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M is for Metacognition

M is for Metacognition. A Discussion of How Teachers’ Brains Engage During Periods of Highly Creative Work A Challenge to the Status Quo of Current Thinking About Thinking National Title I Conference, San Diego, CA 2014. Dr. Linda Karges-Bone www.educationinsite.com.

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M is for Metacognition

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  1. M is for Metacognition A Discussion of How Teachers’ Brains Engage During Periods of Highly Creative Work A Challenge to the Status Quo of Current Thinking About Thinking National Title I Conference, San Diego, CA 2014 Education InSite

  2. Education InSite

  3. Dr. Linda Karges-Bonewww.educationinsite.com • Charleston Southern University • Professor, Author, Radio Host • Differentiated Pathways of the Brain and Breaking Brain Barriers • Brain-Framing: Instructional Planning With the Brain in Mind • Brain Verse: Activities to Build Literacy and Neural Connectivity • Brain Tips: Simple Yet Sensational Brain-Friendly Strategies for Improving Teaching, Learning, and Parenting • Consultant to Title I Schools around the US/Former Special Ed. Teacher Education InSite

  4. Our Task Maximizing Teachers’ Impact in High Poverty Settings With innovative, brain-friendly practices Education InSite

  5. Maximizing the 3 C’s Education InSite

  6. Why Metacognition? • Let’s Deconstruct the word. • Meta=Self • Cognition= Thinking • An “Awareness of One’s Own Thinking” Education InSite

  7. For Teachers….It is Truly Meta-Metacognition • One must be aware of one’s OWN thinking. • Concurrently, one must be aware of how students are or are not engaged in thinking. • It is a process unlike any other. • Exhausting • Exhilarating Education InSite

  8. Teachers Who Work in High Poverty Settings • Do not have the luxury of simple COGNITION. • Thinking is not enough. • Metacognition is required. Education InSite

  9. Why? Three Reasons…. Education InSite

  10. Teaching Is Harder Than Rocket Science Education InSite

  11. One Teacher’s Voice • “But no one can fully understand how difficult teaching in America’s highest-need communities is until he or she personally experiences it. When I solved engineering problems, I had to use my brain. When I solve teaching problems, I use my entire being—everything I have. A typical engineering task involves sending an email to a colleague about a potential design solution. A typical teacher task involves explaining for the fourth time how to get the variable out of the exponent while two students put their heads down, three students start texting, two girls in the back start talking, and one student provokes another from across the classroom. “Ryan Fuller Education InSite

  12. There should be enough… Spread out, it is about the size of a linen dinner napkin. But, if you were to count the synapses at the rate of 1 per second, you would finish 32 million years after you began! Bright Air, Brilliant Fire Robert Sylwester Education InSite

  13. But the Amygdalas Kick In • Almond Shaped Clusters • Triggered by stress • Unleash Cortisol • Shutting down higher order thinking • Damaging the brain Education InSite

  14. The Challenge • Cortisol, the stress hormone does so much damage to our brains as it seeps out: shutting down the pre-frontal cortex, impeding creativity: actually shrinking the hippocampus, the center of memory; and slowing neuro-genesis. But, when you recognize the fact that simply living in poverty triggers cortisol, even when there is no direct stressor like abuse or illness in a child’s life, you have a huge problem. Dr. Linda Karges-Bone

  15. The Answer……Metacognition • Maintaining an uber-awareness • A gestalt of where everything and everyone is in space and time. • A pre-cognition of what might come next. • And how the teacher and every other player on the cognitive chess board is going to react. Education InSite

  16. Metacognition Requires MORE Education InSite

  17. Can You Say: “Counterfactual Thinking?” • Counterfactual Thinking is…. • One of the highest forms of creativity. • Constantly moving between the reality that we SEE and what we want our classrooms to BE. Education InSite

  18. And MORE • Challenges from the Common Core • Deeper, Richer Curricula…. • Demands Deeper, Richer Neural Connectivity. Education InSite

