Can the Holidays Lower Our IQ?

The concept is grounded scientifically and I’ll show you the evidence. In fact, people joke about this concept all the time. They just don’t know that it’s actually REAL.

Emotions in Students

Is the expression, “Fight, flight or freeze” a myth or science?

There’s an assumption that if a student in school feels threatened in any way, there’s going to be an immediate response we’ve all heard of before. Those might include “fight” (talk back to teacher, argue or even get physical), “flight” (try to get out of the situation, change seats, rooms or get out school), or “freeze” (quit participating and disconnect from learning).

The Best Learning Motivator EVER!

Quick: Name the Best Learning Motivator EVER! Whether you’re an instructional coach, administrator, counselor or classroom teacher, you are asked to motivate. All of us adults can find our own energy or motivation dropping at times. There’s one factor, when used with another co-factor, that makes the highest contribution to motivation. The secret to motivation […]

Poverty & Student Achievement

Stop Looking to the Government for Help. It’s been 50 years since the start of the “War on Poverty” and enactment of 1965 ESEA legislative funding (Title 1- VII programs). Today, the U.S. Senate Budget Committee says we have 83 overlapping government welfare programs that together represent $1.03 trillion in fiscal spending by federal and state agencies (this year alone), based on data from the Congressional Research Service (CRS). We now have 22% of all school age kids (12 million) from poverty in K-12 schools. The government’s approach, over 50 years, isn’t working.

The “Bobby McFerrin Effect” on Your Brain

Bobby McFerrin is a singer and conductor known best for his 1988 hit song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. If you haven’t heard the song, go to YouTube or iTunes and listen to it. Pessimists dismiss the song as being “Pollyana” yet those more optimistic typically love the song. But let’s narrow this conversation down to […]

The Perfect Music for Brain-Based Learning

How You Can Choose the Perfect Music Every Time Here is how to decide what music to play in your classroom to help with brain-based learning. While you could use an endless number of criteria, these  are a good start. I recommend using an iPod with a Bose Sound Dock player. You get the best […]

Classroom Miracles Made Simple

Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind: How to involve, include and inspire every student, every day.

Which is Better?

Faced with a decision between two classroom options, one labeled “80% fun,” the other “20% hard work and misery,” which would your students choose?

Eric Jensen’s Teacher Workshops

When students attend an Eric Jensen event, the content is made compelling, memorable and engaging. Here’s
a follow-up on a recent training sent by Vickie Kaufman.

Turnaround Tools for the Teenage Brain – Eric Jensen’s Latest Book

Turnaround Tools for the Teenage Brain offers teachers research-based and classroom-tested strategies that prove every student (no matter what their past experience) can learn and succeed, if you know how to do it. This new book shows you how to do.

Extreme Schools: How Title 1 Miracles Happen Every Day

Our featured “Extreme School” is one of the nation’s largest Title 1 elementary schools in the country. At one time, it had 2,000 students. Today, the district helped reduce the student load to “only” 1,000 students. Many of the students come from a community of poor and immigrant families. Almost none speak English when they arrive.

The Importance of the Impossible

For some, a new school year will start this month. If not, this message is just as important to you. I’ll address the importance of the “impossible” in your job, in students and in schools. This post is about impossibility, expectancy, student predictions, high goals and of course, the brain.

How to Avoid Alzheimer’s Disease

When our thinking and memory capacity becomes diminished (by a stroke, trauma, aging or Alzheimer’s) we begin to lose our sense of self and we frustrate those around us. The good news is that there are some well-researched approaches that can make dramatic differences in brain health. The first thing you can do is…

Teachers: Why You Should Stop Telling Kids to Pay Attention

As a former middle school teacher, I often used the phrase, “Pay attention!” Now you hear me telling you to never, ever say that.

Why? It seems innocent enough.

Well, first of all, it’s terrible teaching. It’s NOT at all “brain-based teaching.” In fact, it’s one more example of why kids learn to dislike school more, every year they go. First graders are so pumped up, but by the time kids make it to their last year in school, they’ve learned that school is not for them.

If we do not count the high school certificates and equivalencies, only 70% of our nation’s kids graduate overall. The rates for Hispanics, African-Americans and Native Americans are under 50% in most areas of the US.

If you think you know brain-based teaching, there’s a lot to learn! But, now that I’ve “taken away” from you one of the most commonly used attention-getters (“Pay attention!’), what should you do instead?

How to Avoid the Dreaded “Cancer” Word

Save your life or extend it! You may be concerned about the “big two” killers of cancer and Alzheimer’s. We’ll focus on cancer and next will be (again) on Alzheimer’s.