Is your child's teacher qualified?

Got so mad about who’s teaching science to my grandchildren, that I forgot to give you a tip. So here it is—just in case this strategy wasn’t obvious from the last post.  

Before enrolling your middle school or high school child in the most convenient neighborhood school with the best football team, find out the qualifications of the science and math teachers. Not qualified? Find another school.  Bottom line: a high school science teacher needs to have at least minored in their subject in college. A major is preferred. Best of all is that science teacher who actually has a Master’s degree in their subject.

Even boys who go to college on football scholarships will have to pass science and math tests.

Yesterday I posted a link to Science Master for learning about the brain. To check out other science topics, just go to http://www.sciencemaster.com/

Who's Teaching Your Kids Science?

There’s a big broo-ha-ha going on now about how we should teach science to our kids. Was going to post a blog this morning about it until I did a bit more poking around on the Web and found the following!  After recovering from my horror at the situation, I just had to post it today. So tomorrow I’ll tell you about the fuss around how to teach science.  

Seems American high school students scored 19th for science literacy among participating countries. Hmm, wonder what the test actually tests and how the countries at the top are teaching science.  Korean kids did best in 4th grade tests. Students in Singapore did best in middle school tests. And by high school, Swedish teens are on top.

You can take a look at the ranking. It’s pretty scary.  On the other hand, it’s not news. We’ve seen the headlines.  We knew we weren’t first. http://4brevard.com/choice/international-test-scores.htm  

Want to know why we aren’t first? Read the article in the link above and weep when you discover how little science the average science teacher—even high school teachers—in the U.S. know.  Maybe it’s not about how to teach science but getting folks who’ve taken science in college to teach it. Am I missing something here? Why would you hire a high school physics teacher if she hadn’t majored in physics in college?  Maybe we should pay her more so she won’t go off to a research job. Oh well, that’s another topic.

A few years ago, I actually had first hand experience with these bizarre hiring practices. I left college teaching a few years ago and returned to Colorado. Considered teaching high school history. After all I have a Ph.D. in history. I was told I wasn’t qualified even though I’d been teaching college freshmen for years. I didn’t have a high school certification. In order to teach high school history, I’d need to take the math qualifying exam. So a person with a Ph. D. in history isn’t qualified to teach history without math, but a person with no college background in physics, much less an advanced degree, is qualified to teach high school physics. Something’s wrong with this picture!  This is a true story, folks.

And if you’re kids are having a hard time learning science—no matter how it’s taught—Brain Gym will help. www. BrainGymClasses.com

Increasing My Brain Cells Today

If you read yesteday’s blog posting, you know I’m about to embark on a new venture.  It’s called “distance learning”—well, in my case “distance teaching.”  

It’s a fabulous way for folks to learn new things without having to leave home or classroom. No need for a baby sitter. No need for a substitute teacher.

But I have to admit. I’m just a bit apprehensive. How do I teach if I can’t see the students? How do I know if they’re getting it or if they’re bored to tears?  I was on a TeleSeminar once and heard somebody snoring. Now there’s a clear sign that guy wasn’t getting it.

Oh well, for whatever uneasiness I have, I’m making my brain happy by learning how to do something new.

Yes, adults lose brain cells every day BUT we’re also constantly creating new neuronal connections if we bother to learn new things, do different activities. Check out the research about some nuns in a convent in Minnesota who lived to be over 100 years old and still had sharp minds. http://www.enchantedmind.com/html/science/build_better_brain.html

Of course we expect kids to learn. To increase those neuronal connections every day.  And the more we know about how the brain learns, the better job we do with our kids.
You can find a teacher-parent-friendly explanation of how the brain works at the Science Master http://www.sciencemaster.com/columns/wesson/wesson_part_01.php

Obviously, all this rambling leads me to yet one more in-your-face self promotion for my Brain Boosters TeleSeminars for parents and teachers which start tomorrow night at 7 pm Rocky Mountain time.

You’ve still got time to register at  www.BrainBoostersForYourKids.com  and get CEUs if you’re a teacher. I’ll show you how to raise test scores and improve reading without struggling with your kids.

Coffee, Coke or Water?

They say coffee isn’t very healthy but compared to coke, it rules. Just ran across an article about everything coke does, in addition to causing a sugar/caffeine rush.

A coke will dissolve a nail in about 4 days and a T-bone steak in two days. Hmm, how long for a child’s tooth to dissolve from a coke.

Now there’s a science project for your favorite kid. Take a baby tooth put it in coke. See what happens. Put another baby tooth in water and see what happens. Compare the difference.  I guess you could try the T-bone but seems like a waste of a good steak.

So what about water? For starters the brain can’t survive without it. After all water is the best conductor of electricity, and it’s electricity that makes those brain cells fire.

A mere 2 percent drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on a computer screen or printed page.  So why aren’t kids drinking more water at school?  How come I’m not drinking more water?

And dieters, read on: Sometimes when we think we’re hungry, it’s nothing more than thirst. So I guess we should be grabbing a bottle of water before the chocolate chip cookie.

