Eric Jensen writes, in chapter 3 of his book, that brains can and do change. Brains are designed to change. Some changes are positive, such as those delivered through quality nutrition, exercise, and learning; other changes are negative, such as those resulting from long term neglect, chronic drug abuse, and boredom!
Dr. Jensen informs us that during each school day, your students’ brains will change. When their brains change, so does their level of attention, learning, and cognition. Whether they are changing for better or for worse depends a lot on the quality of the experiences they receive at school.
In chapter 3, Dr. Jensen describes many factors that impact how the brain can change. For example, experience-based brain changes, gene expression, IQ and environmental changes, and fluid intelligence.
Think about your future as a teacher. Read the chapter, and then reflect and write about the following: in your own words explain at least 3 strategies teachers can use to help students change their brains for the better. Incorporate some of the factors listed above, and make certain you make connections to health!
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1.Teaching general skills that can be applied in different subjects. Instruction in sorting, sequencing, and processing data will benefit a student in the areas of reading comprehension as well as math. Both of these areas are where students of poverty commonly suffer. This relates to gene expression because teaching those skills will help switch on the gene.
2.Including physical activity in the classroom. Physical activity can lead to the production of new brain cells which is central to mood, learning, and memory. I’ve noticed in my experiences in classrooms that classrooms that have movement or breaks to stretch generally have more well behaved and on task students. Stretching may not be the physical activity that Mr. Jensen envisioned, but stretching is more physically active then sitting in a desk.
3.Involving the arts in the classroom. Mr. Jensen specifically mentions how music enhances a students self-discipline, wide brain function, verbal memory, and focused attention. I think that creating music would be ideal, but may not be readily available to Educators that teach students of poverty. I think involving drama/aspects of theater would provide the same benefits as music, and be more available. A teacher could choose to back up a story the students are reading in literature by having the students perform a Readers Theater. This involves the students reading a story, then creating a script (if developmentally appropriate), creating props, and then performing their skit before the class. Readers theater supports reading comprehension and fluency skills as well as focus, and spatial skills, sequencing and planning.
When reading Chapter 3, I was amazed about how our brains can change in a positive or negative way. When a child is given the right nutrition and exercise, the brain is able to change in a right way. Health is a very important factor when it comes to children and their brains. When a child doesn’t have the right nutrition, exercise, or enough sleep, the child cannot pay attention in class for their brains to grow. Without the right tools, their bodies and brains completely shut down and the brain changes in a negative way! When Dr. Jensen explained environmental changes and how the environment affects the child’s learning, I totally agree with him! When a child’s life is unstable and they have to worry about “adult” things, that child cannot grow academically! One of the groups Dr. Jensen explains in chapter 3 was The Boys and Girls Clubs of America and they help “at-risk” children. I actually helped out at the local Boys and Girls Club and saw what they did first hand. They help the children with their homework and even school work that the children don’t quite understand. They keep the children active like playing basketball or volleyball, but this comes after school work. They really get to know the children and they become that second home for those children! So I agree with Dr. Jensen when he stated that the club improves the children’s reading, verbal, and writing skills, better school performance, higher grades, and better attendance. One of my strategies that I would use in my classroom would be to incorporate health like nutrition, exercise, and enough sleep and educate them more on how health affects their bodies and brains! My second strategy would be their environment in my classroom. I would like my classroom to be a fun place with colors, poster, pictures, and even achievements on my walls to encourage my students to better themselves. My third strategy would be to change my brain and not to pity my students, but to help them improve because I believe they can master school and change their brain in a positive way! I really want my classroom to be a fun environment and that my students will enjoy my class instead of dreading it! My goal is to show my students to think about the future and work towards their goals in life! I want to be that aid to assist them on their way, not to hinder their brains and motivation!
