Tag Archive for: teaching

Does Your Brain’s Inner Chatter Matter?

Having the ‘voice’ in your head is nearly universal. Maybe you just said to yourself, “What voice?” Yes, you have that voice. For some it is a never-ending inferno of misery and for others, it’s a daily friend and valued conscience. A quality inner voice can be a valuable asset in your life. It is literally the difference between the slippery path downhill or a solid, joyful life. Interested in knowing how to get the voice on your side? If so, maybe this month you’re willing to take a moment to find out how to run your own brain a bit better.

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Teacher Anxiety Covid

The Relationship-Building Tool The Pandemic Cannot Take Away

The bell is about to ring. You’re standing in the doorway, offering each student a high-five. You enter your classroom and crouch down at a student’s desk for a quick individual check-in. You offer an encouraging smile and a quick side-hug.

As you start class, your alarm goes off. You wake up, panicked. It was another one of those dreams. One where you remember all the magical moments of relationship building you once had with students. Keep reading to learn the top-notch relationship-building tools the pandemic cannot take away. Read more

Stress in school

The 3 Biggest Lies You’ve Been Taught About Stress and How You Can Go from Surviving to Thriving

For most educators, stress levels slowly ramp up over the first couple of months of school. The word on the street is many of you already feel like you’ve gone from 0 to 60 on a stress-o-meter!

Yes, this school year brings unprecedented challenges. Every September we help you rise to the challenge. This  post’s self-care issue might be the most important ever because … Read more

How Would Your Students Describe Your Classroom?

Would Your Students Describe Your Classroom as Boring or Chaotic?

“This month seems like a lost cause for learning.” Have you heard someone say something like that before? I’ve got an idea for you this month to keep you green and growing all the way till the school year’s over. It’s never too late to try something new that can boost student learning.

This is a great time of the school year for an experiment. Practice going a bit too far in either direction with the strategies below and see if you discover more boredom or chaos. Your student’s not-so-subtle pushback will be the precise feedback you need to find the balance between … Read more

The 50-year drought is over!

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How to Get the Brains of Your Students to Change

brain based learning

I am on a mission to help more educators become extraordinary this year. In this article, you will get an insight into how our brain works. Stay a learner for a moment and we can help you achieve the best professional year of your life.

Today, we will lock down one of the most core understandings about the human brain: how to get it to change. Let’s learn how to do this right. The reason you may care about this is because… Read more

How is a Student’s Memory at Test Time?

student memory

You’re about to find out that your students’ memories are FAR worse than you thought, and yet can be FAR better than you thought in another way. Let’s find out how to fix it with four quality solutions. Read more

How to Get Students to Buy-Into Your Content…

Brain based

I’d like to introduce a critical topic: how to get students to care about the content you have to offer.

Why should YOU care about this? I think I can save you a TON of time this year.

Here’s how: Read more

Secrets to Ramping up Student Effort:

The 10 Step Checklist Every Teacher Should Memorize.

Brain based

Over the years, student effort has been called many things. Some call it “motivation” and others call it “work ethic.” But no matter what you call it, students will never rise to their full potential without a strong effort. Here is what research tells us and how you can get the most out of your students. First…

The Research

Here is what research tells us about student effort. Effort can be internally generated (habits of mind, content knowledge, muscle memory, skills and intrinsic motivation) or it can be extrinsic (peers, novelty, rewards, etc.) There are three primary sources of effort and the first two sources are internal. Read more

10 Powerful Steps for Improved Learning

Brain Based Teaching and Teacher Workshops

How to Make Your Job Easier and Give Students an Amazing Gift
for a Lifetime:

It’s the “Gift” of “How to Learn”

Usually, we feature a column on how to be a better teacher, administrator or trainer. This month, we’ll pause for a moment and work at the other end of the process. What do STUDENTS NEED to be doing to become far more effective learners? Some of the research tells us things we already knew.

PART ONE: The Research

We all know that teaching kids HOW to get more organized for study is important. But there might be a few surprises that are downright counter-intuitive. For example, you’ll be surprised to find out that quizzing MORE OFTEN actually promotes learning. But that’s just one of the 10 powerful steps for improved learning. If you are in a position to share these with staff that can reach students, please share this upcoming list. The research for this month was collected by the following scientists:

Harold Pashler (Chair)
University of California, San Diego
Patrice M. Bain
Columbia Middle School, Illinois
Brian A. Bottge
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Arthur Graesser
University of Memphis
Kenneth Koedinger
Carnegie Mellon University
Mark McDaniel
Washington University in St. Louis
Janet Metcalfe
Columbia University

Typically, I use this area to fill your brain with the “why” behind all the action. This month, it’s posted, so you can look it up. The full research document is posted on the web. Only one of 50 of you either: 1) work with students in this capacity, or, 2) are hungry enough to look it up. The document can be downloaded here (pdf).

The research tells us that the following suggestions have reasonable scientific support for them. If something’s not a good idea, you won’t hear it from me. But wait, there’s more! The online research posted 7 ideas and I have added 3 of my own, for a total of 10. Read more