Exercising and the Brain-Why is it important?

In the book “Brainstorm” by Doctor Daniel J. Siegel he discuss the intricate details of the teenage brain and how it develops.  While reading the book we connected with some of the following quotes:

“As teens we are often not oblivious to the negative consequences of our actions.  Instead, even though the negative consequences --the cons -- are fully known, we place more emphasis on the potential positive aspects --- the pros --- of an experience: the thrill.” 1

“...enhanced natural dopamine release can give adolescents a powerful sense of being alive....it can also lead them to focus solely on the positive rewards they are sure are in store for them, while failing to notice or give value to the potential risks and downsides.” 2

Dopamine release affects us during adolescence by increasing our susceptibility to addiction.  Drugs or alcohol can lead to a release of dopamine that teen brains crave. As the substance wears off the brain causes us to feel compelled to ingest more dopamine.  This can drive the addiction.  3

Everyone knows that exercise is positive (or has heard that). Exercise causes a rush of dopamine to flood teenage brains.  Teen brains are wired for addiction, so why not harness the power of the brain to help students develop positive lifelong habits that also satisfy their short term dopamine cravings. The following image shows some of the positive effects of exercise.

Exercise and Brain Rap

Toe Tapper Brain Break

1- "What Happens To Our Brains When We Exercise And How It ..." 2014. 2 Nov. 2015 <http://www.fastcompany.com/3025957/work-smart/what-happens-to-our-brains-when-we-exercise-and-how-it-makes-us-happier>

2- (2013). Life of an Educator: 8 things educators need to know about ... Retrieved November 2, 2015, from http://www.justintarte.com/2013/10/8-things-educators-need-to-know-about.html.

3 Daniel J. Siegel, M. (2013). Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain. New York: Penguin Group.

Adolescent Brain Development

"When we think of ourselves as civilized, intelligent adults, we really have the frontal and prefrontal parts of the cortex to thank," But "teens are not quite firing on all cylinders when it comes to the frontal lobes." Thus, "we shouldn't be surprised by the daily stories we hear and read about tragic mistakes."

A 2006 cartoon in The New Yorker shows parents ordering their adolescent son to go to his room until his cerebral cortex matures. This nicely illustrates how we have come to think about adolescents.

Specifically, the cartoon illustrates at least five assumptions about adolescents and their brains: (1) adolescents are categorically different from adults; (2) adolescents are less rational than adults; (3) adolescent cognition and behavior are explained by their teenage brains; (4) adolescent brain development is a maturational process directed by genes; and (5) the outcome of that process is a state of maturity achieved in adulthood.

Quotes taken from: Kolbert, Elizabeth. "Why Teen-Agers Are the Worst." The New Yorker. N.p., 31 Aug. 2015. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.

Thoughts About the Adolescent Brain

Throughout this course, we learned about the development of the adolescent brain, and focused on how we use this knowledge to positively impact students.   We focused on not only physically what is happening to the brain, but how this affects all aspects of students lives.  By understanding the adolescent brain, we can work to build better connections and be more understanding of students.  We can and should adjust our teaching strategies so that they better serve our students in this developmental time of life. The following are some pictures, videos, and threads that we thought pertained to and demonstrated what we learned in this course:

https://dw8stlw9qt0iz.cloudfront.net/vXaYo3NfhqkeT-Bc38DIN1bqz8E=/fit-in/600x600/filters:format(jpeg):quality(90)/https://curiosity-data.s3.amazonaws.com/memes/2e8d985b-75ae-41ed-e52e-42c556902d50.png

Every student needs a champion:

From the author of Brainstorm: The Remodeling Brain: Pruning and Myelination

The Talent Code

Growth vs. Fixed Mindset and Motivation

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHjsy7zM5Uy0RZNvw34iyAKVFfLDxsR8wXIhcW6qHYaTh1IwBemX5al5aYrumfRTjbr6H21n0hqAzXd0J9AfPJOUPYW3ZjUBR8r-ZC8-tatH13Sj-xOO6UCT268ti931m26oOne5-mYHl6/s1600/Heart-teacher-print.jpg

Relationships...are they Important?

I’m sure each of you can think of at least one student that at times does not exhibit the best behavior or choices in class and you wonder why they do what they do. Some of these behaviors relate back to the various types of relationships they have had with their parents, role models, caregivers or any other person of importance in their life that has helped shape them into the person they are today.