Three strategies teachers can use to help students change their brains for the better is physical activity, enriched programs for learning and nutrition. These three strategies are important because they all are positively made to establish a good brain and affect good health. Physical activity was one of the activities to be done to enrich the academic operating system in the brain. If teachers use physical activity with the children then the child’s attention span increases, learning takes place and their cognitive skills are in action. When the child is active in their movement then their performance on test and assessments are higher. Physical activity reduces the chance for the student to get bored. We the teachers should help get the children involved in physical activity to keep their brain positive influenced and operating how it is supposed to be. Another strategy is have enriched programs for the students. This will help improve their IQ and environmental changes and fluid intelligence. Also it will give students a chance to improve skills they may lack such as writing, reading, homework, test taking and language. This should help reduce school problems and academic failure. Teachers should give their all meaning their time, confidence and encouraging words to help push students to better themselves. If they don’t have enriched program then we are showing or giving the idea that we don’t care. Teachers should always the children to press forward in education. We are to help them as much as we can. The last strategy is nutrition. Having good eating habits benefits you a lot. Your health is affected by the food you take in. If the child is not getting the nutrient-rich foods then maybe the teachers should set at least ten minutes of the class day to snack on something healthy. When the body gets the nutrients it needs then the brain can function properly like it should. The child can pay attention to what is being taught they can interact with the teacher and other students because they are using their cognitive skills and most of all they are learning. We should always believe that change is possible. Remember that with the help of environmental changes such as physical activity, enriched programs and nutrition, the brain is capable of adapting to the new environment to produce a healthy outcome.
One strategy I read about that I think teachers could use to help students change their brains for the better is helping students build their brain’s operating system. One way to do this is to teach students about music. “Music training enhances self discipline, wide brain function, and verbal memory” (page 57). I began taking piano lessons in second grade. Over the years, I had to memorize different pieces of music to play at recitals, which greatly helped me build my short and long term memory skills. Short-term and working memory capacity is one of the components that is necessary for school success. I was always able to do well on test that involved simply memorizing material because my memory skills had been so well trained. Also I think when a students does well on playing a piece of music in front of people their confidence will build and help them feel like they can achieve in other areas like school as well. Musical instruments also take a while to master or play well so students will have to learn patience in practicing and putting in the effort to achieve their goal of playing an instrument. This patience and drive will carry over into schoolwork and help them want to succeed in the classroom as well. I know from experience that playing musical instruments will help children in school. To keep a healthy brain, students should utilize as many parts of it as they can to keep it working at a high level.
Another strategy that I would like to use as a future teacher is building students’ fluid intelligence. When students build on their fluid intelligence they are working on getting better at problem solving, pattern recognition, and abstract thinking. In my opinion all of these things will help students build on their thinking skills. Thinking skills are a very important part of being able to learn and grasp concepts taught in school. If students are not able to think on their own of ways to relate topics or build on prior knowledge, they will have trouble succeeding in the classroom. Teachers are going to have to help students build on their fluid intelligence to build their IQs and create greater achievement by their students. In Jensen’s book it gives the example of fluid intelligence as being when a student is able to process that since they know to look both ways when crossing the street, they should be cautious when approaching a busy intersection. This kind of thinking is also beneficial to a student’s health. If they cannot process ideas such as this to keep them safe they could end up very hurt or even result in death. Students need to be able to relate their knowledge to ideas that will keep them safe.
Environmental change also seems to have an impact on students. I hope to be either a Pre-Kindergarten teacher or a Kindergarten teacher. Studies have shown that well run early educations programs greatly influence students and their likeliness to do well later in their education. If students are placed in a well run early education program the socioeconomic gap is likely to be narrowed or eliminated which is what children of poverty need. I can make sure I help improve their IQ and language skills and promote their social, academic, and emotional intelligence. I want the children in my classroom to be considered students of a well-run early education program so they will gain these benefits of it. I want to know that the drop out rate of my students will be lowered because of the effort I put into teaching them while they were young. I want all of my students to be in a healthy environment at school whether they go home to one or not. Their achievement is important to me and I want to give students an environment that promotes their achievement throughout their lives.
To help students change their brains, teachers must be able to provide a environment that can help out the process. The environment of the classroom should promote diversity so that all students no matter gender or race can feel comfortable and learn to get along. This diversity can help students develop healthy realationships. The classroom should also promote a challenge to each student individually. The best way to do this is to ask students questions that requires a thought out response instead of a simple yes or no. Another strategy that can be used is to speak enthusiastically about any subject that you are teaching. In doing so this allows the student to see that you yourself do enjoy the subject, which can lead to them enjoying it themselves also. Another strategy that can be used is making each lesson as fun as possible. This allows students to think that the subject that you are teaching is fun and want to learn more about. This also keeps students from getting bored and makes them more alert to whats happening in the classroom.
