After hearing Marcia Tate and using her book "Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites", how are you using the brain based strategies in your classroom to promote student engagement?
WOW! What a phenomenal speaker Marcia Tate is. She is a breath of new energy and has relit the educational flame that was once growing dim. I love teaching and have been in kindergarten for ten years now. As we all have experienced at one time or another things do get stale if we don't spice them up and Marcia has done that for me. I have been doing some of the things in my class that she covered during our training but frankly forgot some of the other strategies and happy now that they have been refreshed for me. I would like to do more of the kinesthetic activities but I am limited on space. I have ventured to our gym a time or two so that we could get some of the energy dispersed and learn at the same time. Having the children role play or dramatize a story has been real fun for the children and amusing to watch as well. I have been incorporating more music of Dr. Jean into our studies which really gives the children alot of movement and sets the pace for them to learn by listening to the rhymes that she uses in her songs. I have also setup an area where the children are allowed to free draw anything they like using different media. This allows them to be extra creative and frees up me to help those that may be struggling with other areas that we are studying in centers. I also appreciate the fact that we as educators are having to focus on both hemispheres of the brain in order to have a fully educated individual. Focus on certain students to allow them to do activities that interest them has help on some of the conduct problems that I have had. Thanks for bringing Marcia Tate to speak with us. She is an inspiration to us all and has refreshed our desires to be the best teachers that we can possibly be. David K.
We've all heard this before. It's not the knowing - it's the opportunity. Just like the students, trying new things is work and sometimes a little uncomfortable. I, personally, get so caught up in classroom "management" that I forget I am working with little people that NEED the opportunity to integrate physical activity in their learning experiences. Than you for reminding me. Learnign can be fun for me, too!
Well, when we left the workshop with Masha Tate I was blown away. It was FABULOUS. I left very motivated to incorporate some of her strategies in my lesson plans for the following week.
The first thing I did was do an internet search for a song or chant to teach/reteach opposites and synonyms were. I found one. I came in on Monday morning ready to roll...I crafted an antonym and synonym lesson with acting out, songs, saying over and over, etc. All I can say is by the time we were finished I had many of my students who had not grasp the concept of synonyms or antonyms had finally gotten it. I was so proud and it was fun!!!
Not only have I used some strategies in my classroom, I used some of her strategies in a PD that I conducted. I used clock buddies to promote talking, I used the parking lot idea, I even played music. It was a lot more fun than my audience looking at a boring power point.
I would love to have Marsha Tate come to Downtown during pre planning and give our teachers that motivation and umph..before next school year.
Dr. Tate's presentation was, in a word, ENGAGING! I could not wait to get back to the classroom and tell my first graders what I had learned. They think it's pretty funny when I say that I "learned" something in class ;) She reminded me that it is ok to have fun while you learn and that there are many ways to do so. My students and I have had much more engaging conversations and loads more fun moving and singing and learning together! Over a quick lunch, I discovered that she has been doing this for several years and really has the best interest of teachers and students at heart. I would certainly love to have Dr. Tate as a speaker to kick off the new year for our faculty and staff next year! She is awesome! Thank you for having her!
Marcia Tate was a wonderful speaker! The strategies provided in her book and her presentation are often used in primary grades, but it was encouraging to see them used for upper grades also! I have taught fifth grade in the past, and I now teach kindergarten. I think it is important for teachers to remember that ALL children learn more when they are engaged through these fun and interesting strategies. With testing and high accountability, it is easy to forget these simple strategies that could benefit our students in so many ways. One of my fifth graders favorite activities was to memorize and perform Grammar Rocks before the CRCT. They loved it and you could see them singing it in their heads during the test. I agree with Zina, Mrs. Tate would be an excellent speaker for a district wide kick-off!
After seeing the things that Marcia Tate did to keep her class engaged i felt good about myself because I use alot of these stategies already. Now I am adding some of the things from marcia to make it even easier to keep them on track for the long haul.The things that I took from Mrs.Tate was that you cannot be afraid to try new things,after all our students are constantly changing so we also must change.
This was my first year acutally participating in the idea fair and it was awsome. there were so many great things to share with other teachers. i truly enjoied being a part of this evnet.
I absolutely loved Marcia Tate! I loved her energy and enthusiasm. I use many of her strategies in my own classroom. I did use her "ball" game as a review activity not long after her presentation. My students absolutely loved it, especially the athletes. I left TSS Training that day feeling rejuvenated. I was really stressed our during the month of February and Marcia Tate was really what I needed. It reminded me of how fun it can be to teach and why I chose to be a teacher. We are discussing having her come to our school. We have already spoken to our principal about purchasing the book for the entire faculty. Some teachers could really benefit from using her strategies.
