As educators, we’re always looking for ways to make our classrooms more effective learning environments. Research in neuroscience has provided us with valuable insights into how the brain learns best. Here are some practical, brain-friendly learning strategies you can implement right away.

Creating the Optimal Physical Environment

Lighting Matters

The right lighting can make a significant difference in your classroom. When possible, dim the lights or incorporate blue, green, or pink lighting. Full-spectrum lighting has shown particularly positive results in enhancing student focus and learning (Cooper, 1999).

Music as a Learning Tool

Classical music can be a powerful ally in the classroom. Choose pieces with less than 60 beats per minute to help students relax and learn more effectively. Research by Jausovec and colleagues (2006) demonstrates that this type of music helps create optimal brain conditions for learning.

Stay Hydrated

Make sure your students have access to water throughout the day. The brain needs proper hydration to function well – aim for at least 40 ounces of water daily for each student.

Visual Learning Strategies

Color-Coding for Success

• Use different colors to categorize information
• Highlight important text in distinct colors
• Alternate bullet point colors on your digital screens and boards
• Add colored borders around important information
• Frame spelling words with borders to emphasize their shape

Visual Aids and Organization

Don’t hesitate to use simple stick figures or clip art to illustrate concepts. Graphic organizers are excellent tools for helping students group and classify information.

Creating an Emotionally Supportive Environment

Reduce Competitive Stress

Research shows that students learn better when they’re not competing for grades. Create a collaborative rather than competitive atmosphere (Oei et al., 2006; Vedhara et al., 2000).

Emotional Expression

Make time for students to express their feelings and listen to others. This emotional awareness contributes to a more positive learning environment.

Active Learning Approaches

Movement Breaks

Incorporate regular stretch breaks and movement activities. These aren’t just breaks from learning – they actually stimulate the brain.

The Power of Choice

Give students options in their learning activities (Kohn, 1993). This autonomy increases engagement and motivation.

Partner Learning

Use the “Power of Two” – pair students for activities. This “pulse learning” approach can enhance understanding through collaboration.

Making Learning Meaningful

Real-World Connections

Always try to connect learning to real-world experiences. When students see how lessons relate to their lives, they’re more likely to engage and remember.

Student-Set Deadlines

Let students have input in setting their own deadlines. This builds time management skills and ownership of learning.

Storytelling and Organization

Use stories to teach concepts, and help students organize information through graphic organizers. These techniques make information more memorable and easier to process.

Remember, these learning strategies aren’t just nice-to-have additions to your teaching – they’re brain-based approaches supported by research. By implementing even a few of these ideas, you can create a more effective learning environment for all your students.

Adapted from from Special Needs in the General Classroom, 3rd Edition

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Mimicking vs. Being Forced to Think

I have about a dozen children in my Martial Arts class. When teaching them their martial arts forms, we do a continuous series of moves. I stand in front of them and do the forms while they follow along behind me. When they stand behind me they do just beautifully!

Originally, I thought, “These kids are good!” When I first started teaching Kung Fu, I couldn’t understand how we could do the same moves for weeks with students following along perfectly, then on a review day, I’d say, “Okay, Johnny, step up to the front and show me ‘8 Chain Punch.'” and, he couldn’t do it.

At some point, I realized that my students had simply been copying me! Children are excellent mimics. While we were in class, they had been watching me and copying the moves. Then they went home and couldn’t remember the moves to practice on their own.

In looking for a solution, I reflected on how my martial arts instructors taught me. As a new martial arts student, I was frustrated at the expectation that I could be shown a move and two minutes later be expected to practice it on my own. I know what happens in my brain – I forget and have to dig deep to recall what I was shown.

The reality is that in order to internalize new material, you have to make yourself think about what you are supposed to do. You might get it wrong, but at least you’re getting your brain and those neural connections working, and that gets it into your memory, a little bit at a time.

