Time Management

Dr. Brain came in last Friday to talk about time management. He started by showing a simple model of the brain and talking about grey matter and the two hemispheres of the brain. We talked about how the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body and vice versa. 

Time Management
Dr. Brain discussed why it was important to understand time as the students get older. We talked about how time is consistent, even though our perceptions of time may be different. We got to experience how one minute can seem to "fly by" or "drag on" depending on the activity!

"Minute to Win it!"
We started off by competing in two different "Minute to Win it" challenges. Tables selected one team member to participate in the challenge. The first challenge was called "Suck it Up" and students had to use a straw to try and suck up Skittles, moving them one-by-one from one bowl to another. The video footage is hilarious! The second challenge was called "Scoop it Up" and students had to use a spoon (with the handle side in their mouth) to transfer 6 ping pong balls from one bowl to another without using their hands!

Ab Exercises
While the "Minute to Win it" challenges seemed to fly by, the ab exercise seemed to last forever! The minute definitely didn't feel the same. But as we all know, a minute is 60 seconds, no matter how it's spent! There is some good video footage of this as well! Many students gave up before the minute was over!

Five Minute Challenge
We wanted to show students the difference between one minute and five minutes. Students worked in teams to put together a human anatomy brain model. This model includes 31 pieces including the cerebellum, frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes, corpus callosum, brain stem, hippocampus, ventricles, insula, corpus striatum, internal capsule, and lentiform nucleus! Needless to say, students did not meet the challenge, but they worked hard and worked cooperatively on it! We will try this challenge again, giving students 10 minutes!

Materials
We found some GREAT visual sand timers at Lakeshore Learning in Matthews: http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/

You can see some snippets from Lesson 5 by visiting the following link: https://youtu.be/3pszB9hDzdQ

Classroom Setting: Brain Based Strategies & Environment

We are SO GRATEFUL to be in our classroom. It's been just about 6 weeks since we've moved in, and it definitely feels like "home". I'm going to briefly talk about some of the unique aspects of our classroom and how it relates to Brain Based Learning and affects our Executive Functions. 

New Environment, New Furniture, New Chairs

We went from standing desks (having no chairs) while we were at Elevation to yoga ball chairs and spin chairs. Our vestibular joints are now adapted to spinning and balancing in our new environment. When you are balancing, it activates the reticular activating system (or attention center). It provides kinesthetic awareness that helps you to focus. These chairs are proprioceptive, meaning that the kids are unconsciously using the cues inside their body to balance. 

Natural Lighting

Artificial lighting is a stressor, meaning our bodies and eyes have to adapt, spending adaptive energy. We only have so much adaptive energy, and if we're spending it on light and/or noise, there is a limited amount left to spend on other things. I'll use the train analogy to explain further: think about if you lived or worked near a train. Every day this train goes by twice a day, at the exact same time. Eventually you habituate (get used to the train), but your brain still has to deal with the train, spending adaptive energy. While you may be less distracted by the train and not even necessarily notice the train, your brain is still working to block that train out. 

In our classroom we have some lamps, lava lamps, and Christmas lights on at all times. We rarely, if ever, have the overhead fluorescent lights on. In fact, our music teacher Ms. Young came in after our first week in the building and asked for the lights to be turned on for an activity she was doing. The kids eyes shot straight up to the ceiling and said, "Wow! Ms. Poling, did you know we had 12 lights on the ceiling????" Haha! We love the natural light we get from our three large windows. Natural light has been proven to affect mood. It's calming, and not stressful. The sunshine is our friend! :) 

*Disclaimer, you may see some ceiling lights on in these pictures because I was trying to get a good picture on my phone and couldn't without more lighting due to the sun! 

Comfy Space

You’re able to concentrate better if your body is comfortable and balanced. You're able to concentrate better because your body isn’t inconvenienced or working to meet other needs like temperature, comfort, distractions, etc. In addition to being comfortable, allowing our brains to concentrate, our discriminative cues (discriminate between what's going on here vs. there) are enforced by the different spaces in our classroom. 

For example, in our library area, our mindset is to read and be relaxed. 

At our guided reading table, students know what to expect; the visual cue being the teacher sitting in the middle. They know exactly what will happen and what is expected of them. This can be explained better using the red light analogy. When you see a red light, you automatically know, I need to stop. When students see me sitting at the guided reading table, they know they need to bring their novel study materials back, get a pencil and a word tracker, and be ready to discuss or read. 

Another way my students get "comfy" is by having the ability to take their shoes off throughout the day. When you take your shoes off at your front door, it means your house is special, and you don't want to bring unwanted things (i.e., mud, rain water, dirt, leaves) into your space. The same is true in our classroom, except for the fact that students do not HAVE to take their shoes off...it's a choice. UNLESS they are going to be in "the nest" (our large multi-person beanbag), then they have to. They know the expectation because that was a very expensive beanbag that another teacher is letting us borrow. We understand that it is special and we don't want to ruin it. Another reason we take off our shoes is because it creates this "safe zone" feeling. Just like the gesture of taking your coat off at a guest's house; you know you're welcome, they want you to come in and relax. Also, think about when you've had a hard day...what's the first thing you want to do? For me it's take off my shoes! 

Above you see our morning meeting area. This is another cue for students. Whoever is sitting in the rocking chair is important and should be tracked/focus on. When students come to morning meeting, we all sit on the floor and students know it is a safe place to share ideas, worries, stories, feelings, and celebrations. They are comfortable with one another! 

You'll also see our essential oil diffuser on the end table. I am a HUGE fan of and believer in essential oils and use them constantly in my classroom. We use Lavender for calming/relaxing, we use Peppermint for focus, we use Thieves or OnGuard to kill germs, we use Purification to neutralize smells (because of our stinky sock feet of course!), we use Joy or Cheer to lighten the mood. The diffuser activates our olfactory senses, which allows students to aromatically get the benefits of the different oils. Once again, it's comforting after they get used to it. Think of how you feel when you smell fresh baked bread! Ahhhh..... 

Anyway, that's all for now! I'm sure I'm missing some, but this is a snapshot of the environment we spend our days in! 

Dr. Brain visited us this morning to teach about time management. Look for another post soon involving "Minute to Win it" challenges!