How to Exercise the Brain
I received an interesting email about using music and physical
activity for exercising the brain. This teacher uses the technique
with students prior to tests. His email is below...
From Mark Pankau
I was reading one of your recent e-mails on raising IQ levels,
including the part on exercising the brain. In my teaching, student
reading research, and brain based learning presentations to teachers
I include additional information on exercising the body to improve
the brain.
Elevating the heart rate increases blood
flow and oxygen to the brain. Coupled with water to thin the
blood to carry the increased oxygen, and some natural sugar (fruit),
it is said to light up the brain like a July 4th celebration.
At my school we are becoming increasing
well known as the school that performs a 30-minute activity session
before students take their Virginia State Standards Of Learning
Tests (SOL's). I bring the entire grade level to the gym at 8
AM, and for twenty minutes we perform non-stop physical activities
with high beat music. For the next ten minutes the music changes
to a low beat rhythm as we first perform select Brain Gym (R)
exercises, then relax and listen to the music, often Mozart as
you suggest.
It is important to get three waves to
flow in unison; heart wave, brain wave and music wave. Afterwards
students are released to their classroom teacher for watering
purposes. Teachers and Principal report a more relaxed and focused
student - even when the test takes up to three hours. We have
been featured in a Washington Post Newspaper article, and I have
presented and been published through the state Physical Education
association.
This is just a sampling of what I do
for our teachers and students on a daily basis to help insure
they are better prepared for learning, and having fun doing it.
Emotional Quotient, for me, is just as important as Intellectual
Quotient.
Thanks for allowing me to share some
of my brain activities. As I tell the teachers who sit (and play!)
in my workshops, the Headbone is connected to the rest of the
body - so get up and move.
Mark Pankau
Physical Educator & 2011 Loudoun County Teacher of the Year
Guilford Elementary School - Loudoun County Virginia
Other pages on exercising the brain:
Brain Exercise
Quick Brain Exercises
Brain Exercises for Specific
Purposes
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