Depending on these interaction they have developed a combination of either secure or non-secure types of attachments or relationships. There are several different types of attachments they can range from secure, avoidant, ambivalent or disorganized. From the book Brainstorm by Dr. Daniel Siegel MD he describes each of the attachments as follows.

• Secure Attachment – Having a relationship with a parent who in a somewhat consistent way provided you with a sense of being seen, feeling safe, and being soothed. This secure model will let you balance your emotions, understand yourself well, and engage with others in mutually rewarding ways. This learned model is then activated so that the child make contact, feels secure, and launches out to explore the world.

• Avoidant Attachment – If you had a relationship with one or both parents that was filled with repeated experiences of your not being seen or soothed you have more than likely experienced a type of non-secure attachment. Avoidance in this case is a learned behavior where in the presences of a parent, the child actively tries to avoid them.  

• Ambivalent Attachment- This type of relationship is in existence when a child experiences inconsistency or intrusiveness with a parent. Being seen, safe, and soothed does not happen in a reliable way. Many times a child will cling to a parent because once they return they are uncertain whether they will meet your needs for comfort. Perhaps this time they will sooth you, but maybe not, but maybe so…… this is an example of ambivalence.

• Disorganized Model -  The fourth type of attachment can occur within the setting of the other three - secure, avoidant, or ambivalent. Besides those baseline experiences of attachment, something else is going on. For example your parent, say your mom is terrifying to you. This could be because she is depressed or irritable and runs after you, yelling when the child gets home from school. The problem with this is when an attachment figure is a source of terror one becomes fragmented.  Many times children will have a tough time balancing their emotions, having good relationships with others, and even thinking clearly under stress.

After learning about each of these different types of relationships that our students may be facing at home it is important that when they come to school they can have positive relationships with their teachers and classmates. Sometimes when looking at the different types of attachment models and the behaviors our students exhibit it makes it easier to understand the background or home life that they have. Attachment models can be changed based on those they value as important in their life. Even our struggling students, the ones we view as our trouble makers need a positive role model in their life. As Rita Pierson says “Every child deserves a champion—an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.”

Every student has a story to share, unless we get to them we will never know their strengths, their weaknesses and their battles. Get to know your students and I do not mean just their names, really get to know them for every student no matter their background needs someone to continue pushing them to explore this crazy world.  

I leave you with only one question: Whose champion are you going to be?

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you!

Our students need to know we care about them first, in order to be a warm demander type of teacher who sets the bar high for their students while building strong relationships.  Often times at the beginning of the school year we spend time getting to know students and helping them get to know each other.  However, new students join our class throughout the year and it is important to continue helping students make connections to each other and with the teacher.    

http://reviving.us/

Spending time throughout the year, instead of just at the beginning of the year building relationships through purposely scheduled activities can help continue building connections with students.   I have started a file of short, quick activities that I can use every two to three weeks to break up a lesson, build student  trust, or help students learn about each other and myself.   One activity I used recently was the toilet paper activity.   I sent a roll of toilet paper around the classroom and the only instructions were to take what you need.     After everyone had “taken what they needed”, and had some interesting discussions, they were told to share about themselves to their table groups.   The number of things they were to share about themselves matched the number of toilet paper pieces they took!  

The time we take to just “be” with our students will pay itself forward in stronger relationships, stronger connections, and a classroom atmosphere that tells students you care about them.   

Here is a link to a number of other very short team building games and activities that could be used within the classroom to deepen the connections you are making with students and to help students feel more connected to each other.  Besides, our high school students are just little kids in bigger bodies and they love to play games!   

Such a Stupid Idea! What were you Thinking!? Dopamine and the Adolescent Brain

Such a Stupid Idea! What were you Thinking!?

Dopamine and the Adolescent Brain

John Lenz

Introduction

If you are like most teachers, or most adults really, you probably have found yourself wondering why adolescents make such dumb decisions and act on such impulsive, seemingly irrational behaviors. We wonder, “Didn’t they think about the consequences, or how their actions would affect other people? Do they have no concept of their future? While these questions are reasonable, I want to challenge you to ask a  few other questions:

• Should we blame hormones, or is there more going on?
• How do adolescents think about consequences?
• Could there be cognitive changes below the surface?