If we help youth through the whole process, they won’t know how to do it on their own afterward. It’s really hard as a parent or teacher, especially when working with a student who struggles, to walk away and let them sort the learning out. But we must let them practice so that they learn and remember.

So, how do we help our youth without doing too much for them?

For example: You’ve got a student who’s taking a test and is stuck on a question.

Tell Them What They’ve Done Correctly

Find something right about what they’ve done. They don’t need to hear what they did wrong. Instead, tell them what they did correctly so that they feel a measure of personal power and capability.

This strategy is an excellent communication strategy when dealing with anybody, whether in the workplace, in your family, or at school.

My personality style is: one who critiques first and my business manager is: one who appreciates first, so if I critique first, he often perceives my critique as hurtful. I’ve had 14 years of working with him to learn how to appreciate first.

I’ve had to learn this same approach when communicating with my son. He’s the only ‘feeling’ type personality in my house and is quite sensitive. Certain personalities really need you to appreciate first, to find out what’s right first, and not to go right to the critique. It may seem like it’s more efficient to go directly to the point, however, it can be the worst thing you can do and a strong de-motivator.

If it’s your personality style to critique first, train yourself to appreciate first. Practice the skill, it will pay off immensely.

Teach the Next Step and Leave!

After you’ve told them what they’ve done right, then tell them the next step. Don’t get into long explanations; just tell them the next step: The next step is this. It may be counter-intuitive. It may seem illogical to not tell them why. But a contributor to learned helplessness is that learning becomes overwhelming (Mikulincer, 1995).

If they’re getting it wrong and they’re frustrated, and we try to take the time to go through this long explanation about why it’s wrong, what to do next and how to do it, that youth is on sensory overload.

The conversation might sound like this: “Yes, you got that right. You got the notes down just beautifully, there. Here’s what you do next. Okay. You’re on your own.”

Walk Away – Leave and Don’t Look Back!

This is the hardest thing to do!

Now, they might say, “But… but can you…?”

No! They may try to guilt you into not leaving them, but no; you go! You walk away. Resist the urge to take care of them! Resist the urge to do it for them! Resist the urge to give in! Resist.

Personally, I can relate to this. I realize I learn the same way. If I’m stuck, don’t give me a detailed explanation. Just tell me what to do to get to the next step. In that moment of ‘stuckness’, that’s what I need. Teach me the explanation later when there’s more time, I’m less frustrated and I’m calm. Or, let me learn on my own in my own time. If you try to give me a long, detailed explanation I’ll quickly reach overload. I’m a visual learner, so telling me isn’t going to help anyway. Draw me a picture.

Excerpted from Motivating Students To Choose Success, Proven Strategies To Lend A Helping Hand. Get your copy today and learn how to motivate students to be successful!

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Talking to Angry Children and Angry Teens

When I taught high school, I often found myself in a position where I had to help angry teens come up with solutions for their problems and alternatives to their behavior. That conversation was difficult to start when a student was “angry” and could not truly express how he or she felt. Parents and teachers of all grade levels are faced with how to talk to angry youth, whether angry children or angry teens more often that one might expect.

Using a Multi-ethnic Feelings Poster to Identify Emotions

Using the Moodz poster that my daugter designed to start the conversation helped me to get a better idea of how students were feeling. Once I had some insights to their feelings, I could help them better deal with issues and problem solve for the future.

Emotional IQ Requires Language for Emotions

Children need language for their emotions. When they have language for their emotions, they can identify how they felt before they got angry. Then I was able to start a conversation with an angry youth that became a productive problem solving approach for dealing with student anger. Angry youth are increasingly posing challenges for parents and teachers. Dealing with angry youth is critical for emotional health.

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First, check out this page full of Free Mathematics Tutorials, Problems and Worksheets

I also found that West Texas A&M Universtity has a Virtual Math Lab that contains some interesting and helpful information, much of it related to Algebra.

Please leave links to your favorite math help web websites in the comments below.

CLICK HERE to discover a wealth of teaching strategies and resources for maximizing student success!.

