a discussion of how teachers’ brains engage during periods of highly creative work a challenge to...
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Education InSite
M is for Metacognition
A Discussion of How Teachers’ Brains Engage During Periods of Highly Creative Work
A Challenge to the Status Quo of Current Thinking About Thinking
National Title I Conference, San Diego, CA 2014
Education InSite
Dr. Linda Karges-Bonewww.educationinsite.com
Charleston Southern University
Professor, Author, Radio Host
Differentiated Pathways of the Brain and Breaking Brain Barriers
Brain-Framing: Instructional Planning With the Brain in Mind
Brain Verse: Activities to Build Literacy and Neural Connectivity
Brain Tips: Simple Yet Sensational Brain-Friendly Strategies for Improving Teaching, Learning, and Parenting
Consultant to Title I Schools around the US/Former Special Ed. Teacher
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Our TaskMaximizing Teachers’ Impact in High Poverty Settings
With innovative, brain-friendly practices
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Maximizing the 3 C’s
Creativity
Capacity
Complexity
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Why Metacognition? Let’s
Deconstruct the word.
Meta=Self
Cognition= Thinking
An “Awareness of One’s Own Thinking”
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For Teachers….It is Truly Meta-Metacognition
One must be aware of one’s OWN thinking.
Concurrently, one must be aware of how students are or are not engaged in thinking.
It is a process unlike any other.
Exhausting
Exhilarating
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Teachers Who Work in High Poverty Settings
Do not have the luxury of simple COGNITION.
Thinking is not enough.
Metacognition is required.
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Why? Three Reasons….
Stressed Student
s
Brain Shutdown
Stressful Professi
on
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Teaching Is Harder Than Rocket Science
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One Teacher’s Voice “But no one can fully understand how difficult teaching
in America’s highest-need communities is until he or she personally experiences it. When I solved engineering problems, I had to use my brain. When I solve teaching problems, I use my entire being—everything I have. A typical engineering task involves sending an email to a colleague about a potential design solution. A typical teacher task involves explaining for the fourth time how to get the variable out of the exponent while two students put their heads down, three students start texting, two girls in the back start talking, and one student provokes another from across the classroom. “Ryan Fuller
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There should be enough…Spread out, it is about the size of a linen dinner napkin.
But, if you were to count the synapses at the rate of 1 per second, you would finish 32 million years after you began!
Bright Air, Brilliant FireRobert Sylwester
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But the Amygdalas Kick In Almond Shaped
Clusters
Triggered by stress
Unleash Cortisol
Shutting down higher order thinking
Damaging the brain
The Challenge Cortisol, the stress hormone does so much
damage to our brains as it seeps out: shutting down the pre-frontal cortex, impeding creativity: actually shrinking the hippocampus, the center of memory; and slowing neuro-genesis. But, when you recognize the fact that simply living in poverty triggers cortisol, even when there is no direct stressor like abuse or illness in a child’s life, you have a huge problem. Dr. Linda Karges-Bone
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The Answer……MetacognitionMaintaining an uber-awareness
A gestalt of where everything and everyone is in space and time.
A pre-cognition of what might come next.
And how the teacher and every other player on the cognitive chess board is going to react.
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Metacognition Requires MORE
More • Cohesive
ness• Creativit
y• Compass
ion• For
Teachers
More• Conversa
tions• Collabora
tion• Commit
ment• For
Parents
More• Connecti
ons• Concentr
ation• Curricula
r Innovation
• For Students
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Can You Say: “Counterfactual Thinking?”
Counterfactual Thinking is….
One of the highest forms of creativity.
Constantly moving between the reality that we SEE and what we want our classrooms to BE.
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And MORE Challenges from the Common
CoreDeeper, Richer
Curricula….Demands Deeper, Richer
Neural Connectivity.
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Put Teachers’ Brains 1st
Creativity
Literacy Enhancemen
t
Stress Reduction
Mirror Neurons
Neuro-ArchitectureGreen
Time
Assessments
Praise
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10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition
#1…..Teachers’ Brains Deserve Attention.
Put the Oxygen Mask on Yourself First!
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StrategyTreat teachers’
brains like gold.
Reduce their stress.
Enhance their wellness.
Harness their creativity.
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Your challenge…..Plan something special and rewarding for teachers every week.
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“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Gandhi
METACOGNITION MOMENT
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10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition
#2…..Teachers Need Time to Transition into a Metacognitive State .
Common Core Planning is Different from Fragmented 6 point Lesson Planning.
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Strategy Provide Planning
Time to Integrate and Investigate Common Core Connections.
If you want the CORE to be rigorous, your planning time must be rigorous.
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Your challenge…..RE-configure schedules to enable robust shared planning and guard this time jealously!
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“Change Your Thoughts and You Change Your World” Norman Vincent Peale
METACOGNITION MOMENT
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10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition
#3 Think carefully about how assessments are used.
Assessments reveal different attributes of students’ abilities.
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Strategy Re-visit portfolios.
