Learning on the Move

My class likes to move and likes to talk. I sometimes feel like everything is chaos and learning is minimal at best. The other day I commented, "If we learned math this afternoon, it was by accident." Things were just crazy.

When things seem out of control or seem not working right, I ask myself, "What is my class telling me? What needs am I not meeting? How does the environment need to adjust?"

(When I said this to a colleague recently, she remarked, "Well, that's a different approach." And I don't think she meant it as a compliment. I'm still looking at it that way though.)

I tried an experiment last week. We were working with a certain word group...exploring words that followed a common spelling pattern. We had read some words and spelled some words as a group. The class seemed less than engaged in what we were doing.

I gave them some paper, to work on spelling words on their own. We stood and stretched and moved a little, to wake up the brain. I amped up my enthusiasm a little, and made some humorous sentences with words as we spelled them. But the engagement was still low.

So, I told them to grab their papers and pencils. I told them to find a desk or table somewhere in the room. I called out the word and they wrote it down. Then I told them to move again and spell a different word. We did this for 5 words or so. Then they moved back to their desks and we moved on to the next thing.

I repeated the move and write activity in the afternoon with math, this time with adding and subtracting two digit numbers.

Yes, things did get a little loud and a little rowdy. But not like usual. After a few minutes, we moved on to other activities.

My class likes to move and talk. If they sit too long, I lose them (at least mentally and sometimes otherwise). I'm working on keeping them moving...and learning at the same time.

Early Childhood Brain Insights

I love learning and discovering more about teaching preschoolers and kindergartners. Over the past year or so I've learned so much from all my new blog friends. I visit quite a few blogs regularly (and some more sporadically) but I'm always on the lookout for new places to visit and learn from.

One of my most recent additions to my regular surfing is Early Childhood Brain Insights. At that blog, Deborah regularly covers ways that brain development and child's learning intersect. Her posts are interesting and informative. She is a strong advocate for kids learning through experiences and play. One of her most recent posts shows scans that contrast the size of regular exploring 3-year-old and a neglected 3-year-old. Go to her blog and see the scans. It's amazing.

For a while, I've been interested in brain development and how that impacts our practice as teachers. Erik Jensen's work first stimulated my interest. (Here's a previous post about my experience in a training conference with Erik Jensen.) In the weeks ahead, I'll post some reflections on brain-based learning and what that means for us as preschool and kindergarten teachers.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about brain-based learning...or a new blog to add to my growing list.

Ten Meaningful Affirmations for Kids

Affirmation helps boost a child's confidence and inspires him to persevere. Affirmation encourages a child to keep trying and to feel successful. The best affirmation are words that are meaningful - that connect to what the child is doing. Think about how you can use concrete, meaningful words to affirm the preschoolers or kindergartners you teach.

1. You used all the blocks to build your tower.

2. I can tell you are really thinking about this.

3. Your paper is covered with paint. Tell me what you did.

4. You worked together to finish that large floor puzzle.

5. Thank you for helping put away the dishes. We make a great team!

6. You are helping us get ready for group time when you put away the crayons.

7. That was a good idea.

8. You are working hard to finish that.

9. We did it! Give someone a high five!

10. You came up with a great solution to that problem.

Picture posted on Flickr.com

Photographer: Leo Reynolds

What's the Point?

Recently I attended a conference with Eric Jensen* of Jensen Learning. Eric has been on the forefront of brain-based teaching and learning. He has organized and led many conferences on teaching kids and adults in ways that connect to how the brain learns.

My Biggest Takeaway

Our learning is ROUGH DRAFT learning. People only learn the gist of what you teach. They listen to what you say and think, "Oh, this is what he's saying." That's all they learn. The listeners cannot know what you know because they don't know how you know it; they do not have the same context as you.

So, how do you deal with this fact? As you are teaching, identify the most important thing to be learned and stick to that point. Everything else you say or do should connect and support that main point. Since people will only get the gist of what you said, make sure what you say is connected to that one thing. Use repetition and reflection. Talk about your point...after a little time, repeat it or get them to repeat it...after some time repeat or use the information in some way. Make "gist learning" work for you.

As we teach, we must choose activities, words, and visuals that will support the one main point. The story, the verse, the art, the pictures, the songs—all should support the application that I want kids to take from the teaching time. They are only going to get the gist of what I'm saying so I need to choose what that gist will be - and support it with everything that I do.

I've been interested in brain-based teaching for a while...but this conference extended my interest even further. I'm still thinking about how these things relate to teaching preschoolers and kindergartners, especially in a church setting. I'm sure you'll hear more about that in the future.

*Eric Jensen's latest book is Enriching the Brain. I haven't read it yet, but it's on my list.

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com.