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So, What’s the Benefit of Using Speech-to-Text?

When most of us think about the skill of writing, we consider writing conventions such as punctuation, spelling, grammar, and other things that make writing consistent and easy to read. We think about sentence structure and paragraph formation. We think about organization. However, a piece of writing can have absolutely perfect writing convention and still be uninteresting, unimportant, lacking passion, and devoid of analysis or reflection.

Throughout History, So Many Brilliant Ideas were Lost Because…

Before technology was an option for putting words to print for people who struggled with writing convention, only those who were able to do both the convention and the creation became authors. While some may believe that is only just, the bigger picture is that many brilliant minds, amazing storytellers, and passionate visionaries were never able to put their ideas into print.

Speech-to-text has changed that reality for those who struggle to put words on paper. Today, doctors, lawyers, business men and women, and authors are using voice to text. After speech-to-text captures their stories, their ideas, or their message, proofreaders and copy editors turn their words into a respectable and publishable document.

By the Way, I’m Talking to You Right Now

As a matter of fact, the words you are reading at this very moment are being spoken into a software program called Dragon Naturally Speaking.

I no longer write the first draft of my books in the traditional manner. Nor do I type them in the initial stages of development. I speak my books and articles into Dragon Naturally Speaking to create the first draft.

I wrote my first book using the traditional means; I typed my thoughts. For me, it was time-intensive, grueling, and exhausting. I found that I often wrote less because the task was so exhausting. When I started to use speech-to-text, I was energized, focused on the messages that I wanted to convey, and able to easily access my research while ‘speaking’ the book. I never want to go back to the old way. Editing and rewriting is still grueling for me, but I get my thoughts out first and that makes a world of difference in my ability to express my ideas.

Why Can’t Students (or Adults) Use Speech-to-Text, or a Scribe (Wordsmith Author Consultants)

So, considering our students and those who struggle to get their ideas out, why can’t someone who hasn’t been assigned a scribe in their Individual Education Plan,  or the permission to use speech-to-text and speak their initial writing?

I realize that the need to go from thought directly to paper may be required for your state test, so I’d never suggest that teachers do one without the other. I believe, however, that there are places where it would be beneficial, and appropriate, to allow students to get their thoughts out via speech.

Doing so frees up working memory to focus totally on the goal of the task rather than on grammar, spelling, and paragraph structure. Students speak their high-level thinking and then review the written document to focus on proofreading, editing and rewriting.

21st Century Skills

In this digital age, is it not only appropriate, but possibly necessary to teach students how to use these tools to maximize their literary potential.

With several dictation apps available today on most devices, one can write an email, send a text, search the web, or create a note with only their voice.

For example, on an Android or iPad device, instead of typing, tap the microphone icon on the keyboard and then say what you want to say while your device listens. Like a voiceover app, these apps are also a great tool to use for students with vision deficiencies.

Speech-to-Text can be Life Changing for People – Youth and Adults

I have students who are finally able to speak their email to communicate with people they care about, or speak the answers to questions on a test. This, to me, is one of the most amazing tools that can open up the world for so many students.

What do you think about Speech-to-Text?

Have you tried it with your students? Do you talk into your phone to respond to text messages or email? Do you talk to SIRI or Google Voice?

Download and learn to use speech-to-text technology to improve and increase your writing success! – Free!

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When Susan asked me to talk about the idea of portable software solutions for teachers, I must say that I felt this was an idea that was way to long in coming. As a former IT professional, fellow educator, and a proponent of free and open source software, I had an awesome time researching and testing these solutions, for you.

Portable software runs from a USB flash drive or SD card and is completely independent of the system that it runs on. This allows you, the user, to use the programs that you need without installing anything on the host system. The tools below are a few of the tools that we’ve found that support Susan’s brain-based teaching strategies with free, portable, and web-based software solutions.

Timers – one of the easiest ways to manage limited class time and to teach students to make good use of time is through the use of timers. PC Chrono has standard time, stopwatch, and countdown capabilities while www.online-stopwatch.com offers a variety of browser-based timer options that work especially well with visual learners.