Chapter three of Dr. Jensen book explains the different factors that can help students improve and change their brain. These factors are as simple as the classroom and as complicated as gene expression. A childs environment greatly affects the brain. If a child is in an unstable environment or has always been neglected, then their brain will not be as highly developed as it could be, but if that child is introduced to a good environment that continuously challenges its brain then their IQ can increase.
Dr. Jenson made a very valid point when talking about the brain changing through fluid intelligence. Fluid intelligence is being able to take knowledge from one subject and use in another. Most people struggle with this learning concept, because what they learn in that one subject stays there. One way to help a student’s brain to grow in the classroom is teach students how to use fluid intelligence. Similar to the example Dr. Jenson provided in the book, using a web or a diagram is one way this type of growth works. In school students learn and are able to use diagrams for math, science, and even English. They may learn about the diagram for one subject, but are unaware how to apply it to another. As a teacher if I were teaching about writing, my students may use a diagram to show the similarities and differences in characters or settings. This is one type of learning. To help change the students’ brains for the better, I may show them that the same diagram can be used during science, to compare and contrast weather, characteristics of animals, etc. This helps the students’ though process, and critical thinking. According to Dr. Jenson, many do struggle with is type of learning, so it is good to open this concept up to the students.
Another strategy teacher can use to help students change their brains for the better is teaching new skills and ways of learning. Often in classrooms, students become easily bored and inattentive due to the way teachers teach. If teachers would make sudden changes in lesson plans, to something unfamiliar and new to students, it may cause them to remain focused and more eager to learn. For example, if a teacher were to allow students to sit on the floor in small groups with dry erase boards to practice addition problems, they would definitely be more enthused than sitting in a desk with a pencil and paper. Simply changing learning concepts can make a huge difference in how a child’s brain changed.
A third way a teacher can impact how the brain changes is to teach them how to use what they learned at home. This is a good concept especially for low SES families, because sometimes parents do not the material that their child is learning. This concept helps the health of the family. Listing the steps done for a new math lesson or providing the child with their own handmade manipulatives gives them the opportunity to share with their family what they have learned in class. When teaching about time, a teacher could allow students to make their own clocks. Since some students may not have an analog clock at their home, they can apply the teaching in class to their own clock. This concept can be an example of changing the IQ, because their IQ is changed not only at school, but also in the home. There are many ways teachers can broaden a student’s brain throughout the day. It only take understanding how a child needs to learn, and applying this to teaching.
After reading the previous chapter I learned how we could change our students brains as teachers. The brain can change in positive and negative ways. While their brains change it also changes their level of attention, cognition, and learning. How it changes all depends on their experiences in school. I would have never known this could happen. I didn’t know that our brains could change in positive or negative ways so easily. I just always thought that what you learned is what you learned and when you didn’t need the information you would forget about it. I had no idea that being out of school would make your IQ drop.
There are a couple of things as a teacher that I would do help change my students brains for the better. One thing I would do is work with their fluid intelligence. Fluid intelligence can be taught over a period of time. I would have my students work on applying writing strategies. My students would work on graphic organizers and brainstorming before writing. They would do this because it helps them organize their thoughts into a proper sequence of how they want to write them down. Another thing that I would do is use laptops in my classroom so my students can play educational games. By playing educational games it will improve on my students attention skills. By improving on their attention skills it will help them focus more in class. A final thing that I would do is work on changing their IQ. I would do this by instilling in my students the importance of school. The longer that students stay in school the higher their IQ will get compared to those students who drop out or don’t care. I want my students to want to come to school and learn. I want them to know the importance of learning and schoolwork.
This chapter has opened my eyes on ways to increase the IQ of my students, which I didn’t even know was possible. I thought even just had an IQ number and that was it. I now know new ways to improve my students learning skills and change their brains for the better. I definitely as a teacher don’t want my students brains to change negatively. This can simply happen from being bored. I don’t want any students in my classroom to be bored. I always want to challenge them and have them think outside of the box.
