Twelve Brain Rules

04/14/2008

Allow for the possibility that the best of you is still inside you, waiting to emerge.
Lin Manuel Miranda

In his new book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School (Pear Press; www.brainrules.net), John Medina observes, "If you wanted to create an educational environment that was directly opposed at what the brain was good at doing, you probably would design something like a classroom." To demonstrate directions we might more effectively pursue, he outlines 12 brain-focused principles for teaching and learning...

1. Exercise: Exercise boosts brain power.
2. Survival: The human brain evolved, too.
3. Wiring: Every brain is wired differently
4. Attention: We don't pay attention to boring things
5. Short-term memory: Repeat to remember
6. Long-term memory: Remember to repeat
7. Sleep: Sleep well, think well
8. Stress: Stressed brains don't learn the same way
9. Sensory Integration: Stimulate more of the senses
10. Vision: Vision trumps all other senses
11. Gender: Male and female brains are different
12. Exploration: We are powerful and natural explorers

Put Jim Greenman's Brain to Work

Jim Greenman has distilled his great thinking on designing learning spaces in early childhood programs in his best-selling Exchange guidebook, Caring Spaces: Learning Places -- Children's Environments that Work. This week, Caring Spaces is on sale at a 20% discount on the Exchange web site.

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For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.