First day of school: There are two things students absolutely need to know!
All teachers feel the pressure to get it right out of the gate. With two very simple starters the year will be off to a fabulous start.
1. Let your students know explicitly (say it out loud, write it down, act like it’s true, play a game that makes it front and center) that they belong in this classroom, that they are loved, valued and supported, and that you expect greatness from them.
Relationship-building is fundamental to excellent teaching as it has the power of providing both a buffer from external sources of stress and an important neuronal catalyst that make learning possible. Therefore, no matter what has happened outside of the classroom, if relationships are first, all students will have access to the academic content. But be sure to also let those learners know that you expect excellence by saying it loud and proud, because they, especially students of color, don’t necessarily assume that you want them to succeed.
2. Convince them that their brains are incredibly plastic and can get better at anything, even their most challenging subject! Each and every student has the potential for mastery no matter where their starting place, specifically because they all have neurons that, with hard work, mentorship and support, can make infinite numbers of strong connections.
When students know that learning is simply about the connections between neurons getting stronger and more numerous AND when they understand that with practice and effort each of them has that capacity for neuroplasticity, they are empowered, hopeful, supportive and enthusiastic learners!
Here’s one way to begin your year with a brain-aware classroom (excerpt from our handbook below).
You can also purchase our classroom posters to help give them daily reminders of how their brains’ work.
Make a Model of A Neuron and Have it “Learn”
Materials:
Modeling Clay
10-12 pipe cleaners/student
Scissors
Handout
Note: If using 3-pound clay buckets from Lakeshore with tubes, 1/3 of a tube is the amount needed. About the size of a small lime.
Give students instructions that they again can be creative with this project. While we need them to be able to identify the main parts of the neuron, the neurons in the brain are hugely varied, so they can all look different!
1. Use your hands to manipulate the clay into a spherical (or pancake) shape that will serve as the cell body of the neuron.
2. If desired, students can exchange one small piece of differently colored clay with their neighbor that each student can use as a nucleus on their c ell body.
3. Cut one long pipe cleaner into four small pieces by cutting it into halves twice. Then fold those four pieces in half and poke them into the cell body like antennae to serve as dendrites. The students can make as many dendrites as they like and can even add dendrites onto dendrites.
4. Combine two long pipe cleaners together and either fold them in half or keep them full length to serve as the axon. The axon can be twisted like a candy cane or barber shop sign and then poked into the cell body. If you folded your long axons in half, you will have a loop at one end that you can leave sticking out of the cell body to serve as an attachment tool when adding axonal terminals.
5. Use the same technique you used for dendrites to make axonal terminals and add them onto your axon. Again, have the student make as many as they want.
6. Once the students have finished their neurons, you can talk about the direction of information flow through the neuron. Information comes in through the dendrites from a neighboring neuron and travels through the cell body, down the axon and finally, leaves the cell through the axonal terminals.
7. You can also talk about how the neuron changes when you “learn” something. To have the neuron “learn” you simply add more axon terminals or dendrites. Use this as a starting point to discuss what is happening in their brains’ when they learn new things.