Youth Connections Charter School

Creating a Container for LearningBrain Compatible Curriculum: Concepts &

TopicsDecember 2012

Overview• October: Introduction to Classroom

Management and Curriculum Building

• December 5: Class. Management: Creating a Container for LearningCurriculum: Brain Compatible Learning: Concepts and Topics

• Jan 23: Class. Management: PreventionCurriculum: Identifying Desired Results

Overview• Feb 20: Class. Management: Intervention

Curriculum: Learning Styles and Experiential Lessons

• March 6: Class. Management: InventionCurriculum: Instructional Tools, Strategies, & Assessments

• April ??: Reflections, Sharing, and Feedback

Ground Rules

• Be Here and Present• Participate• Make it work for you• Please let me know…

Best Class Ever: Facilitator

• Have breaks• Relevant information• Engaging delivery of

instruction– Mix it up

• Balance of activity and information

• Encourage free and respectful discussions

• Respecting time constraints

Best Class Ever: Everybody

• Be respectful with one another when having discussions

• Make a conscientious effort to be on time– Punctual attendance

• Refrain from cellphone use and texting (except in an emergency)

• Participate in activities– Participate to your level– Right to pass

• You can only volunteer yourself

• Watch our humor

“…humans may properly be regarded as brain freaks. We can regard a giraffe as a neck freak and the elephant as even more a nose freak since its snout measures yards rather than inches. But the human brain is millions, even billions, of times more complex than the organ possessed by most other creatures with brains.”

~ Leslie A. Hart(1995). Human Brain & Human Learning. Kent, WA: Books for Educators, Inc.

Brain Research

• Most learning occurs in the Cerebrum (frontal lobe)

• Our brain seeks patterns, meaning• If we feel under threat, we cannot learn – our

brains won’t let us• Emotions and learning are intricately tied

together• Absence of threat is essential for real learning

to occur

Creating a Container for Learning

Air Traffic Controllers

Other than teaching, there is only one other profession that deals with more decisions – more stimuli on any given day…

Reacting

Acting without thinking

Responding

Thinking before we act

ReflectionBuild a Quote

• Why is it important to reflect on your philosophy and beliefs about teaching and learning on a regular basis?

• How does having a bigger picture impact your teaching?

PII

• Prevention is anything we do to prevent conflict in our programs or to prepare for it before it happens.

• Intervention is responding when conflicts do happen.

• Invention is creating something new and constructive out of the situation.

The Container Concept

Not all Containers are Alike

We Have Choices…We have Influence…

What are the Qualities of your school and classroom containers?

What are areas within my control, so as to take the qualities of the containers to another level?

National Center on Response to Intervention: http://www.rti4success.org

PREVENTION

INTERVENTION

INVENTION

PBIS Continuum and PII Approach*

* Positive Behavior

Interventions & Supports and Prevention,

Intervention , Invention

From Group to Community“In genuine community there are no sides. It is not always easy but by the time they reach community the members have learned how to give up cliques and factions. They have learned how to listen to each other and how not to reject each other. Sometimes consensus in community is reached with miraculous rapidity. But at other times it is arrived at only after lengthy struggle. Just because it is a safe place does not mean community is a place without conflict. It is, however, a place where conflict can be resolved without physical or emotional bloodshed and with wisdom as well as grace. A community is a group that can fight gracefully.”

M. Scott Peck M.D.The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace

Thomas Sergiovanni states that “the need for community is universal. A sense of belonging, of continuity, of being connected to others and to ideas and values that make our lives meaningful and significant -- these needs are shared by all of us.”

Sergiovanni goes on to say:“… Communities are collections of individuals who are bonded together by natural will and who are together binded to a set of shared ideas and ideals. This bonding and binding is tight enough to transform them from a collection of “I’s” into a collective “we.” As a “we,” members are part of a tightly knit web of meaningful relationships. This “we” usually shares a common place and over time comes to share common sentiments and traditions that are sustaining. When describing community it is helpful to speak of community kinship, of mind, of place, and of memory.”

“The people in one’s life are like the pillars on one’s porch you see life through. And sometimes they hold you up. And sometimes they lean on you, and sometimes it’s just enough to know they’re standing by.”

Anonymous

Community is consciousness of connection, combining and comprising: Courtesy, communication, collaboration, cooperation, consideration, caring, compassion, curiosity, commonalities, common goals, confidence, creativity, courage, challenge, camaraderie, and conceivably chocolate.

CTC Group, 2004

Brain Compatible Curriculum: Concepts and Topics

What was the difference between the two attempts? What made the difference?

How did your brain take in and manage the information from the first and second attempt? Why was one easier to manage while the other was more difficult?

Reflection

Concepts are the

Left Brain:Details

Reading

Writing

Sequence

Topic

Right Brain:

Gestalt

Patterns

Real World

Being

Concept

Concepts . . .are Generalizeable and have

UNIVERSAL Application

1. They travel across disciplines

2. They connect to Other Significant Concepts

3. Lead to larger purposes than the material itself into “ways of thinking”

The Scientific Method is a study in Problem-Solving

A Collage is a study in Self-Expression

Where the Red Fern Grows is a study in Separation

The Great Depression is a study in Cause and Effect

Study Skills is a study in Cooperation/Collaboration

Mexican Art is a study in Symbolic Representation

Descriptive Language is a study in Attributes

The Poem “The Mending Wall” is a study in Symbolism

Graphing Sinusoids is a study in Patterns

Planning for High School is a study in Cause and Effect

Melody and Lyrics are a study in Composition

Assignment:

Name possible concepts for each of the topics:

1. Landforms/Plate Tectonics 9. Self-Portraits

2. Life during the Great Depression 10. Nutrition

3. Acids and Bases 11. U.S. Constitution

4. Mesoamerica 12. Compare/Contrast Essay

5. Theater (acting) 13. The Industrial Revolution

6. Characteristics of Geographic 14. Fractions

Regions

7. How to Write an Autobiography

8. Field Trip Safety

Concepts . . .are Generalizeable and have

UNIVERSAL ApplicationThey travel across disciplines

1. They connect to Other Significant Concepts

2. Lead to larger purposes than the material itself into “ways of thinking”

Think: ____________ is a Study in _______________

(Topic) (Concept)

For each of your Content Standards,

Think:

____________ is a Study in _______________ (Topic) (Concept)

An Essential Question

can be thought of as a

bridge from the

concept to the content.

Left Brain:Details

Reading

Writing

Sequence

Topic

Right Brain:

Gestalt

Patterns

Real World

Being

Concept

Concept: Symbolic Representation

Topic: Mexican Art

Essential Question:

What does symbolic representation in Mexican art reveal about the Mexican culture’s view of religion?

Example

Example

Concept: Prediction

Topic: Civil wars

Essential Question:

Can we predict where civil unrest will occur in the world and/or in our community?