1. Brain Health Classroom
Presented by:
Jennifer Kestenbaum & Jason Busby

2. School as a Brain Health Center
“The sexiest part of you is your frontal lobe” -Dr. Paul Nussbaum

3. Left Brain vs. Right Brain?
Left: Sequential
Right: Creative/Non-Linear
Cross-Stem
The Classroom: Daniel Pink
Abundance, Automation & Asia (left brain)
Creativity, Design & Imagination (right brain)
Women v. Men
Activities:
Leg Activity
Paper Funnel
White White Cow
Common Fallacy : No link b/w left & right brain
Brain breaks are cross stem

4. Left Brain v. Right Brain
20th century was driven largely by left brain thinking
Shopping Mall Example
Men: Seek and Destroy
Women: Isn’t this pretty?
Women notice music, use sense of touch, try on everything
Impact on students: male students
Women and men communicate & comprehend differently

5. By looking at things differently, we can see something new.
Focus your attention on his eye
Then shift your attention to his neck and chin area
Did you see the man
turn his face?
Survey how many women saw the profile right away v. men
Creativity: approaching problems with a fresh perspective and multiple perspectives

6. Touch (Brain -sight vs. Eyesight)
Object manipulation helps students make sense of the world and acquire the skills they will need to navigate abstract learning.
Experiments have shown that touch is as important as vision for learning and retaining information.
Image Source: The Tinker School
Drawing Activity:
Sketch each other
Then the object blind sketch
Brain-Sight Box

7. Brain-sight Eyesight Object Robber Hands Activity: Wesson Quotes:
“Touch turns on the brain”
“Skin is the other half of the brain”
“Drawing is to day as dreaming is to night”
Object

8. David Brooks: The Social Animal
Show to 2:40
David Brooks: The Social Animal

9. David Brooks: The Social Animal
Reason separated from emotions
We can’t learn without emotion – we learn from the people we love
Fight or Flight: modern day saber tooth tigers

10. GIVE SURVEY

13. Brain Reserve: Alzheimer’s
We will talk about why we were playing classical music while they came in and while they were taking the survey (classical : more complex patterns , no words)

14. Houses of Worship Story

15. Jenn will talk all about nutrition

16. Dr. Robert Brooks : The Power of Mindsets
Avoidance Motivation
School is a place where “my deficits are highlighted and my strengths ignored.”
Charismatic Adult
Students don’t care what we know
until they first know that we care.
Islands of Competence
Ray McNulty “It’s Not Us Against Them”
Definition of Mindset: The assumptions and expectations we possess about ourselves and others that guide our behavior.

17. The Spaghetti Experiment

18. Dr. Robert Brooks : The Power of Mindsets
Islands of Competence
Brainstorm your strengths as an educator (your islands of competence)
Share with a partner!
Partner feedback: How can your
partner’s islands be used with
students?
Switch
Ray McNulty “It’s Not Us Against Them”
Definition of Mindset: The assumptions and expectations we possess about ourselves and others that guide our behavior.

19. Resources Dr. Paul Nussbaum's Website
Paul Nussbaum – “Building a Brain Health Environment in the School”
Dr. Robert Brooks (website & monthly newsletter)
“The Search for Islands of Competence: A Metaphor of Hope and Strength”
The Educator’s Mindset: The Basis for Touching a Student’s Mind and Heart
Dr. Kenneth Wesson “Brain-Sight” Can Touch Allow Us to ‘See’ Better than Sight?”
TED Talks
David Brooks: “The Social Animal”
Tom Wujec: “Build a tower, build a team” (a.k.a. The Spaghetti Experiment)
Brain Breaks
K-6 Brain Break Ideas
K-12 Brain Break Ideas
David Brooks
New Humanism
Ray McNulty
International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE)