Brain Break: YOU TUBE

I have always been a huge fan of exercise and movement through dance. When Zumba took off in the states I knew that I had to bring it into my classroom. 

Since I have personal goal to provide my students more brain breaks I spent some time on You Tube to create a movement playlist. Below are some the the videos that I plan to use during some of the brain breaks!

Additionally I have been sharing some of my favorite songs and having students listen to the lyrics to discuss the songs message and they are loving this! Below is the first song that I shared with them and we had great discuss around it!

Now that we are three weeks into the school year, I must say that I am enjoying providing these brain breaks and have received great student feedback about loving the brain breaks, and the best part they are able to come back and refocus.

The last brain break that I have been doing with the students is from Kathleen Kryza from an app that she recommend which was called Settle Your Glitter. I haven't had much luck with the app, so instead I explained to students that we learn best when our glitter is settled and we practiced in the mornings to "Settle our Glitter," and they giggled a little, but I have heard them telling their groups, "Our glitter is everywhere and we need to settle it." I may create class snow globes and use those to help us settle our glitter as we need it. I really like this because I know that it is a great life skill and everyone needs to take time to settle their glitter.

No matter how busy we get within the school day I will make time for brain breaks as they benefits are beyond worth it!

Let me know what brain breaks you do with your class, the more ideas the better!

Professional Book Review: Transformative Teaching

Overview: The first five chapters are a reminder of what many teacher do with students and their classroom to ensure that it is a successful learning environment. The last chapters focus on growth mindset, being mindful, the practice of mediation as avenues to help all students to be learners with purpose, intention, and success.

Goodreads rating: 4 out of 5





I do my best reading with the comfort of food, a hot beverage, and the just right reading spot. For the most part when reading professional books I love my dining room table or a coffee shop. As I sat down to read this book I was hopeful to walk away with new ideas. I did get some new tools that I will be utilizing this school year, but I was also reminded of the purpose behind many things that I am already doing.

One takeaway is intentionally teaching students growth mindset. The book did a great job of laying out each step to teach growth mindset accompanied with resources which is great!  (Chapter 6)
1. Teach About the Learning Brain
2. Teach Strategies for Developing a Growth Mindset: Using Feel-It
Activities, Talk-It Activities, and See-It Activities
3. Keep Mindsets Alive

Be Mindful: (Chapter 7)
I really wish that I had read this a little earlier as it should have impacted many of my students from past school years. It talks a lot about teaching students to be aware of their past experiences and how that will impact their thinking and learning. Example: I always hate fractions, or this teacher is never nice...
by teaching students to be mindful of the judgements they are making and instead to be present in the moment it will allow for greater success. As a fan of the Dalai Lama this struck a cord with me and I never really thought to teach students that explicitly. ( I also need to continue to practice this myself.)

Author Visit:
Kathleen Kryza was a great presenter and truly practiced what she talks about in her book and because of that I was fueled with her great energy to try many new things this year in my classroom. My colleagues and I were ready to conquer the school year with many of her tools in mind. What a great professional development.

So far I have implemented the following and loving them all:
cohort group: students selected where they would sit, formed group norms, and each member has a role of responsibility and this is putting more on the students and less on me.

teaching about the brain: "My Fantastic Elastic Brain" a great picture to teach students about their brain and how it works! My students are really enjoying it!

chunk-chew-check: a way to teach and allow students to process information. For example as I read the book mentioned above I would read a few pages (chunk), they took notes any way they wanted (chew), and then they shared out with whole class (check). *They asked if I would always allow them to chunk-chew-check!, I said yes oh course.

brain breaks: I have done this throughout my teaching career, however I need to do them daily and that is my goal for this school year. I have told my students why we do them and to let me know when they need them throughout the school day.

Overall I really gained a lot through reading the book and meeting with the author. I am excited that she will be coming back to our school in March!