pushing my buttons...my brain buttons!

Whoops! Haven't blogged much lately. I'm back in school and some good changes are at hand.

One change that we will be making to the classroom is to tweak the format. One thing I love about the class is that it is not a sit-silently-while-you-do-work kind of environment. Students are talking and socializing, which is a huge part of their education. But, especially with 27 students in one room, it's not surprising that it can get noisy. So we are changing the layout of the room so there will be more areas for quiet, focused work but still maintain a designated area for partner work/discussions.

This change coincidentally comes at the same time the school's learning specialist gave a presentation on accomodating varying degrees of mental alertness. And with that was the concept of Educational Kinesiology (Edu-K), which is basically physical movements that enhances whole-brain learning.

One that I thought was pretty fun was what Brain Gym calls Brain Buttons. The name alone lends itself to winning people over.

SO! Follow along as you read this:
* Place thumb and fingers under clavicle to the left and right of the sternum where there is meaty flesh. These are your Brain Buttons.
*Activate Brain Buttons by massaging them.
*Simultaneously, massage belly button with opposite hand.
*Stimulate these points for 20-30 seconds, or until tenderness is released.
*Switch hands and repeat.
(here's a sketch I did after the meeting while on BART)


Doing this supposedly (I'm still looking into it) increases oxygen, works on right and left brain communication, corrects number and letter reversals, and could help with Dyslexia.

If nothing else, it's soothing.