One strategy a teacher can use to improve a students brain “academic operating system” is physical activity. This can help the growth of new brain cells. Creating new brain cells is a process that is highly related to learning, mood, and memory. Young children have so much energy that they need to play at recess and go to a gym class during school hours. These activities should not be taken away or viewed as unimportant. By engaging the children in physical activity, the students will make their brain stronger and change it for the better. Being active will also improve their overall health.
Teachers can use brainstorming, making graphic organizers to help young students organize and sort different things, etc. to help change a students brain for the better. These activities can improve the skill of fluid intelligence. This will not only help them at school but it can help them in real world situations. Fluid intelligence can increase a child’s IQ. By teaching giving students mental activities will help them with memory and attention.
Another strategy that a teacher can use is incorporating the arts. For example music is a good way to build a child’s skills. This also improves the child’s brains operating system. Music build’s a child’s self-control and brain function. Music can also help a student’s effort and has been found to help with mathematical skills. All of these activities can enhance a students brain to increase their academic success. It will definitely help a student of low-SES status because they may not have been able to learn skills to help them advance in school.
( pg 57, Jensen.)
“The most crucial concept to keep in mind when working with any population of underachieving school-age kids is this: brains can and do change” (Jensen 47). It is extremely important that teachers keep this in mind and know that there are many different strategies that can be used to help change their student’s minds for the better. Some strategies that I could use to help bring out the better in my students could be by using technology, music, and physical activity. It is crucial that as teachers we set out to change and improve the environments that they spend their time in everyday.
Technology is growing day by day. Jensen states in his book, “Completing tasks administered by computer-aided instructional programs that have subjects identify, count, and remember objects and hold those objects’ locations in their working memories can increase attention and improve working memory within several weeks, even generalizing to improve performance on other memory tasks and an unrelated reasoning task” (57). I will make sure to incorporate technology into my classroom. It could be educational games on the computer, or using the computer to look up information in a lesson. I can allow my students to get up and use the computer for a matching game for example. By using technology it will show my students that there are different ways for them to learn and can enhance their attention skills.
Music can be incorporated into any and every subject. “Music training enhances self-discipline, wide brain function, and verbal memory” (Jensen 57). By singing different songs, students are able to have fun and interact with other students, not realize that they are learning also. There are many different songs that have educational meaning behind them and students can really enjoy singing them. Using the song, “Where is Thumbkin,” I could cut an apple into 2’s, then 4ths, then 6ths, showing the students how cutting the apple into more pieces makes it easier to share. Using music will help the students work on not only their persistence, but also their long term memory.
“Physical activity can increase the production of new brain cells, a process highly correlated with learning, mood, and memory” (Jensen 56). I believe that by bringing in physical activity into my lessons that my students will not only enhance their learning capabilities, but also help make them feel better about themselves. For many children, it takes being able to learn beyond the classroom for them to be able to understand the lesson at its fullest. For example, when teaching science, I can take my class outside and take them on a hike through the woods so they are able to see the different types of plants and wildlife. When teaching about the heart and body, I could have them run for 30 seconds to let them see the difference between their resting and active heart rate. By using physical activity, the students will have more hands on learning opportunities and will be able experience a different route of learning.
It will be my job as a teacher to incorporate as many of these strategies as I can into my lessons. It is important that I also use my student’s fluid intelligence to do so. By doing this, the students will better their abstract thinking and make their learning experience in my classroom much more enjoyable. I must build off of what they already know and test them by bringing up past lessons that they have learned. It is crucial that I show my students that I believe in them most of all. By seeing that I know what they are capable of, it will give them the confidence to learn all that they can. The school and its facility must set a positive and fun example for the students to mimic.
There are a few things that I, as a future teacher, could do to improve my student’s brain functioning. One thing that I think would be good for my future students would be to incorporate music in my classroom. I think that this would be a good strategy because it would benefit my student’s memory. I could use songs to help my students remember a lesson. We could learn the song at the beginning of the lesson and then use the song all throughout the week to help the students learn. Music could also benefit my children’s emotional health by being a sort of therapeutic means. For instance, playing calming music could decrease a student’s anxiety before a test.