Asking questions like these does not mean we are throwing in the towel and giving in to the “craziness” of adolescents. On the contrary, it means that we are fed up with age-old hormones excuse and are ready to take our interactions with our students to the next level. In order to fully understand the complex answers to such complex questions, we need to turn our attention away from hormones and focus on the chemical changes going on in the brains of adolescents.

The Research

Daniel J. Siegel, author of Brainstorm and Clinical psychologist at UCLA, offers a cutting-edge theory to explain why adolescents act on impulse and urge rather than rationale and consequence. In his book, Siegel argues that during adolescents our neurotransmitters, specifically those involved with dopamine, go into hyperdrive (Siegel, 67). Dopamine is one of our feel-good neurotransmitters that we can thank for feelings of  happiness, excitement and satisfaction → the reward center of our brain (Siegel, 67). During Adolescence, the baseline and maximum levels of dopamine start to change.

1. Childhood - According the Siegel, Children have a very high baseline level of dopamine. In other words, it is much easier for children to experience a sense of reward, whether that be excitement, happiness, or some other positive feeling. Anything and everything can occupy the mind of a child. From playing in the sandbox to building a fort kids easily experience a dopamine “fix”.
2. Adolescence - According to Siegel, baseline dopamine levels go down in the brains' of adolescents. In other words, it is harder for them to get excited, feel  urges of happiness and experience the cognitive reward of a dopamine “fix.” However, Siegel suggests that the maximum dopamine levels of adolescents greatly increases during this period (Siegel, 67). In other words, young adults have the ability to experience a thrilling and powerful feeling of being alive. So to answer one of my earlier questions → Why do adolescents make such dumb decisions and act on such impulsive, seemingly irrational behaviors? → It is because they are chasing a dopamine “fix” that can only be achieved through sometimes impulsive, dangerous and reckless behavior.

Ok, great, we know why adolescents do dumb stuff, but what about their lack of consideration of consequences? Why don’t they think before they act? According to Siegel, they do think before they act. Siegel argues that adolescents go through a thinking process called hyperationality. In this style of thinking, adolescents “examine just the facts of a situation and don’t see the big picture...they miss the setting or context in which those facts occur” (Siegel, 67). The big picture in this case is the effect actions will have on others, the consequences that follow and how these actions will affect the future. It is not that adolescents are incapable of seeing this big picture, they just rationalize with themselves that the reward (the dopamine “fix”) will greatly outweigh the consequences or effects of their actions. In the words of Daniel Siegel, hyperrationality “places a lot of weight on the positive outcome and not much weight on the possible negative results” (Siegel, 69). In this sense, young adults understand and confront the consequences, but rationalize why they do not matter in comparison to the thrilling experience.

So what can I do to help?

So now we know why some students might seem bored all the time, or even apathetic towards learning. We know that is has a lot less to do with our subjects and their inability to engage and a lot more to do with the chemical changes in their brains. Great. So what? I am in no way an expert. Actually, I am a second year teacher with a grain of experience on a beach of opportunities. However, I do have a few strategies that you can use in your classroom to help stimulate those low baselines of dopamine and give your students the “fix” that they crave and need.

• Get your students out of their desks and moving around. This is not always easy, but try breaking up a lesson into a few parts. In between “chunks” of the lesson, encourage students to get up, walk around and engage with other learners in the class.
• Try running a simulation in your classroom. Simulations take a lot of planning and foresight, but if done right a good simulation can take a class full of bored, quiet and disengaged audience members and turn them into loud, active and engaged learners.
• Include “holy cow!” moments in your lessons that make even the most disengaged students perk up → For example during our discussion on Ancient Chinese dynasties I always make sure to throw in that during the Xia Dynasty the emperor built a massive pool that he filled with wine and decorated the pool deck with trees that dangled cuts of meat for him to snack on as he paddled the river drinking wine.
• Adolescents want novel experiences that offer them new perspective and a new way to think about the world. Therefore, try to expose your students to new forms of learning beyond taking notes and reading an article. Try some of the following:
• Socratic seminar/discussion
• Creating a rap song or a skit rather than a powerpoint
• Read a graphic novel in class
• Lets face it, adolescents love technology, especially their phones. It seems counterintuitive to shut students off from a part of their lives when they walk through the door. Therefore, try to include technology in your class.
• Try using cell phones in class to poll data
• Allow students to use their phones to listen to music
• Model appropriate use of cell phones → if it goes off during work time, check the message, and put it down!