This blog will serve as a place to reflect on several topics covered in our Teacher Support Specialist course! We will be covering a multitude of topics including mentoring, induction teachers, differentiated instruction, coaching and conferencing, brain based learning, designing for engagement, building relationships and teamwork, and teacher reflection just to name a few topics! Feel free to post and reply to your colleagues as often as you would like!
8 comments:
WOW! What a phenomenal speaker Marcia Tate is. She is a breath of new energy and has relit the educational flame that was once growing dim. I love teaching and have been in kindergarten for ten years now. As we all have experienced at one time or another things do get stale if we don't spice them up and Marcia has done that for me.
I have been doing some of the things in my class that she covered during our training but frankly forgot some of the other strategies and happy now that they have been refreshed for me. I would like to do more of the kinesthetic activities but I am limited on space. I have ventured to our gym a time or two so that we could get some of the energy dispersed and learn at the same time.
Having the children role play or dramatize a story has been real fun for the children and amusing to watch as well. I have been incorporating more music of Dr. Jean into our studies which really gives the children alot of movement and sets the pace for them to learn by listening to the rhymes that she uses in her songs.
I have also setup an area where the children are allowed to free draw anything they like using different media. This allows them to be extra creative and frees up me to help those that may be struggling with other areas that we are studying in centers.
I also appreciate the fact that we as educators are having to focus on both hemispheres of the brain in order to have a fully educated individual. Focus on certain students to allow them to do activities that interest them has help on some of the conduct problems that I have had.
Thanks for bringing Marcia Tate to speak with us. She is an inspiration to us all and has refreshed our desires to be the best teachers that we can possibly be.
David K.
We've all heard this before. It's not the knowing - it's the opportunity. Just like the students, trying new things is work and sometimes a little uncomfortable. I, personally, get so caught up in classroom "management" that I forget I am working with little people that NEED the opportunity to integrate physical activity in their learning experiences. Than you for reminding me. Learnign can be fun for me, too!
Well, when we left the workshop with Masha Tate I was blown away. It was FABULOUS. I left very motivated to incorporate some of her strategies in my lesson plans for the following week.
The first thing I did was do an internet search for a song or chant to teach/reteach opposites and synonyms were. I found one. I came in on Monday morning ready to roll...I crafted an antonym and synonym lesson with acting out, songs, saying over and over, etc. All I can say is by the time we were finished I had many of my students who had not grasp the concept of synonyms or antonyms had finally gotten it. I was so proud and it was fun!!!
Not only have I used some strategies in my classroom, I used some of her strategies in a PD that I conducted. I used clock buddies to promote talking, I used the parking lot idea, I even played music. It was a lot more fun than my audience looking at a boring power point.
I would love to have Marsha Tate come to Downtown during pre planning and give our teachers that motivation and umph..before next school year.
Hands down it was the best PD I had ever been to.
Dr. Tate's presentation was, in a word, ENGAGING! I could not wait to get back to the classroom and tell my first graders what I had learned. They think it's pretty funny when I say that I "learned" something in class ;) She reminded me that it is ok to have fun while you learn and that there are many ways to do so. My students and I have had much more engaging conversations and loads more fun moving and singing and learning together! Over a quick lunch, I discovered that she has been doing this for several years and really has the best interest of teachers and students at heart. I would certainly love to have Dr. Tate as a speaker to kick off the new year for our faculty and staff next year! She is awesome! Thank you for having her!
Marcia Tate was a wonderful speaker! The strategies provided in her book and her presentation are often used in primary grades, but it was encouraging to see them used for upper grades also! I have taught fifth grade in the past, and I now teach kindergarten. I think it is important for teachers to remember that ALL children learn more when they are engaged through these fun and interesting strategies. With testing and high accountability, it is easy to forget these simple strategies that could benefit our students in so many ways. One of my fifth graders favorite activities was to memorize and perform Grammar Rocks before the CRCT. They loved it and you could see them singing it in their heads during the test. I agree with Zina, Mrs. Tate would be an excellent speaker for a district wide kick-off!
After seeing the things that Marcia Tate did to keep her class engaged i felt good about myself because I use alot of these stategies already. Now I am adding some of the things from marcia to make it even easier to keep them on track for the long haul.The things that I took from Mrs.Tate was that you cannot be afraid to try new things,after all our students are constantly changing so we also must change.
This was my first year acutally participating in the idea fair and it was awsome. there were so many great things to share with other teachers. i truly enjoied being a part of this evnet.
I absolutely loved Marcia Tate! I loved her energy and enthusiasm. I use many of her strategies in my own classroom. I did use her "ball" game as a review activity not long after her presentation. My students absolutely loved it, especially the athletes. I left TSS Training that day feeling rejuvenated. I was really stressed our during the month of February and Marcia Tate was really what I needed. It reminded me of how fun it can be to teach and why I chose to be a teacher. We are discussing having her come to our school. We have already spoken to our principal about purchasing the book for the entire faculty. Some teachers could really benefit from using her strategies.
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