Neuroscience+and+Learning

= Brain Power! = = = ===Our brain is a beautiful thing. It allows us to brush our teeth, smell the roses and remember that hysterical joke our friend told us over coffee. We love our brain so much that we keep it protected by a thick skull and safety laws. But would you believe that there is a war against our beloved organ? I bet you'd be shocked to learn that it is happening within our schools!===

===No, not WMDs. This war is happening in the form of stress, anxiety and boredom. School standards are compromising material and deleting physical education. We need to get to know our powerful brains so we can keep them happy.===

===Learning can happen anywhere. As educators, we swear by this. "Life lessons" were coined by our parents but classroom teachers can use them too. I'm not talking about getting a "0" for lost or late homework. I'm talking about giving a child a caterpillar to care for so they can experience metamorphosis. Turning learning into fun, relevant experiences can flip a stale classroom into a cool workshop. Information can be silly and hands on. And isn't that the point?===

===To avoid missing out on the beauty of neuroscience, I have put together a collection of resources. Each article highlights how our learning is both an inside out and outside in experience. If we can recognize how our bodies operate in the classroom, we can can enrich the learning experience for all of our learners.===

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[|The Neuroscience of Joyful Education] [|Willis "Big Thinkers"] Neurologist turned classroom teacher Judy Willis is on a mission to get educators to look at learning as a holistic process. Willis and her science buddies have connected brain activity to learning. The evidence emphasizes that we need to understand our biology so we can reach all of our learners.

[|A Fresh Look at Brain-Based Education] Here the author discusses how understanding the brain and the complementary research can be practically applied to education. Jensen makes a case that narrowing the discussion to only neurobiology (and excluding other brain-related sciences) diminishes the opportunity for all of us to learn about how we learn and about better ways to teach. Jensen speaks specifically about how the synergy of biology, cognitive science, and education can support better education when directly applied to schools.

[|Teaching Every Student] This article give us a nice flow chart. The chart and text illustrate that learning happens across three interconnected networks.

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