Cool Brain Research

What?

I chose Sam Wang who seems to be a rather public personality on the subject of the brain. He has numerous articles in the New York Post and other popular publications. The research is focuses on or at least discusses on his blog and in his publications are all very much for the main stream public. He has taken his research and made it applicable for the everyday man or women. I read one paper that put great emphasis on exercise and how much that can affect our brain. He also put a doubt on if Sudoku really was all that helpful in preventing Alzheimer's. I really appreciated his research and also found it easy to read which was helpful.

So What?

I think it is always helpful to be aware of our students minds and how they work. I feel like the act of physical exercise can help so much with memory and all around attention in the classroom. This research helps teachers to change their curriculum to better educate our students.

Now What?

This research fits perfectly into my core subject. Theater is all about memorization, i think having a physical warm up and helping the students to wake up their minds first is an excellent way to start class. Wang also discussed that it is difficult to focus on more than one thing at a time. That our brain in fact does have a end to the project it can be focusing on. I think that incorporating the after school show into the classroom will make the classroom work feel more applicable and then can create more emphasis on one thing instead of spreading it all our too thin.

Step 3

What?

For teachers all forms of research can be categorized under Action research. Action research takes place inside ones classroom. It can showcase your students success or show if your teaching strategies aren't working. Examples of the three different types of research are examples of them being used in Action Research. Descriptive: describes the facts around you. For example: of the 30 students in my class 10 of them are continually late. Corelational: This type of research find correlation within a descriptive study. Example: The students that are continually late are also the students that are struggling in class. The last form of research is Experimental. This type of research is much harder to complete within your own class room. There must be a control group and a treatment group and only one variable can change. Example: Remind one half of the classroom about their paper that is due next week and see if the reminder affects if more people from that half turn in the paper.

So What?

Although experimental research is difficult to execute in your own classroom, the research done by others can be informative and help us better understand our students. However, we do need to take some results with a grain of salt. The findings are easy to manipulate and when you change certain variables you can expect some results. On the contrary, the other forms of research are highly important within our classroom. They help us approach our students, constantly refreshing our outlook. We need to be ready to see our errors and try to discover how to change them. Our classroom and students will constantly be changing and we must flexible and open to change.

Now What?

This feels like a continuation from the last paragraph. The so what is clearly followed up by the now what? I have so much to still learn about educational research. As an educator you never want to read the data wrong and then potentially hurt a student. You also don't want to look at the data and jump to conclusions about a student. Just because research tells you that this person shouldn't be able to get good grades doesn't mean that is the truth. I would like to stay current of findings of research but I don't want to fully believe everything I read. I think we should be critical thinkers just like we ask our students to be. We should take in the information and then apply it if necessary.

Hidden Assingment

List 2-3 specific goals you have for this course.

1. To better understand my students and how they learn. To be able to recognize when a student is having problems learning.

2. To implement the tools I am given in this class. I want to be able to influence and teach even the "Toughest" students.

Describe your weekly preparation plan. Be specific. What will you do each day of the week to prepare for this course.

I want to use Monday's after class to outline what needs to be done for the week. Tuesday's I would like to complete the reading and structure any papers that need to be written. I hope to be done with most of the homework by Wed. or Thurs so that if I need to I can go back and make changes or start on the reading for the next week.

Outline the study strategies that you will use to understand the material.

I'm not sure I have ever had a successful studying strategy currently. I think maybe I will be able to develop them through this class. I am trying the 4 R's and they have helped my reading already.

Explain the process you will follow if you do not understand a topic.

I think I try to research the topic and try to figure out the answer myself and if I still couldn't find the answer I would e-mail my professor and try to get some help.

Complete the following statement:

I will reach my goals in this course by, staying on top of homework assignments and attending classes so I don't fall behind on the concepts.