Implement tiered assessments where possible.
Create a balance of high and low stakes assessments.
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Your challenge…..You may not be able to control the state or district level assessments, but you can shift traditional testing at the classroom level to be more reflective.
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“The belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or
equally educative. “ John Dewey
METACOGNITION MOMENT
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10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition
#4….Consider the role of neuro-architecture.
Environment matters to the gray matter.
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StrategyGive teachers
mini grants to design more brain-friendly settings.
Use soothing colors such as greens, blues.
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Your challenge…..Take the “Are You a Neuro-Architect?” quiz from Dr. Bone’s book Brain Framing and act on the results with colors, music, and water features.
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“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say ‘the children are working as if I
do not exist. ‘ “ Maria Montessori
METACOGNITION MOMENT
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10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition
#5….Practice brain-friendly praise strategies.
Give both teachers and students cues that increase neural productivity.
Train the brain to take creative risks and enjoy the journey of learning.
.
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Strategy
Read the work of Dr. Carol Dweck as a faculty.
Remember that praise for intelligence freezes the brain. Praising effort sets it free!
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Your challenge…..Put up “Praise Stem Posters” with fresh stems to help teachers re-think the ways that they praise.
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“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” CS Lewis
METACOGNITION MOMENT
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10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition
#6….Think GREEN
Recognize the importance of novelty and nature to metacognition.
.
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Strategy
Harness the power of green spaces, outdoor classrooms, and sunlight to enhance thinking.
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Your challenge…..Give rewards to teachers who create at least one outdoor classroom lesson each week. Even a “Power Walk” before a writing activity is powerful for metacognition.
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“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. “ William Shakespeare
METACOGNITION MOMENT
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10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition
#7….Consider the new research on creativity.
Connect this research to what we know about metacognition.
Kids and teachers need time to think INSIDE THE BOX.
Drew Boyd and Jacob Goldenberg
.
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Strategy
Subtraction
Unification
Multiplication
Division
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324188604578541843266186054
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Your challenge…..Implement the “Fed-Ex” Creativity model at the next faculty meeting. Draw the name of a teacher and give him/her a free afternoon to develop a fresh idea for your site. “Deliver “ it at the next meeting.
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“Art is an elastic sort of love. “ Josephine BakerMETACOGNITION MOMENT
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10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition
#8….Reduce the impact of stress in order to shift the brain into metacognitive mode.
Recognize the fact that children who live in poverty have more of the stress hormone cortisol, which impedes thinking.
.
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Strategy Increase physical
activity in order to stimulate “Exercise Induced Neuro-genesis and the release of BDNF..which acts like “Miracle Gro for the brain.
BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor)
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Your challenge…..Set up a Walking Program for both teachers and kids. Set goals, such as “Walking to the State Capitol”. Get pedometers donated.
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“Don’t try to fix the students. Fix ourselves first. “ Marva Collins
METACOGNITION MOMENT
10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition
#9….Harness the connection between literacy and metacognition.
Neural-Scaffolding requires fluency and flexibility in language.
By some estimates, there is a 30 million word difference between children who live in poverty and their non-poverty peers by age 4.
.
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Strategy Become familiar
with the research:http://centerforeducation.rice.edu/slc/LS/30MillionWordGap.html
Set high expectations for language in your classroom.
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Your challenge…..Read aloud every day. Reading aloud is FREE and immerses children in rich language. Try Dr. Bone’s “School Wide Literacy” Read Aloud plan in Brain Framing.
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“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” Dr. Seuss
METACOGNITION MOMENT
10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition
#10. Decide to change your mind.
“Paying attention in the present moment, on purpose, and without judgment.”
Studies show that teachers who learn mindful practices become better practitioners and remain in the profession.
.
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Strategy Decide to celebrate small victories in the classroom.
Take pictures of your students engaging in hard work and post them boldly.
Choose a compassionate response and use mirror neurons.
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Your challenge…..Make a list of what you LOVED about teaching when you entered the profession. Then, put it somewhere on your desk. Every day, select one attribute and focus on “seeing it come alive” in your classroom.
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“I dwell in possibility.” Emily DickinsonMETACOGNITION MOMENT
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A Comparison…if you dare.
Metacognition is required in today’s classrooms.
Metacognition requires enormous effort, commitment, and strength from the teacher.
Dancers remain en pointe’ for just a few minutes at a time.
Teachers maintain this kind of “cognitive dance” for hours at a time.
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Metacognition Matters, But it is difficult to maintain.
Look at the picture closely.
The world sees the beauty.
Our bodies and minds experience the pain and effort.
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Put Teachers’ Brains 1st
Creativity
Literacy Enhancemen
t
Stress Reduction
Mirror Neurons
Neuro-ArchitectureGreen
Time
Assessments
Praise
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Thank You!Visit my Facebook
Page and “Like It”.
My site: www.educationinsite.com
Many of the strategies discussed today can be found in Brain Framing.
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