Drawing and Cartoons – The brain learns in pictures and having students create, or providing them with, visuals is a great way to reinforce learning.

Greenshot is a portable screenshot utility with basic editing features for highlighting and commenting on captures. This is a great alternative to programs like Snag-It and Jing.

Make Beliefs Comix, Witty Comics, and Marvel Super Hero Squad are great ways to have students create visuals for concepts learned in class. Tux Paint can be used to make simple drawings and cartoons, but be careful because you’ll spend hours playing with these tools if you’re not careful.

A more recent addition to the comic strip creators: Canva’s Online Comic Strip provides design templates that students can use for their presentations or projects.

RealWorld Paint is a feature rich, but easy to use paint program for creating or enhancing visuals that students can work with in the classroom. We’ve actually used this program to recreate several of the examples that Susan uses in her seminars.

Mindmaps – There are a number of good online and free/open source tools to create mindmaps. Xmind is portable, feature rich, and quite easy to use.

Tools for Audio Learners – LibriVox, Audio Owl, and Thought Audio all offer free audio books that we can use to supplement and reinforce learning. You can use music from Karaoke-Version to make your own learning songs.

Finally, Balabolka uses the built-in voices included with Windows to ‘read’ passages of text out loud. This is an incredibly good way to reinforce learning with your auditory or ELL learners because they can read along as the computer ‘reads’ the learning passage to them.

Coolplayer+ is a good little portable audio player and VLC Media Player is just about the best audio/video player available today, free or not. After all, once you find your karaoke songs and the videos for your lessons, you need to be able to play them. Ever tried to do that and had Microsoft Media Player fail on you?

Video – We all know the value of video for introducing and supporting almost any subject we are teaching. Most of us are familiar with Teachertube and Youtube, but the Khan Academy is becoming one of the best sources for educational videos on the internet.

To capture those videos for repeated use, Damnvid is a portable application that does exactly that. There are also a number of browser-based tools and browser plugins, like Download Helper for the Firefox browser.

These tools support the most commonly used brain-based learning concepts, but there are a number of other tools that can be adapted or used for specific subject areas. PortableApps.com and PendriveApps.com offer a wide variety of choices and options.

Whatever you teach, regardless of the restrictions your district places on the technology you use, there are tools available to support you in your best-practice teaching efforts.

For more information about using technology to strengthen instruction, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Using iPads and Other Cutting Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction.

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I recently had an experience that reminded me how important it is to pay attention to what students are trying to tell us, to believe them when they do communicate with us verbally and non-verbally, and to do our utmost to find a solution to the problem that is preventing them from getting the most out of their learning or negatively impacting their quality of life.

As some of you know, I have a sister, Violet, with special needs who has difficulty communicating. Almost four years ago, she had a bad fall when dancing with characters at Six Flags. It resulted in a trip to the emergency room and stitches on her face. See, she face-plants because she doesn’t have the instinct to put her hands in front of her when she falls. A year later, she fell again. Soon afterward, she began to have trouble walking on her own. She’d either freeze or hang onto anyone near her before she’d take a step.

She appeared to act out for attention. When she wanted something she saw straight in front of her, she had no problem walking or running. She was fine walking in familiar surroundings. Other times, she would sit down and refuse to stand up or demand that someone hold her hand. When this happened, I could see that she was terrified, yet I struggled to understand what was going on. She is prone to drama; could she be manipulating us? Some of her caretakers felt that she was acting out for attention and that nothing was really wrong.

Because my sister could not fully explain what she was feeling or seeing, it was hard to tell if something was truly wrong. But, I did not agree that she was simply acting out. Possibly, there was a combination of things going on. I took her to different doctors, who checked for a myriad of issues and possible causes, but nothing, not even physical therapy, reduced her increasing fear of falling or walking.