Another thing that I would want to incorporate in my classroom to improve brain function would be to use computer programs when working with math. Since there may only be a few computers in my classroom, only a few students would be able to work at a time. I could set it up as a sort of incentive program for the students which would make the program more fun. The students would feel like they were getting a privilege and at the same time they would be taking in information. The computer programs would be a nice break from working in a workbook or on math handouts. According to Jensen, computer programs can help with attention and working memory. This could help my children better remember how to do certain math functions and they would be learning in what would be a more exciting way for them.
One last way that I would want to help improve my children’s brain functioning would be through physical activity. Since Jensen tells us that physical activity can increase the production of brain cells, I think that having my students do a few work outs would be a good idea. Of course, my students will have recess and will go to P.E., but I believe there are some things I could do to promote physical activity in my own classroom. One thing would be to allow my students to stand up and stretch after lessons or when I feel that I am not holding their attention. This will give the students a nice little break and I could even look up a few exercises to teach them each week. The students will get excited about these little workouts and it will be a nice break for them each day. This will keep the students from becoming very bored and therefore increase their attention. Aside from the benefits to the brain, regular physical exercise will help develop good habits for young children, therefore making them more likely to exercise regularly. This strategy could improve my student’s health in physical and mental aspects. I believe that using all of these strategies could help my future students in the classroom.
What I noticed the most in Chapter 3 of the book is when they talked about changing the mindset of the brain they focused on the environment. Several things that they mentioned that could help the mindset of a child and help that child succeed are nutrition, Attentional skills that allow the child to focus and be engaged, and also physical activity. Nutrition is important because the types of food you eat help your brain develop and also affect you physically. You could offer fruit and water as a snack in the afternoons as opposed to cookies or candies. This will allow the child to get some good nutrition if he or she does not get that at home because of the environment they live in. Next, is teaching skills to the students that allow them to focus and be engaged with what he or she is learning in the classroom. They need to be able to focus on what is being taught. Now also with that comes the opportunity to be disengaged when the time is appropriate. It is ok for students to have several minutes of down time during the day so they don’t get bored with what is being taught. Physical Activity is also very important to the process of being able to change the mindset of a student because that is how brain cells are grow. During physical activity brain cells grow and that results in better learning skills. Also physical activity helps to keep them healthy and allows them to let loose some of the energy which can help them to settle down in the classroom and stay focused.
Teachers have to come up with new and affective strategies in the classroom to expand the growth of their children’s brain development. Dr. Jensen explains strategies that allow teachers to expand this growth. In this chapter Dr. Jensen explains in order to maximize educational gains, teachers have to place more importance on the early education of children, under the age of 5. He states, the first few years of growth and development are crucial in a child’s learning development. There is a list of things that early childhood teachers can do to change the brains of their students. Physical activity produces the production of brain cells. Therefore a teacher can incorporate dance and physical contests or challenges in the classroom, or outside at recess. Not only does this help the brain develop, but physical activity helps children stay active and less likely to become obese. The use of more arts in the classroom can help children’s brain functions also. Jensen states that the arts improve attention, sequencing, processing, and cognitive skills. Not only does art help expand the growth of the young students brain, art can help the children express themselves and find themselves in a fun creative way that both teacher and student will enjoy. Also, music is a skill builder that significantly improves student’s brain functions and thinking systems. It is known if you play classical music to a child while they are in the womb, the child is more likely to come out smarter. This shows that music is essential to the growth of a child’s brain especially when they are in the womb, a time where the brain is growing the fastest. All these factors help build and change the brain for the better in students, and they lead to healthier happier children who grow to be smarter, healthier adults.
Throughout my time as a student I have always been involved in the arts and as a teacher would love to bring the arts into my classroom. Dr. Jenson’s book affirmed for me that the involvement of the arts across the curriculum can really help children of poverty. The addition of the arts can help with attention, processing, cognitive skills, and sequencing. I can definitely see this because when working on a play the student must learn the entire sequence in order to perform the play properly. In middle school I was involved in band and music also helps with sequencing and keeping time. I feel like as a classroom teacher I could bring music and theatre into the classroom very easily. I could use Reader’s Theatre to help with sequencing and I could bring music in with classroom songs. I know that the arts can inspire students to love school because I had many friends that worked harder in school in order to be involved with band and theatre.
