Strategies to Stimulate Thinking About Learning

Editor’s Note: In conjunction with the 20-year anniversary of BrainSMART, we are sharing some of our educators’ stories. All of the featured educators earned their Master’s in Brain-based Teaching curricula and/or the Minor in Brain-based Leadership, co-developed by Dr. Donna Wilson and Dr. Marcus Conyers, co-founders of BrainSMART. Below is a synopsis of one of those stories.

During his time as a special education teacher with Bartow County Public Schools in Cartersville, Georgia, D’Jon McNair used BrainSMART teaching strategies supporting the concepts of state, meaning, attention, retention, and transfer to help students improve their performance in the classroom.

 “I was excited and stunned to learn that cognitive skills can be learned,” he said in an interview for the BrainSMART publication, Effective Teaching, Successful Students. “Teaching kids cognitive skills has been instrumental in helping them feel successful in what they’re doing and getting them motivated to learn.”

Celebrating 20 Years of Title I Teaching!

I am pleased to be presenting on the first day of the Title I 2016 Annual Conference where I will be sharing our model/framework of mind, brain, and teacher leadership applied in classrooms and schools. My presentation "Improving Instruction through the Mind, Brain, and Teacher Leadership Model" is taken from five of Marcus Conyers' and my recently published books on the science of learning, brain-based teaching and teacher leadership. The focus will be on science and strategies that work for real teachers in classrooms across the U.S. Attendees will also hear stories of teacher leaders, my heroes, who are making a positive difference in schools and classrooms each day!

Over the past 20 years, we have shared our work with more than 10,000 K-12 students and 160,000 educators in live events, honing our teaching with input from teacher leaders. Many times our participants have been from Title I schools and districts in states including Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Montana, Alabama, North Dakota, North Carolina, Mississippi, Colorado, Maryland, Georgia, Washington, Florida, and many more. Educators have also studied the curriculum we co-developed to earn graduate degrees in practical applications of mind, brain, and education research over the past 15 years.

Living a Brain Healthy Lifestyle

Marcus Conyers, Courtney Mosser, and Beverly Engel recently presented brain health information at a community forum at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, hosted by Chet Evans. I attended and found all three speakers to be highly informative and the audience interaction at the end of the evening refreshing. 

My co-author, Marcus Conyers, kicked off the forum with an informative and highly engaging keynote. Marcus' keynote "Living a Brain Healthy Lifestyle" is taken primarily from our new book with Wiley Education, Positively Smarter: Science and Strategies for Increasing Happiness, Achievement, and Well-being. Since we are getting a number of inquiries about this book, I want to share Marcus' presentation so those who are interested can check it out on YouTube. 

Positively Smarter is a book for both educators and those individuals who enjoy reading self-help books. Rich with research and easy to read, this book provides readers with many strategies for an ever more fulfilling lifestyle! 

Thanks to the Rollins College posting, you can watch his keynote on YouTube at ...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6wmnC7qVLw 

Teaching Students to Become the Boss of Their Brains

Greetings, All. 

If you copy and search the following, you should find my short article about helping students become more metacognitive and able to learn to be independent learners. 

www.learningresourcenetwork.net/topics/attention/kids-can-be-the-boss-of-th...

Colorado Tour: Education, MInd and Brain Studies and Professional Development

I am so excited to meeting with our education, mind and brain graduate and host, Kathleen Bohrnsen, today in the Denver area! It is wonderful to meet with teacher leaders and their colleagues and friends across our country! Later this week I'll be meeting with more Colorado teacher leaders, Stephanie Schulfer and Alisha Florian:) Cities: Grand Junction, Rifle, and the Glenwood Springs (Roaring Fork School District) area. For more contact Mary at nsu@brainsmart.org!

BrainSMART Strategies In Action

Check out University instructor, Dave Krupke's, blog. After hearing Marcus Conyers' keynote at the International Reading Association Regional Meeting in Iowa, he wrote about the powerful impact of some BrainSMART strategies.

http://soundprinciples4literacy.com/index.php/movement-learning/learning-by-association/