Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom

Name: Class: Date: Course: Instructor: Unit: Assignment

Susan Mayberry Cohort 25-02 Fall 2009 MAT 728 Engaging Learners with Brain Compatible Teaching Nancy L. Murphy, Ed. D. #01 #01: My Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom

My Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom

I teach Health, Lifetime Fitness, and Individual and Team Sports at the high school level. For this assignment my primary focus will be on my health classroom. In reality, my classroom is very small. However, because of my creativity, imagination, and knowledge gained through what I have learned at the University of Saint Mary, I will create several classrooms within a classroom. This will make the environment open, comfortable, and non-threatening (Willis, 2006). A place where the teacher and students feel that the classroom is larger than it actually is regarding square footage. Creating this ideal brain compatible classroom, the students and I will no longer remember that there are no windows in our classroom! My ideal brain compatible classroom will be planned out and prepared before the students arrive for the first day of school. Preparation and organization are important elements to a creating a learning environment for students (Wong & Wong, 1998). My goal is to create an atmosphere where the curriculum is meaningful through problems, projects, and simulations (Wolfe, 2001). The physical make up of my classroom will be organized and arranged with purpose (Tomlinson, 2001). The seating will be in a nontraditional format, with a variety of different chairs and sitting places arranged in a specific area of the classroom. For example, in the northwest corner of the classroom, there will be a reading and research corner that will have a couch with a coffee table, bean bags, two chairs and desks, and a bookshelf of intriguing and fascinating research books. The bookshelf will also have resources dealing with a variety of health topics and teenage issues, plus the supplies necessary to take notes, tape-record ideas, and highlight information. Students will have the option of checking any of these books out for a week at a time, or make copies of information they want to use. On both walls of this corner, about five

Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom

feet long, there will be a “Wall of Fame” area devoted to a future assignment that the students will complete. This project will involve students doing research on someone, who they choose, who is famous and has overcome or struggled with any health related illness, disorder, or disease that the student might be able to relate with. Perhaps the student has this ailment, or perhaps their sibling, parent, or friend does. The wall will have a photo of the famous person, the ailment, and an abundant amount of interesting facts and myths, symptoms, and treatment information. The students will have a choice whether to work alone on their project, or with one or two other students in the class. On the middle of the north wall, will be the “We Are The World” wall. This portion of the room will be devoted to maps of our town, county, state, country, and world. This wall will be used similar to how students use Facebook walls on the Internet. Students will create posters of health concerns for specific areas of our world and locate them on the maps. It is here that students will display their health concerns, and coordinate their reports with the correct location on the appropriate map (Johnson & Johnson, 1999). Reports will be illustrated in a fashion to simulate a Facebook wall appearance, allowing for information to be updated, changed, or modified. It will also be an area where students can write their own opinions and comments regarding the reports of information posted. Reports will include the student’s information such as their ideas to possible solutions to epidemics and treatments. Students will make forecasts for the future and make predictions based on the facts they find (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). Reports will also include myths that are commonly spread that create unwarranted concerns. Along with this project, students will work in groups to create a project either locally, nationally, or internationally to create awareness or raise money for their health concern. Updates for these projects will be posted on this wall. The seating in this area will include students desks, fabric chairs, hard chairs, and two desk top computers with a printer. Located in the northeast corner will be the “Teacher’s Corner.” This is where my desk will be located. I will have a large teacher’s desk facing the students and another smaller teacher’s desk perpendicular to my big desk that will be used as a working desk for students who want help or need help. This desk will also have work supplies such as construction paper, poster board, art supplies, scissors, a computer and printer, and much more. The computer can be used to look up my teacher website and get any missed homework assignments or handouts. Behind my desk, on

Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom

the walls, will be where I have student pictures, photos of my family, dog, and all the activities that I do such as: run, swim, bike, trail runs, triathlons, vacations, golf, etc. I will also have my teaching degrees framed and displayed here. This corner is my space, and the space where students can get to know who I am as a person. There will also be a fictitious window on the wall, created as if we are looking out a window. The “outside” will be blue sky and green grass. The window is an opportunity to think, escape or daydream, and gain a sense of “Thinking beyond the walls of the classroom.” This quote will be displayed above this fictitious window frame. From the ceiling there will be the flags, banners, and bib numbers that I collect from different competitive events that I enter. There will also be team flags and flags of countries that I have received from students and friends. In the front of the room, which is the east wall, there will be a long bookcase that shelves several student assignment options, books, and other student and teaching resources. Sitting on top of the bookcase will be ten laptop computers with one printer. In front of the bookcase will be ten dish chairs in shades of navy and dark green. Above the white board there will be a section called “Go To Health.” This section of the wall will be devoted to a listing of useful health websites for teenagers, young adults, and parents. Included with each website will be a short description of what the website offers. The whiteboard in the front of the room is used for discussions, note-taking, and other teacher and student lead activities. It is also used for the projector when we are viewing items from the light emitting device. The southeast corner of the room will be kept clear of any furniture. This is where the supply closet is located. Supplies such as: model clay, colored markers, poster board, crayons, glue sticks, printer paper, first aid items, and things that need to be secured. On the door of the closet will be a small mirror and cup holder with cups for students who need to get a drink of water. “Get A Life!” will be south wall of the classroom. Above the whiteboard we will have photos of all the students in all of my classes. The photos can be of students involved in sports, singing, dirt biking, racing, or fun photos with friends. The students will create captions to go with their photos. The whiteboard on this wall will be used for daily lesson plans for the next two weeks of class. The board will show assignments, reminders, upcoming due dates, and items that students will need for each class. Below the white board is another bookcase used to house the health textbooks, student notebooks, and the laboratory equipment used in experiments. Seating in this

Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom

area will be made up of twelve student desks where students can focus on assignments. In this area students can take computer quizzes and tests that will provide immediate response and scoring. In this place there will be a variety of testing assessments that students can choose to complete (Gardner, 1993). These assessments will be short tests for student response regarding understanding content that we are currently studying (Silver, Strong, & Perini, 2000). It is also an area where students can “quiz out” of tests and assignments based on their prior knowledge and understanding of topics. If a student passes these type of assessments, they will be given an enriched activity that further stretches their knowledge base and challenges them with the related topic. What students will find in the southwest corner of the classroom is the door to the room. In the south corner will be a bulletin board called “4-1-1.” This bulletin board will contain daily school announcements, classroom expectations and guidelines, and other important student information. The west side of the door will have a “True Colors” bulletin board. Here will be the results of the True Colors Personality activity that all the students and teacher will take. The bulletin board will display photos of the students and teacher on the construction paper “color” of personality that they are based on the activity done in class. The photos are meant to be fun and be with friends or taken individually. Against the back wall of the room we will have two rows of the old style school room tables, however, these tables will be taller and be used with high back bar stools. This is another area where students can sit and do their work. The students will complete the “Give A Hand” project and hang their hands made of poster board from the ceiling using their choice of colored string. On one side of their hand they will put three words that they live by or a favorite motto or saying they have. On the other side of their hand they will put five descriptive adjectives of themselves. The hands will be decorated with the students’ choice of markers, crayons, or colored pencils. The students will put a single hole punch or two in their hand to hang it with the string. The middle of the classroom will be used as the class “Sharing Circle” and “Listening Center.” It is here that we use student chairs to bring the class together (making a circle) to collaborate, discuss, reflect, present, or plan topics, share ideas, or feelings. We will also do group activities here. This space will be a centering place that means when we are all in this area, we come together as one. This is considered a safe place, a place absence of threat, to anyone in our class.

Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom

The connections that we plan to make with each other throughout the days together will cause a sense of community and meaning. The sharing circle and listening center is where we emphasize respect, listening, and engagement of topic. This space will have a couple of rugs in the middle of the circle of desks for a visual to look at. The plan is to perhaps begin and end almost every class day in the sharing circle so that we can reflect and respond to what we have accomplished and what we need to plan for regarding the next day of class. A “wrap” session so to speak. It should be understood that in this “Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom” that each of the wall ideas and activities will be created by everyone in the room. To prevent a student from becoming over stimulated, the sections on the wall will go up slowly and one by one. This will not only prevent over stimulation but time for students to grasp the information and be able to take in the information without feeling overwhelmed trying to see and learn everything at once. This classroom idea will take place with purpose and planning over a course of several weeks. Besides what a student learns from the walls of the classroom, we will also have guest speakers come in periodically. These guest speakers will be experts in their field of work relating to health. The guests will have hands-on activities and shadowing opportunities for the students. We will also build body organ models using clay and create websites online. The projects that we will complete in health will go beyond the walls of the room, and students will be able to make the connection between our activities and the real world (LeTendre, 2000). The feeling tone of my classroom will be one of acceptance, encouragement, sharing, and discovering. I will accomplish this tone through my dress, facial expressions, verbal cues and comments, my actions of respect and acceptance, the tone of my voice, how I greet students with a smile or handshake (Jensen, 2008), and the fact that I incorporate humor and laughter into everyday (Jensen, 1996). The tone will also be set by modeling how risk-taking can lead to discovery of new information, and perhaps cures to illnesses and future findings in medicine. I will accomplish this by the activities that we create and share on the walls of the classroom, and by the experiments and research that the students do within our school and community. A description of what would be going on in my classroom for a day would begin with one of energy and end in that of relaxation and reflection. In the middle of these two bookends would be a variety of change and pace inner twined into the days activities. Students will come into the classroom, look to the whiteboard for plans and activities for the day and begin getting organized

Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom

and ready. Students will be engaged in discussion with me and other students who are in the classroom before the bell rings. Once the bell rings, students find their way to their desks and are ready for my daily routine of “Good morning! How is everyone?” I listen to a variety of different responses and comment on each, which may lead to a short discussion or share time. After we wrap up those conversations, we move into the “Did you know?” time of class where I say either, “Did you know...” and a student raises their hand to offer a fact or myth about a teenage related health topic, or I say, “Steven...” and Steven will say, “Did you know?” and either Steven will finish the sentence or call on someone else in the class to finish the statement. This is an activity that creates a situation for students to be accountable and do some research before each day in class, either surfing the Internet or reading the newspaper or a magazine in hopes to learn more about teenage health and or wellness. Once we accomplish these two tasks, we review what we are doing in class, make sure everyone understands the goals of the day, and are prepared to get at least three goals accomplished within the ninety minutes of class time that we have. On my cue, the students will begin to scatter to an area of the classroom where they work best, and where the appropriate materials are located for them to complete their three goals for the day. Students are allowed to listen to music through headphones with the understanding of their learning style, which we do the second day of the school year with each student. Every student in our building learns what learning style best fits them along with what environment best suits them for working and completing assignments. While students are moving to their respective areas of the classroom, I will be taking attendance and setting up individual time with each student to monitor where the student is concerning the project we are working on. We will briefly go over his or her task sheet and make sure that we are on schedule to complete the project on time. To some teachers who might look in on my class, they might perceive that the classroom is one of organized chaos. I like creating an atmosphere where students are moving around “doing.” So many times I go by classrooms day after day, year after year, and see the same seating arrangement, same lecturing, same note taking, same facial expressions, and same outcomes, where the teacher does all the talking and sometimes the students say more than one sentence back in response. How do we know the students are learning? By giving chapter tests after reading and reviewing every chapter in the book, and then submitting a paper and pencil assessment? My classroom will look very

Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom

different. You will see students working with other students. You will see students working independently. You will see the teacher engaging in conversation and working with the students on their projects. You will witness a sense of trust and respect between the students and their peers (DeBoer, 1995). You will see a sense of trust and respect for the teacher. You will witness mastery of content at every level and sharing going on with each discovery of new knowledge or facts. What you will see in my classroom is the results on the wall. The outcomes of student learning through research and collaboration. The projects we will do in class will be copied and sent to nonprofit organizations so that these groups can share with other high school students what we have learned about topics such as teenage drinking, dating violence, obesity, how the brain functions, and tolerance. In my classroom you might also see a student sharing a bag of grapes or other healthy snack with another student or the teacher. What will be going on is a demonstration of healthy and engaged students learning and discovering how they can make an impact on their lives, other persons lives, and influence their school and community by what they learn. If you were to walk by my classroom, the students would welcome you openly and introduce themselves. They would be interested in knowing who you are and why you were visiting. They would want you to see what project they are doing, the projects already completed, and the plans for future assignments. Most would offer to show you around. Throughout the class time, there would be “Check-in’s” time with the teacher and one other student who is their “Buddy learner.” This system pairs up students who run a checks and balances for each other to make sure the other person is on task moreover to ask questions about their project, edit, or make suggestions. Towards the end of class, we will clean up and organize the classroom back to it’s original layout. Once we are finished with this, we will meet in the class “Listening Center” to wrap up the day and to also listen to concerns, frustrations, and possible solutions for those who have questions about what they are trying to accomplish (Tomlinson, 2008). On this particular day, we wrap up the session by a quiet time, or what we call “Relaxation time.” This is where we dim the lights and close our eyes. We do a two minute breathing exercise that allows us to concentrate on our breathing so that we might relax and de-stress before moving onto the rest of our busy day. Other days, we may do a “Reflection” sentence or two about our day so far about

Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom

what we have learned and what we would like to learn next time and how we might go about learning the information next class period, or even at home on our own time. I believe that you would be quite amazed at our classroom. So amazed that you would enjoy coming back and perhaps taking part in some of the class activities that we do. Most of the activities and projects are student driven, where the teacher acts only as a coach. All students will be given the effective instructional tools necessary to succeed. There will be teaching in this classroom that is engaging, relevant, multicultural, and appealing to a variety of learning styles (Cole, 2008). My classroom will be a potpourri of learning (Howard, 1994). The brain develops best through selection and survival, rather than formal instruction (Jensen, 2008). Learning must be interesting, relevant, and be tied to our emotional and attentional mechanisms. It is here where our brains determine what is important and unimportant (Sylwester, 1995). From what I have described above concerning my ideal brain compatible classroom, I am also innately aware of the critical part that emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1994) plays throughout the learning and teaching process. In Goleman’s book, he brings a greater undestanding to some of the most perplexing moments in a person’s life and in the world around them. The journey’s end is to understand what it means, and how to bring intelligence to emotion. This is what I strive to capture in health class. To help students to develop this ability within themselves. It is my opinion that a brain compatible classroom would offer an environment where everyone has an active involvement in what is being learned, mastery of the content at the application level of understanding, adequate time for reflection and integration of any new knowledge, opportunities for immediate feedback, time for students and the teacher to collaborate new ideas and goals, a variety of choices so that all students are involved and using the learning style that best suits them, meaningful content, an environment that is absent of threat, and an enriched environment conducive to learning.

Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom

References

Cole, R. W. (2008). Educating everybody’s children: Diverse teaching strategies for diverse learners (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. DeBoer, A. (1995). Working together: The art of consulting & communicating. Longmont, CO: Sopris West. Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple intelligence: The theory in practice. New York, NY: BasicBooks. Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than iq. New York, NY: Bantam Books. Howard, P. J., Ph.D. (1994). The owner’s manual for the brain: Everyday applications from mind-brain research. Austin, TX: Leornian Press. Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning: The new paradigm of teaching (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Jensen, E. (1996). Brain-based learning. Del Mar, CA: Turning Point Publishing. Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T. (1999). Learning together and alone: Cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning (5th ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. LeTendre, B. (2000). Perceptions of at-risk middle school students, teachers, parents, and administrators concerning the motivational elements of the synergistic system. Retrieved from the Web October 15, 2008. www.pitsco.com/sharedimages/resources/Daydissertation.pdf Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J. & Pollock, J. E. (2005). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Sylwester, R. (1995). A celebration of neurons: An educator’s guide to the human brain. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Tomlinson, C. A. (2005). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Tomlinson, C. A. (2008). The differentiated school: Making revolutionary changes in teaching and learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Ideal Brain Compatible Classroom

Silver, H. F., Strong, R. W., Perini, M. J. (2000). So each may learn: Integrating learning styles and multiple intelligence. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Willis, J., M.D. (2006). Research-based strategies to ignite student learning: Insights from a neurologist and classroom teacher. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Wolf, P. (2001). Brain matters: Translating research into classroom practice. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Wong, H., & Wong, R. (1998). How to be an effective teacher: The first days of school. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.