MindUp!

One thing I know for sure: if children feel calm and safe, they will learn more and retain it longer.

I heard about the MindUp program a few years ago when the Vancouver School Board began offering training for teachers.  MindUp comes from the Hahn Foundation, whose founder, Goldie, wanted to find a a way to help children gain "the skills they need to live smarter, healthier, and happier lives."  She worked with smart, Canadian researchers and educators to prepare a program for kindergarten to grade eight.  A few of my friends from Valleycliffe went to be trained and I was most envious. Finally, last July, I got into a training session and came away with a new appreciation for how we can help even the squirreliest of kids calm their minds and prepare to engage.

MindUp is a research-based series of 15 lessons that teach students about their brain and how it works.  They learn that the prefrontal cortex is like a wise leader, that the hippocampus is the keeper of memories, and that the amygdala is the brain's security guard.  When a person is stressed or fearful, the amygdala is alerted (fight,  flight, or freeze).  It blocks higher level thinking and good decision-making.
Students learn that they can calm the amygdala with measured breathing and focused awareness.

In MindUp the students learn about their senses.  They become better at filtering-out sensory information that is distracting and takes away from attention to learning.  We know that professional athletes, musicians, artists and other "focused" people have trained their minds in this way, in order to succeed in their professions.

Optimism and altruism are the topics of the final six lessons in MindUp.  The happy brain is a brain that  is primed for learning.  Research has shown that "the dopamine pleasure surge is highest when students are fully engaged with their learning ...with an overall sense of well-being." 

I've been teaching MindUp in two classes for the past month or so.  The other day, a kindergarten student told me about something responsible he had done, cleaning up a mess that was not his.  I said, "Thank you so much!  That was very thoughtful."  He ran away but five seconds later he was back.  He said, "My prefrontal cortex told me to do it!'  That's great, I thought.  My work is done!

A Snow Day at School

Yesterday it snowed and snowed until about noon.  It was perfect packing snow and the students made the most amazing snowforts.  Some of the snowballs they rolled were as big as them and it took two or three kids to maneuver them.  What impressed me most was how everyone was fully engaged.  Some were working so hard they had to take their coats off.  There was lots of conversation, group problem-solving and distributed leadership.  There were a few conflicts, but they were sorted out with minimal adult support.  It exemplified what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls a "state of flow" - in which work feels like play and time seems to pass unnoticed.  In snowfort building I think, there is just enough ease, just enough challenge, and much room for creativity. I could not help wondering:  what if we could more often create the conditions for flow in the building?  We glimpse it sometimes, and treasure those occasions.  These are the times that I think children will remember, too, when they look back on their years at school.

Education for the 21st Century

We have known for a while that Big Changes in Education are imminent.  Our children are digital natives.  They have never used a rotary phone, a typewriter, watched black and white tv, or known life without computers.  They can multitask in ways that make us dizzy.  They communicate with their peers through texting and instant messaging and Facebook.  Remember when our parents told us to, "Get off the phone!"  In an age in which we can look up any fact we need online, what is the purpose of school? 
This is the question I would like to discuss in this blog.  We, as teachers, want school to be relevant and engaging for learners.  We want to be able to coach students to use technology wisely and ethically and we wonder how this is possible when they are more savvy than we are!  The world is changing so rapidly and how well we are able to adapt will be the test of our resiliency as educators.
So please read and respond.  Join a conversation about how to make school still matter.