Unit 3- Apply Brain Breaks and How to Implement Them Effectively
Objectives:
- The learner will learn how and when to implement brain breaks in the classroom.
- The learner will apply their menu of Brain Breaks to their classroom and evaluate the effectiveness
Lecture
How to Implement Brain Breaks in the Classroom
Kids are unpredictable. Teachers thrive in offsetting rules and creating order in the classroom. When I first started implementing brain breaks, it was a struggle as the students felt that they had too much freedom during this time. Over time, I have learned that brain breaks need to be built into the classroom routine.
One tactic to organize brain breaks so they are easily accessible and vary is to create a slide deck with all the brain breaks, instructions, links, and everything you might need to facilitate one. I like to put the name of each brain break on a slip of paper and then choose a student who was glowing during class to pick one from the bowl. This way, it serves as a reward for productive work and it makes sure that the brain break is chosen at random.
When to Implement
After I create my schedule in the beginning of the year, I look for huge blocks of time in which I know my students will have difficulty maintaining focus. For instance, every other day I have double block ELA with 7th graders. This means students are expected to work through 85 minutes of time...I can't even do this myself without a stimulating break. To break up this time, I often do a brain break after a longer task, or every 30 minutes. This usually falls between the lesson and their independent working time. This is the only "planned" brain break I have in my schedule. At other times, I give the students a brain break, if they are getting to that restless point, if they just finished a difficult task, before they start a difficult task, or even in the middle depending upon the day.
Task
After learning about how and when to implement brain breaks, you will now be utilizing your slide deck or Brain Break Menu through a live trial run in your classroom or place of learning (sports team, club, organized learning center, etc.) You will be implementing your personalized Brain Break Menu, for one full week. Once again, you have the freedom to log this in any way that is preferable to you- in a journal, on a document, as a voice recording, etc.
You will keep a daily log including the following:
- Context: what is the group, team, class, or club you are using? (Example: Middle school soccer team during a 2-hour practice)
- When you utilized a brain break (Example: 15 minutes into class, or after a lesson)
- How you knew it was needed (what behaviors did you notice occurring that prompted you to utilize a brain break
- Which brain break was chosen?
- How it helped kids regain focus or maybe how it was ineffective.
Apply and Reflect
Reflect on the active utilization of the brain breaks they collected.
Post your responses on the Padlet, linked here: Padlet
- Respond to at least 2 peers for each question!
Questions to consider:
- Which ones were most useful in resetting the brain and regaining focus?
- Which was more time-consuming?
- Should certain ones be used at different times?
- Brain games can be used when students have focused already, and you want to give them a non-academic task to promote further engagement or if students are tired or fidgety!