Now, my sister also has a condition called amblyopia, which most people know as lazy eye. She’s had it her entire life, with no apparent problems, so it wasn’t something I or the doctors considered as new, or a possible cause to this debilitating phobia.

I was at a loss and prayed for help solving this puzzle. I could see the stress it was causing Violet and her care providers. Honestly, it was beyond upsetting to me to see her struggle and limit her activity.

Then, while presenting a program for paraprofessionals, I was given an incredible gift: A paraprofessional attending my program had an eye like my sister’s. I wondered how I could possibly approach her to ask so many questions that might help me understand. I’m grateful that the opportunity presented itself and upon asking for her help, she kindly agreed to talk to me. As soon as I described to her what my sister was doing, this educator said, “It’s her vision.”

She told me that amblyopia can worsen as people get older. That she herself had a very difficult time walking on certain surfaces – such as ramps or stairs that slope downward, or flooring that changes patterns. “Sometimes, I have to close my eye in order to keep my balance,” she told me, adding that the visual distortion can be terrifying. However, when objects are directly in her line of sight, she has no problem walking to them.

This matched up exactly with the way my sister was behaving! Of course, she couldn’t see correctly! Of course, the ramp down to the parking lot was terrifying for her!

With this information, I was able to connect my own personal and professional experience with vision disorders and how to find help. It was not the first time I found help at the Optometric Extension Program Foundation, www.oep.org. I located a specialist in my sister’s area and made an appointment.

After five hours of the most thorough testing I’ve ever witnessed from an eye doctor, Dr. Ruggiero entered the room and explained, “Your sister constantly sees everything double! Her eyes don’t work together at all! She is afraid because our eyes tell us where we are in space. She can’t see where she is in space.” Where she was able to compensate for this when she was younger, as she aged, her vision issues increased.

The good news is that there’s a treatment that will help her. Glasses with prisms, which also help with dyslexia, and vision therapy that may help. Vision therapy is most effective with young children; however, there is a possibility it may help adults, too.

I’m incredibly grateful to the beautiful soul who attended my presentation for sharing her experience with me. She gave me the missing piece to the puzzle so that we could get help for my sister.

And there was another gift. My experience with my sister reinforced something even more important: how critical it is that we listen to our students who can’t communicate clearly what is wrong. Look beyond what seems obvious, because we could be so horribly wrong in our assumptions. These wrong assumptions could hinder their learning, limit their opportunities for growth, and negatively impact their quality of life.

For more information on vision therapy, watch the three videos curated on the Bright Eyes website.

Want more great ways to maximize the effectiveness of paras in your classroom? CLICK HERE Now!

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Featured seminar – Paraprofessionals And Teachers Working Together in the General Classroom

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You suggested remind.com. Many of my 6th graders do not have their own phones. Using the remind.com service with parents is spotty, as many of their phone numbers have changed or been shut off. Any help you could give would be appreciated. Thank you! – Krysten Smith

Dear Krysten: Sometimes, connecting student and parent, and getting parents to respond, can be difficult. And I agree, punishing the student for something the parent failed to do just doesn’t seem right. So, I brought the question to teachers who follow my Facebook page. I received some great answers, and they may help in this situation.

One teacher had students from an economically distressed area. Some parents worked two or three jobs and were so strapped for time that they couldn’t remember to sign papers from the school. Other parents didn’t seem to care. “We were able to find a lawyer who worked with our social worker. The kids were being punished for not getting papers signed. The lawyer drew up power of attorney for specific signing privileges between the parent and after school director, who was the one anyway watching over the kids homework, making sure kids were aware of the needs the next day.”

Another person suggested getting the parent-teacher organization to become more proactive. “PTO could be more flexible to work with these families or go to them! Some of our Esps go to them at a meeting place at night mainly for the kids but the parents too. They can’t just drop [the kids off] and go. The high risk kids in turn are doing much better at school.”

And a third noted that their school’s guidance counselors will often call to get verbal permission or agreement from parents if the parent is home during school hours.

Finally, multiple people wondered if the school could send the necessary forms via email or text, and accept a digital signature or confirmation reply. This would offer a multipronged approach—both paper and electronic versions of the documents that need to be signed—and give parents more convenient options to reply. Automated reminders could also be sent out to email addresses or phone numbers.

My thanks to everyone who replied! I sent all of the responses on to Krysten. We know that connecting student and parent is sometimes difficult to manage and I hope teachers who are dealing with a similar solution will be able to use some of the above suggestions, too!

CLICK HERE to discover a wealth of teaching strategies and resources for maximizing student success!.

Bring Susan to your campus!

Featured seminar – Differentiation Strategies to Reach ALL Learners in the Inclusive Classroom

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DEAR SUSAN! I loved your presentations at the Illinois Includes conference. You gave me lots of good strategies for classroom use and to use with my son who has ADD and struggles with executive functioning and organization. My son is finishing up seventh grade and needs to adopt strategies to help him organize assignments, organize information to study, and create strategies for retaining information. Can you recommend a program or book? – A Concerned Parent

DEAR CONCERNED PARENT: I sent my son to SuperCamp. It’s not cheap, with 2017 tuition starting at $2,495, but it is SO worth it. My son attended the Senior Forum, geared toward Grades 9-12. Their Junior Forum is geared toward your son’s grade level, Grades 6-8, and is a six-day program held at one of three locations: Stanford University, Villanova University, or California State University, San Marcos (There’s also a program for Grade 12 and incoming/current college students, the Quantum Forum, held at Cal State San Marcos). Working in teams of 16-20 fellow campers, students learn to define what’s important to them, why they learn the way that they do, and then learn how to apply the knowledge and strategies they gain in camp in order to improve their studying overall.

Also, the book, Umm Studying? What’s That?, co-written with my daughter Shivahn, is a great resource. It offers practical, research-based studying and test-taking strategies, written from the perspective of a teenager, and is aimed at middle school to college-aged students. The key is getting him to use the strategies. Of course, there’s lots of information on my blog as well.

There’s also this option for more teaching strategies: Landmark School: Skills+. I have no personal experience with Landmark, with the exception of attending one of their conferences and learning about Joan Sedita’s Notebook system, which I loved.

I hope this helps. Enjoy your summer!

For more information about study strategies for your student, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Ummm, Studying? What’s That?. Available in both print and electronic versions!

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Highlight Important Information

Highlighting important information tells the brain that it’s unique and significant, so it ‘stands out’ in our working memory. Use highlight tape to have students highlight information when they don’t own the book.

Record Summarizations

Have kids record, with or without a partner, summaries of their reading. When they get to the end of a page, have them stop and summarize what they just read. Now they’ve read the material and have had to think about it again right away. This repetition keeps what they just read in working memory longer and increases the likelihood they will remember it.

Ask Questions

Another effective strategy is to ask questions at the end of a reading. Have a template with questions like: Has anything like this ever happened to me? Did I ever feel this way? Does this happen in my neighborhood? At the end of each reading, have students answer a question in their journal or notebook, or answer a question to a partner. This strategy can also be used for homework by sending a list of questions home with a reading assignment.

Use Storyboards

To make a storyboard, have students fold a piece of paper into squares and draw about what they read. They might do this while they read a story for the first time, as a review with a partner, or for homework after a reading assignment. The process of turning verbal information into a visual format reinforces the learning and helps keep the information in working memory longer.

Teach Each Other

Research shows that teaching each other, or peer teaching, is one of the most powerful ways to learn. After teaching for seven to ten minutes, give students one to three minutes to share with each other. Talking it out with a partner lets students correct misconceptions and reinforces the material by keeping it in working memory long enough to make an impact.

CLICK HERE to discover a wealth of teaching strategies and resources for maximizing student success!.

Bring Susan to your campus!

Featured seminar – Differentiation Strategies to Reach ALL Learners in the Inclusive Classroom

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