Middle School Brains....Yikes!

-
My Middle School "Brains"



Middle school students are in a world of their own.  I know from experience- I work in a building with pre-kindergarten through eighth grade bodies and have twins in seventh grade- I can't escape middle school brains!   This post contains some articles and information I have discovered that are helpful for those who deal with middle school children, whether at work or at home!


image source
Fascinating Brain Facts

  • A typical brain consumes up to one-third of all the water we ingest.  Studies indicate that discipline issues typically increase in the afternoons when students may be dehydrated
  • Middle school students need at least 10 hours of sleep a night although most children get less (somebody tell my son!)
  • The prefrontal cortex in the brain isn't developed fully until the age of 18 or in some cases the early 20's.  Male brains typically mature slower than female brains.  This area of the brain processes planning, reasoning, anticipating consequences, sustaining attention and making decisions
  • Connections and pathways in the brain are "pruned" or hardwired daily between the ages of 10-16.  It's entirely possible that a connection a child has today may be gone tomorrow.  If we expose students at this age to the arts, sports or strong academics these things become hardwired in the brain.  Likewise, if children spend all of their time with TV and video games on the couch these, too, become hardwired
  • Around the same age the brain prunes more than 20% of all previously built connections
  • A middle school brain can typically retain 5-7 pieces of information at one time, with the average attention span being 10 to 12 minutes
  • The "emotional" side of the brain does not develop at the same rate as the "intellectual" side of the brain so it's possible for students that are extremely intelligent to be extremely immature
  • These immature emotional brains make it easy for students to misread adult expressions and see meanness or anger where none was intended

Help Build these Brains! 
image source

Following "R" tips for classroom teachers of middle school brains from Mining the Middle School Mind:

Ready:  pre-exposure to materials can help students (think pre-tests)

Reorder: the brain benefits from structure in teaching (think concept maps)

Reflection: our brains need downtime where there is no new learning to process

Relevance: connections 'stick' longer when we can relate them to students' lives and rationalize why the learning is necessary

Revise:  it's just as important to teach kids the skills they need to learn the information as it is to teach the information itself

Reflexes:  research proves that movement gets the blood and oxygen flowing to the brain- even as simple as hand gestures or 'stand up and stretch' breaks

Reteach:  teachers should be using a variety of teaching methods to hit all brains

Read All About It 

A quick look into the middle school brain

Brains, Brains, Brains!  How the Mind of a Middle Schooler Works

Sign up for Edutopia (free) and download the pdf: Six Tips for Brain-Based Learning

An article on brain development in young adolescents

Five Facts about development of the middle school brain

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Twenty Years is Worth Two Cents

-
Image
Time It’s been an interesting year.  My twins entered middle school (time flies).  My mom died unexpectedly leaving me parentless with probate and a house built by my grandfather in 1948 (time stands still).  Oh…and CPS is shuttering my school  (time to move?). The school I’ve built my career at and spent the last twenty years with students. I sat in the library with my colleagues and was read two scripts; one by my principal and one by a Chicago Public School Central Office employee.  With that, it was done (or in the beginning phase of 'done'). Teachers were told to “have a good day of teaching and learning” (one of our daily mantras) and were sent off to teach their students after just being told our school was not remaining open after this school year but our building would remain open with a new faculty and three student bodies.   George Leland school would inhabit our building while May Community Academy and Louis Armstrong Math & Science...
Read more

Water the Flowers, Not the Rocks: Tips from 10 Years of Instructional Coaching

-
This June I wrapped up ten years of instructional technology coaching. Soon (tomorrow, in fact) I will begin a new journey in my career where I will still utilize my coaching skills but in a different capacity. This new opportunity has caused me to reflect on lessons learned throughout my time as a school-based coach. If you are a coach or aspire to be one following are ten tips I've learned during my ten years in the role. Be a model . Practice what you preach! If you want your teachers to join Twitter make sure you are already there. If they would like to try a new tool or lesson familiarize yourself with it first in order to lend additional support. Be honest . If you don't know something, say so. As a coach, your faculty will look to you as an expert. There have been several times throughout my career that I've said, "I don't know that tool/concept/strategy but let me see what I can find out about it." If you are a former classroom teacher, remind peo...
Read more

Understanding Plagiarism

-
Image
Our middle school is 1:1 with Chromebooks so students spend a fair amount of time researching topics online.  A teacher noticed there is a lot of copying and pasting of information by students and asked me to come in and have a conversation about plagiarism.  I developed a Prezi with an accompanying notes guide for the students to complete as I presented the content to them.  The Prezi and notes guide are below.  As we wrapped up the students were able to use their Chromebooks for a bit of fun (with a topic that isn't so fun).  We played a Kahoot game where they reviewed concepts about plagiarism from their guide.  They loved it!  What I loved is that Kahoot also provides a summary of student responses to the game- I can see which students missed specific questions which allows me to follow up if needed. Resources used in the presentation (good for teachers and students): http://www.plagiarism.org http://en.writecheck.com (this has a plagiarism...
Read more