before you began. I felt that your wiki was very well organized, although there was one page that wouldn't open for me. I think it was one of Angela's pages. Parts of it showed up, but it didn't look like the one that you had on your computer. Other than that the presentation was pretty much error free except for some minor spellings errors on the wiki pages, but those are pretty much inconsequential :) I really enjoyed all of your activities. The test that you had us do at the beginning was a great opener to your presentation. Well done!

AWNM

Overall, I really enjoyed the presentation. I thought the topic was very interesting, and you were all very prepared. Dan Pink sounds like a fascinating individual. Your powerpoint was organized and clear. I like how you had an activity for each point. I do agree with Tyler though, I wished there had been more activities that required movement. I like to get up and move around. I liked the activities you had a lot. I think the story one where Dan Pink was holding the toilet brush could be used in any grade. It's never too early to use your imagination :) I think that many of the activities you did with us could be used in the classroom, and even the ones that wouldn't work were good because they got us thinking as teachers about our students: how they think, what do they think about, etc... This book really sounds interesting. I will probably go out and read it at some point. Great job.

AWNM

I thought this presentation was very well done. I learned a lot about the right side of the brain, and understand how the world has been slowly changing from basic to creative. I also saw how important it is that we as teachers use that creative side to help design a better learning environment that fits our students.
I thought the author, Dan Pink, was a fascinating guy. I liked the picture of him with the toilet wand. I think its great that he proved a point by buying the expensive name brand wand, rather then the cheap one that does the job just as well. I also enjoyed the empathy test and the idea of the laughter clubs.
Overall, I thought it was a very good presentation. I was confused during the Abundance, Asia, and Automation part at first, but it all came together when the six remaining concepts were covered. I would have liked an activity where there was more movement. I'm also still a little confused about how the five line portrait applies, but it was in the begining when I think I was still trying to tie the abundance, asia, and automation part together. Other then that, I thought everything flowed really well and was brought together so that it made it very easy to understand. My interest was defiantly sparked, I hope find time and read this book at some point.

Meet Me In the Middle Chapter 1

Abstract: In Rick Wormeli's Meet Me In the Middle, the first chapter discusses the topic of communication with your students, most importantly, attitudes. First, the stereotypical thoughts of some teachers are "TGIF" or "The best three things about teaching, June, July and August." Our attitude towards teaching is one of the biggest things we need to remember when we walk into that classroom. If we walk in positive and upbeat then our students are going to perfer to learn from us, compared to someone that walks in complaining or rude. It is also a big deal, because at this time in their lives they are looking at someone to be a role model for them. They need someone that will lead them in the right direction, and if we have an attitude that discourages them from looking up to us then how will they ever learn from us? The author also mentions that what we put into teaching is what we will get out of teaching. If you go in with a poor attitude then you aren't going to get a whole lot out of your teaching experience. We also learn from this chapter that we need to remember the idea of perceptions, and that not everyone's are the same. One time you may crack a joke at a student, not thinking a big deal of it, but it could be one of the most hurtful comments in the student's eyes. Perception could also be based on the student- teacher relationship, because a student may take one comment from a teacher a totally different way than they would the same comment from a different teacher.
Reflection:
"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires," - William Author Ward

This was a quote that caught a lot of us as an awesome quote. This quote demonstrates what kind of teacher you are depending on your attitude towards teaching. If you go in there lazy and just reading from the book with no enthusiasim in what you are teaching, then you will be the mediocre teacher that tells. If you go into the classroom with great activties and a passion for what you are teaching and who you are teaching then you could be that superior teacher.
Another thing that caught much of the classes eye was the idea of touching your students. This was a ify topic because we have been told over and over again, limit physical contact with students. In the book, Wormeli discusses this idea, because that way, students can see that you are real, that you are human being too. If you touch their shoulder or their hand then they can see that you are person to. Now in some instances with students, they may not want you in their "bubble" or they maybe not want you to touch them at all.