Adding technology to the classroom like computer based programs can really help children with so many skills. I have seen this first hand at the Center for the Child with Jasmine one of the students that speaks English as a second language. She uses a computer based program to learn new words and symbols. I also believe that computers can help children learn at their own place and walk a student that is struggling with a skill through it a hundred times until the child comprehends it unlike a teacher that needs to serve other children as well as accomplish paperwork.
I really liked the idea about physical activity because it is very easy to incorporate physical activity into the classroom. Children need physical activity and the fact that it increases the production of brain cells just reaffirms its place in the classroom. By making sure that children have time during the day to move around and get their energy out and create new brain cells will always be one of my priorities as a teacher. When I worked in a kindergarten classroom the teacher took her students out for recess twice a day because she said that the students were far more productive if they received that extra time outside. She also tried to do extremely active activities in order to reinforce skills as well as providing hands on learning. The children that she worked with were mostly low SES and I believe this was an example of Jensen’s research in practice.
Adding physical activity promotes overall body health and the arts can be really enhance emotional and mental health. Children that are healthy can learn far better because they will be alert and attentive rather than children that are unhealthy and sluggish and not paying attention. A healthy body supports a healthy mind.
One strategy a teacher can use to help students change their brains for the better is to challenge the students. When challenging the students, it must be done in moderation because the teacher doesn’t want to overwhelm the students. Also, the challenging should do just that, challenge the students. All children learn at different paces, so a teacher must have different activities to be done that allow the students’ brains to be challenged.
Another strategy a teacher can use to help students change their brains for the better is to expand the brain. The brain can be trained to expand by adjusting their thought process. Sometimes, the students will remember something that learned in the past and apply it to the situation at hand. Other times, the students will be trying to figure out something and it will finally make sense.
Teachers can also use the strategy of teaching children at an earlier age. Children’s brains are sponge-like when they are younger, so they can retain more information. Children will remember what they learn at a younger age better than what they learn when they are older. Also, teaching the children at a younger age gives them more time to learn more information.
Three strategies that teachers could use to help students change their brain are using multivariate analysis, develop an academic operating system, and develop practical intelligence. These factors can lead to a healthy mind, which is important to health in general. Multivariate analysis determines the effect of genes on the brain. The analysis could be used to find a relation between learning difficulties the student has. The purpose of this strategy is to help the teacher to understand how to approach teaching the student. This helps the teacher to develop curriculum that is fundamental to the student’s learning process, resulting in positive learning and behavior. An academic operating system increases change in the brain by giving students operations to go by for learning information. It includes motivation to complete long term goals with the ability to understand gratification; visual, auditory, and processing skills; starting and completing student engagement, along with ways to focus. There must be short-term and working memory capacity for thinking and learning new information, sequencing skills so students know how to process information and the order in should be in. Also, the system must create the mind-set of a winner and confidence so that the students will believe in themselves enough to complete task and begin new ones. Students need proper support when processing challenging content. Physical activity will keep the student’s body healthy and increase production of new brain cells so it is important to incorporate exercise in curriculum. Developing practical intelligence in students helps to increase the learning process by helping the students to apply knowledge to everyday life. The knowledge the students already possess will impact their ability to help and correct themselves while learning, making the learning process more effective because they were able to comprehend on their own while relating in to other experiences. Practical intelligence includes knowing why, self, difference, process and revisiting.
As we move into an era that promotes technological advances, I think it is important to use technology as an important aid when it comes to changing students brains for the better. Three strategies that I would suggest would be to appeal to the areas children enjoy most video games/computers, physical activities/ hands on learning, and music or expressive arts. Children of poverty aren’t exposed as often to advanced technology as other students due to lack of resources, so a way to improve their brain for the better would be to introduce them to computer games that promote fine motor skills as well as brain development. Using the computer as an aid in the classroom can increase knowledge of technology as well as build solid performances in future endeavors such as memory and reasoning. Another strategy to improve a child’s brain for the better would be to continuously promote hands on learning and physical activity. Jensen states that physical activity helps increase the production of new brain cells p. 56, to me this means keep them active when possible. Instead of sitting in the classroom discussing what is nutritious and what isn’t, take a field trip to the cafeteria as long as it has been approved, and show them different food items that could either be healthy or unhealthy, allowing them to make the differentiation between the two. This would be a hand on activity that keeps the students engaged as well as allows them the opportunity to become a health advocate when not attending school. Last but not a least use music as a tool to increase the production of new brain cells. There are several activities involving music that could possibly promote increasing the child’s brain cells such as making their own instrument and becoming a classroom band. Each child will pick between four instruments and then create the instruments. After construction, teach the children a health song or a growth and development song to where they are moving or marching in a line and each of the four instruments has the opportunity to perform a solo part in the song as well as a collective part. By allowing the children to create their instruments and create their own decorations, this allows creativity, improve attention to a particular object, and can also promote emotional growth when working with their classmates. Using music as a classroom tool as well can definitely enhance a child’s drive to learn more as well as increase their desire to participate in class.
