Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Thriving and Surviving at Work, Home and School by John Medina is an excellent, must-read for book teachers, parents and students. I am listening to the audiobook version, read by the author, at the moment and am finding it both informative and entertaining.
I am considering releasing one principle a week to staff and students to complement our school focus on eating a good breakfast, drinking plenty of water and sleeping 8+ hours per night. The fundamentals are not in place for an incredibly high percentatge of our students making learning more challenging than it should be.
Here’s a summary of Medina’s book:
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Anyone read it or have a comment?
jvangogh
Saw the slide share a couple of days ago and loved it. Was inspired to have a go at using prezi instead of the usual slide presentation with my Yr 11 class. They were also suitably impressed and much more focused.
This presentation tool meets someof the criteria outlined. Nice idea to present a principle a week
kmcg2375
On rule #9 about the power of smell…
One teacher I know has used a technique with her HSC class where she would burn a particular scented candle during lessons, and then gave them all a smaller tea-candle of the same scent to take into the exam room (just to sniff, not to light!) She said it worked really well.
darcymoore
Yes, there’s lots of evidence about the power of our olefactory sense. Can imagine a patchouli scented candle annoying some of the kids sitting at the next desk though ;O)