gretchen+miller



Hello, Gretchen here. For my project I created a PowerPoint designed for parents and middle school students introducing them to some of the changes going on in the continually developing adolescent brain, and how to best support these changes. The idea is this would be a parent/teacher/student Brain Brunch or Brain Building Evening or something, a fun little seminar with brain food, discussion, question and answer, resource list for parents ... if you have a friend that is a neurologist it would be fun to bring them too, and they could field all the hard questions! Well, I don't have a friend that is a neurologist, so I'll do my best with my PowerPoint!

My hope for this project is that it would introduce parents and students to the basics of brain health and changes in the brain during adolescence. Hopefully this would encourage parents and students to explore further together through the list of resources, and to start a brain dialogue in our classroom, school, and at home, helping parents to understand their teenagers better and open the door for better communication between parents, teachers, and students regarding adolescent brain development, learning, and each student's personal growth and development.

As for myself, starting to delve into this research has drove home the importance of being aware of the current findings in brain science as they relate to education. Being informed about this research can make us better teachers, and usually provides scientific evidence for teaching techniques good teachers have been doing for years (i.e. assessing prior knowledge, for example). Hopefully once the general public starts to realize that teachers are actually physically changing and shaping the brains of our students, public schools will receive the time, money, and resources they deserves to better serve our students. So this class and project has opened my eyes to an entire new fascinating discipline, one that I intend to stay informed in, and hopefully what I learn I can carry over to my classroom!

My virtual mentor is the inspiring //**John Medina**//. I have trouble sitting still for more than twenty minutes, especially in the afternoon after class, but have found myself mesmerized by his incredible website and would HIGHLY recommend it to EVERYONE!

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This one is even better - the link to his new book, //Brain Rules//,[| http://www.brainrules.net/]! And his blog is stuffed full with interesting info too!

So a bit about John Medina. John Medina is a molecular biologist focused on the genes involved in brain development at the University of Washington, and also director of the the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University. Currently, he's one of the top guys delving into neuroscience and cognitive science research and investigating how recent findings can be useful to educators, parents, students, everyone! His mom was a teacher and he has two sons.

His recent New York Times Bestseller is //Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School ,// in which he condenses the neuroscience research to make it accessible to laypeople (laypeople is such a funny word) like ourselves, and breaks it down into 12 straightforward nuggets of wisdom, some of which we know already, but he gives us a ton of research to back up the statement, "Honey, you're overtired, you should really go to bed - sleep is the most important thing!" Or perhaps this brain research will actually get us up off the couch after class and up College Hill exercising - in FACT what the research shows we really should be doing is running down and back up College Hill in the middle of class. If you don't want to do anymore reading this summer he outlines the whole thing on his website, along with a few funny UTubes and great slide presentations - you've got to check it out!

Great quotes from John Medina:

//"If you wanted to create an education environment that was directly opposed to what the brain was good at doing, you probably would design something like a classroom. If you wanted to create a business environment that was directly opposed to what the brain was good at doing, you probably would design something like a cubicle. And if you wanted to change things, you might have to tear down both and start over."//

//"If you take somebody who's fat and sedentary and exercise them three times a week for as little as three months, you can get anywhere between an 80 and 120 percent increase in executive function. In our evolutionary history, we were probably walking anywhere between 10 and 20 kilometers per day. If we sat around in the Serengeti for half an hour, we were usually lunch.Scotch the cubicle, put in a treadmill and do all your computer work while you're walking two miles an hour."//

hello hello, it's been wonderful to meet you all today! my name is gretchen miller, i live in town in burlington and am finishing up the middle level MAT program and applying for jobs for the fall. i grew up in the small coastal town of belfast, maine, where my parents own and run and cook at our very own dudley's diner (add it to your list!) ... so i grew up in a kitchen 7 days a week, 363 days a year flipping pancakes and stewing stew and baking raspberry pie. i went to brown university for undergrad and got my BA in 2005 in geology and biology - i'm hoping to teach middle school science!

i've been working for outward bound in northern maine for the past six weeks, and last summer - check it out! :o) they're a non-profit that takes high school students out into the wilderness for 2 - 4 week expeditions - good stuff. [|www.outwardbound.org] Gretchen I absolutely love raspberry pie! I shall just have to visit your parents diner!! ~Devon

[|The link to our wretched first attempt at voice thread]

Let's try again! http://voicethread.com/share/559088/ nb

Gretchen Darlin,

Here are a few links that look to be promising - I create all my own and have them at school so unfortunately that will be of no use to you. What subject is it on? Also, Erin is a fabulous math teacher as well so I will call her and get her to post a few as well!!

Gretchen, I heard that you may need a lesson. I make all of my own but you are welcome to use any of them. I have them on taskstream. Some choices are triangle relationships, angles, making a zoetrope, and finding circumference. The kids loved the last 2. Let me know tomorrow and I can help you out.

[|Purple Math - Algebra lessons] [|Middle Level Individual Lesson Plans]