According to Dr. Jensen, the brain can change in positive and negative ways. As teachers we cannot control our students’ home lives but while they are at school we can provide them with the best resources and support we can. Students are at school 6 to 7 hours a day and I believe that in most cases the teachers spend more time with the students then the parents. If we promote a healthy life style and positive learning we as teachers are doing the best we can for our students and can greatly impact their lives for the better.
Learning occurs best when individuals are in the best condition they can be. To be in a good condition the students should get proper rest, good nutrition, and exercise. We cannot control how much rest, good nutrition, and exercise the students have at home. At school though, we can promote healthy choices. In doing this I believe the teachers need to do what they are want their students to do. We can offer healthy snacks to the children and eat healthy snacks ourselves instead of eating candy while they are eatting an apple. We can encourage movement throughout the school day and when the students move we move too. Possibly we could take short breaks to dance to music or do anything that gets the students up and moving to get their blood flowing. I personally feel that taking recess away from students as a punishment is a bad idea for the teacher as well as the students. Recess these days are so short and students are not allowed much time to be active and I believe that if the students have time to get rid of excess energy they will be able to sit down and concentrate on their lessons better than if they are not allowed to get up and move.
I believe that when teaching you have to relate to who you are teaching. The learning should be interesting and fun for your students. If the students are interested in what is being taught they will be more likely to learn and to be involved. Many times students do not see how a skill they learn can be connected or can help them learn another. As teachers I believe that it is important to teach our students fluid intelligence. This is where they learn to connect skills from one area to skills in others and help themselves in the learning process.
I believe as Dr. Jensen states in his book that the students’ IQs can change for the better or the worse. This is affected by their home environments, early learning experiences, the quality of nutrition they receive, and how long they stay in school. We have Gene Expression in our RNA that turns on or turns off different genes and if the students are in a good environment and are healthy and learning than the genes that should be on will be turned on and the ones that should be off will turn off.
Think about your future as a teacher. Read the chapter, and then reflect and write about the following: in your own words explain at least 3 strategies teachers can use to help students change their brains for the better. Incorporate some of the factors listed above, and make certain you make connections to health!
In order to change a child’s brain for the better you must first improve their academic operation system. This can be done in several ways. By playing music in the classroom I can help enhance my students overall memory. Through the expansion of their memory comes a higher IQ. Playing music in the classroom also helps enhance self-discipline, wide-spread brain function and verbal memory. All of these things help improve a child’s overall health and their ability to learn. By increasing their verbal memory and brain functions students gain the ability to perform tasks they ordinarily would be unable to, both inside and outside the classroom. Another way I can help boost my students intelligence would be to incorporate practical intelligence intervention strategies. By applying real world applications to the things the students are learning, I am able to increase the child’s ability to self-assess and self-correct. If a child is able to constantly re-asses and change their work for the better they are less likely to become bored in the classroom. There would always be something to improve on and there would always be a new way of learning for them. Having self-correcting and assessing skills improves a child’s health too. Students apply their problem solving skills to everyday activities. What that means is say a student has a health related issue. They will be able to use the skills they developed in the classroom to either solve the problem their selves or find someone who can. Another effective tool in increasing a child’s brain development is environmental invention. This means invention not from school, but from an outside agent this could be a tutor, mentoring program, anything. Studies have found that environmental invention improves reading, writing, overall school performance, stronger interest in class materials, higher grades and improves attendance. Environmental also helps improves a child’s emotional well-being. By gaining the skills students become more confident in their own ability and feel better about themselves. I think that environmental invention is one of the most effective means to improve a child’s brain.
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