As you go forward, remember that everything is not always as it seems. Working with adolescents demands professionals that do not just ask questions but actively seek out answers, solutions and novel ideas. Enjoy!

Works Cited

Images

http://www.katimorton.com/the-recklessness-is-spreading/

http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/images/thumb/f/f2/Recklessness.jpg/

http://www.sensorysteppingstones.com/cognitive-learning.asp

Text

Siegel, Daniel J. Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain. New York: Penguin Group LLC, 2013.

What You Don’t Say Matters ~ thoughts by Jenny, Tracy, Laura & Amy

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Picture taken from: http://www.creducation.org/resources/nonverbal_communication/

When it comes to body language, what you do, or do not do, can affect your relationship with students. It is important to do periodic self-checks to make sure that you are communicating how you intend to with your students. We may not even be aware what unintentional messages we are sending our students  through our non-verbal communication.  Understanding how to read signals may help you learn some things about your students as well. Some things to keep in mind by author, James Alan Sturtevant, in You’ve Gotta Connect:

1. What messages does my body language project to students?
2. Are these the messages I want to project?
3. What does the body language of others reflect back to me about my words, presentation, or behavior in a given situation?

Explore the links and videos below to learn how nonverbal communication is as important as verbal communication. Big Bang Theory on Body Language

How good are you at reading other people’s body language?  Take this brief quiz to find out. (Quiz Link)

But sometimes we need to use nonverbal cues to get our students back on track.

Teaching Channel Video: My Teacher Look: Get Students Back on Track

“I’m bilingual, speaking English and body language. I prefer the latter, because I can speak it silently and without listening and while my back is turned.” ― Jarod Kintz

STICK to it!

Learning how to set and  achieve goals is a life long skill. STICK is an acronym for a strategy that can help students work through a process to achieve their goal.

 S=Specifics. You must have an end in mind and know exactly how you will achieve it.

T=Time line. You must decide on when your goal needs be to completed.

I=I can do it. Make sure your goal is one you can reach.

C=Calculable. Is my goal written in a way that I can measure it. For example, I will get C's or 
     better this semester.

K= Know your limits. Set a goal that is neither too easy or too hard. Somewhere in the middle.

Procrastination Part 3

A Time I did not Procrastinate 

Directions: Draw/Write about a time when you did a task without procrastinating.

Write/Discuss

• Why did you not avoid the task?
• What positive impact did this have?
• How can you change a situation, so you don't procrastinate in the future?

Procrastination Part 2

A Time I Chose to Procrastinate

Directions:  Have student write/draw a time they procrastinated on a task.

Write and Discuss

• Why did you avoid the task?
• What problems did it create for you?

Procrastination Part 1

Procrastination Problems Part 1

With the first quarter creeping up on us, students may need a boost to help them with procrastination.

For You to Do
Directions:Have students make two columns. Have them think about tasks they procrastinate on and then write why they don't want to do the task.

                  

Task Being Avoided                                                          Reason for Avoiding It

Develop Routines

Organize your papers, space, and time!

The more organized you become...the more time for fun!

Click to Enlarge

Growth Mindset Lessons

The Mindset Kit has over 15 lessons to develop and enhance students growth mindset. 

Also, take time to explore the wide variety of resources.

Organization & Time Management Introduction

Watch the video below to see an easy way to drive the point home to freshman about the importance of organization and time management. (Three Perfection games are available for checkout in the library). Consider having your Team Panther student teach the lesson.

Upcoming posts will deal with effective organization and time management tips.

 

Pass The Clay Game

Group Size:

Four or more.

Materials:

Whistle or noise maker.

Clay, Play dough

Description:

1. Break the group into two teams and give each team a clump of clay.

2. The teacher shouts out an object and one person on each team begins to create it as fast as they can.

3. After a few seconds, the teacher signals that the clay must be passed to the next person and continue.

4. After several pass rounds the teacher says "STOP" and the student must set the clay down.

5. Have each group share their object at the end of the round with a description of how the round went.

6. Repeat rounds with a new person beginning the creation.

Sculpture Ideas:

fish

house

snowman

animals

people

flower

ornament

Discussion Prompts:

1. Would you have preferred to do this by yourself?
2.Did you feel everyone in your group tried their best?
3. What is an advantage to being a team member:

Variation:

First person starts making something with no talking. The next person continues the creation with no talking. Stop after each person had a chance to add to the sculpture.