And now some blatant in-your-face self promotion. Drinking water is just one of many learning tips that I’m offering in my Brain Boosters for Your Kids TeleSeminar series that starts Tuesday night for teachers and parents. Yes, there’s still room for you. Make teaching easier. Stop the homework struggle. (Teachers can get CEU’s for the classes.)  So head on over to www.BrainBoostersForYourKids.com  Sign up for “Got to Use It All: Whole-brain Learning for Kids.”

By the way, if you’d like to read all 12 things you can do with a coke other than drinking it, just e-mail me and I’ll send it on.

Brain Gym isn't the only answer. Neither is pink.

It’s not just movement like Brain Gym® that helps kids learn.

According to researchers, using the right color in a kid’s bedroom or a classroom can definitely help kids learn. But sometimes . . .  well, read on.  Ya gotta laugh!

A few years ago the locker room for the visiting football team at the University of Iowa was painted pink. Coach Hayden Fry was hoping the color would lull that team into playing a less aggressive game.  Pretty soon everything in the locker room was done in shades of pink.  

Then campus feminists got wind of the color scheme and accused Fry of suggesting that the visiting team was “weak like a girl” and therefore female athletes were sissies.  

The ensuing broo-ha-ha finally ended up with a committee studying compliance with N.C.A.A. standards dealing with sex equity. The room is still pink.

I don’t suggest painting boy’s rooms in shades of pink—even though I certainly believe in equal treatment for girls and boys. But what should you as a parent or teacher do when you’re decorating?

Studies have shown that light blue is too calming for study areas and libraries. So no light blue classrooms. But light blue or lavender is a great color for a bedroom. Beige or white walls, on the other hand, help kids focus on their work and not on the walls.

And what about primary colors, especially red? Way too stimulating, except for gyms and hallways and toys for babies.  

As a teacher, you may not have a lot of control over the color of the walls in your room, but you can control what you put on the bulletin boards and cupboard doors.  A good rule of thumb is less to look at and what you do put up should emphasize neutral colors.

The National Clearing House for Educational Facilities has several articles about the effect of color on learning. Go to http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/color.cfm  

Other sites that offer learning strategies include http://www.braingymclasses.com and http://www.brainboostersforyourkids.com

Bookstores and ADD

While in Barnes and Noble yesterday, I stumbled across Daniel Amen’s book Healing ADD. Amen’s a psychiatrist who’s written several books on ADD and the brain.  He argues that ADD can be divided into six categories: classic, inattentive, over focused, temporal lobe, limbic, and Ring of Fire.  

I’m not sure we need six categories, and I don’t agree with Amen on everything.  Certainly don’t agree that ADD is a “disease.”  

But he does have some good coping suggestions, one of which is “focused breathing” to help kids calm down. It’s nothing more than breathing slowly and deeply. Kids can understand how to do this by putting a book on their tummies. When the book goes up and down, they are breathing deeply. This simple technique is quick and it works.

I was disappointed however that Amen didn’t address the need for movement. When children are encouraged and allowed to move in the classroom, ADD behavior often subsides. For example, a program called “Brain Gym®,” consists of specific physical movements and exercises that “wake up” the brain and help curb ADD “symptoms.”   The Wall Street Journal recently recommended Brain Gym as an effective non-drug treatment for ADD. Check out Brain Gym at www.BrainGymClasses.com

Forgot registration info

Oops. Posted today’s blog and forgot to tell you how to register for Isabel Cohen’s class, “Hands On: How to Use Brain Gym in the Classroom” on January 28-29 at Zerger Elementary School in Westminster, CO. Just go to www.BrainGymClasses.com and register on-line or click on “Schedule and Registration,” scroll down to “Hands On,” and print out a flyer and registration form. Or give me a ring at 303-989-5964 to register over the phone.  Hope to see you at the class.

Dancing with Brain Gym

A couple years ago I stumbled across a new Brain Gym® book called “Hands On: How to Use Brain Gym in the Classroom.” I was so impressed with its practical, fun, and effective classroom applications that I e-mailed the author, a remedial teacher in Cape Town, South Africa. Did she ever get to the United States to teach the class that accompanies the book? Would she come to Colorado?

Long story short, Isabel Cohen and I’ve become best buddies. She’s been here twice now to teach her class. And when she’s not here, we regularly e-mail back and forth, telling Brain Gym success stories, and chatting about our daily lives. It’s been such fun that traveling to South Africa to visit her is now on my wish list.

After a successful “Hands On” Brain Gym class last summer in Evergreen, she agreed to return to Colorado in January to teach Hands On. (January is summer vacation in South Africa.)

Here’s the scoop: Isabel will be teaching “Hands On” on January 28-29, 2006 at Zerger Elementary School in Westminster, CO.  There’s still room for you. So come and learn Brain Gym with Isabel. She and her co-author have invented lots of playful variations on the standard Brain Gym movements that include plenty of dancing and singing. Your students will certainly benefit from your weekend spent with Issy.