I need to learn how to use the brain break method as a teaching tool to increase students' focus and academic performance
$3,262 goal
This project expired on March 29, 2020.
This project expired on March 29, 2020.
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My students are very active and eager to learn something new on a daily basis. As a health teacher, I am always ready to feed the students' hunger for knowledge and to provide them with a wide variety of information. Our student population is very diverse. Our students come from different cultural backgrounds and face many challenges including learning English often for the first time. Around 85% of the student population is from Latin America, followed by 8% from Ethiopia. The remaining population is African American.
Because of this diversity, we have a unique blend of personalities, cultures, and needs.
All these factors are making my school a fun and exciting place to work, where creativity and patience are needed to ensure student success. The school is qualified as a Title I school and 100% of our students are receiving free lunch daily.
My students inspire me every day to become a better version of myself and to want to share my experiences and knowledge with them as much as I possibly can. I want to have a meaningful impact on my students so they can have a positive impact on their community as future leaders.
My Project
As a health educator, I am getting motivated and inspired about the different cultures and lifestyles that contribute to and influence student learning. This diverse school population is challenging me to take that into consideration when planning my different lessons and units.
With this trip, I will have the opportunity to learn from the different cultures of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand and to observe how teachers in these countries are successfully implementing the brain break teaching method.
This teaching method provides short, energizing bursts of activity that boost blood flow, send oxygen to the brain, and help kids better retain information. In the Southeast Asian countries, this method is implemented in 90% of the schools, and teachers and students are experiencing an increase in academic performance. Students are motivated to learn and there is less disruptive behavior.
I plan to bring back both this cultural knowledge and this teaching experience to build a curriculum where I implement these topics in-game activities. By incorporating physical activity into the classrooms, I am recognizing students as holistic entities, whose comprehension and performance is directly tied to their physical and emotional well being. They will be learning to train the mind and body together. I will use this method as a guide for the inescapable boredom and fatigue when students are sitting for prolonged periods of time.
As a learning outcome, I want to see that students who are actively participating in brain breaks show a reduction in unwanted behavior and an improvement in academic performance. This practice will increase students' focus in their learning environment. The brain breaks method will not only help my students to focus better in the classroom, but it will also enhance memory resulting in better academic performance throughout their middle and high school experience.
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