  19. Education InSite

  20. 10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #1…..Teachers’ Brains Deserve Attention. • Put the Oxygen Mask on Yourself First! Education InSite

  21. Strategy • Treat teachers’ brains like gold. • Reduce their stress. • Enhance their wellness. • Harness their creativity. Education InSite

  22. Your challenge….. Plan something special and rewarding for teachers every week. Education InSite

  23. “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Gandhi METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite

  24. 10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #2…..Teachers Need Time to Transition into a Metacognitive State . • Common Core Planning is Different from Fragmented 6 point Lesson Planning. Education InSite

  25. Strategy • Provide Planning Time to Integrate and Investigate Common Core Connections. • If you want the CORE to be rigorous, your planning time must be rigorous. Education InSite

  26. Your challenge….. RE-configure schedules to enable robust shared planning and guard this time jealously! Education InSite

  27. “Change Your Thoughts and You Change Your World” Norman Vincent Peale METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite

  28. 10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #3 Think carefully about how assessments are used. • Assessments reveal different attributes of students’ abilities. Education InSite

  29. Strategy • Re-visit portfolios. • Implement tiered assessments where possible. • Create a balance of high and low stakes assessments. Education InSite

  30. Your challenge….. You may not be able to control the state or district level assessments, but you can shift traditional testing at the classroom level to be more reflective. Education InSite

  31. “The belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative. “ John Dewey METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite

  32. 10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #4….Consider the role of neuro-architecture. • Environment matters to the gray matter. Education InSite

  33. Strategy • Give teachers mini grants to design more brain-friendly settings. • Use soothing colors such as greens, blues. Education InSite

  34. Your challenge….. Take the “Are You a Neuro-Architect?” quiz from Dr. Bone’s book Brain Framing and act on the results with colors, music, and water features. Education InSite

  35. “The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say ‘the children are working as if I do not exist. ‘ “ Maria Montessori METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite

  36. 10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #5….Practice brain-friendly praise strategies. • Give both teachers and students cues that increase neural productivity. • Train the brain to take creative risks and enjoy the journey of learning. . Education InSite

  37. Strategy • Read the work of Dr. Carol Dweck as a faculty. • Remember that praise for intelligence freezes the brain. Praising effort sets it free! Education InSite

  38. Your challenge….. Put up “Praise Stem Posters” with fresh stems to help teachers re-think the ways that they praise. Education InSite

  39. “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” CS Lewis METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite

  40. 10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #6….Think GREEN • Recognize the importance of novelty and nature to metacognition. . Education InSite

  41. Strategy • Harness the power of green spaces, outdoor classrooms, and sunlight to enhance thinking. Education InSite

  42. Your challenge….. Give rewards to teachers who create at least one outdoor classroom lesson each week. Even a “Power Walk” before a writing activity is powerful for metacognition. Education InSite

  43. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. “ William Shakespeare METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite

  44. 10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #7….Consider the new research on creativity. • Connect this research to what we know about metacognition. • Kids and teachers need time to think INSIDE THE BOX. • Drew Boyd and Jacob Goldenberg . Education InSite

  45. Strategy • Subtraction • Unification • Multiplication • Division • http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324188604578541843266186054 Education InSite

  46. Your challenge….. Implement the “Fed-Ex” Creativity model at the next faculty meeting. Draw the name of a teacher and give him/her a free afternoon to develop a fresh idea for your site. “Deliver “ it at the next meeting. Education InSite

  47. “Art is an elastic sort of love. “ Josephine Baker METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite

  48. 10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #8….Reduce the impact of stress in order to shift the brain into metacognitive mode. • Recognize the fact that children who live in poverty have more of the stress hormone cortisol, which impedes thinking. . Education InSite

  49. Strategy • Increase physical activity in order to stimulate “Exercise Induced Neuro-genesis and the release of BDNF..which acts like “Miracle Gro for the brain. • BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor) Education InSite

  50. Your challenge….. Set up a Walking Program for both teachers and kids. Set goals, such as “Walking to the State Capitol”. Get pedometers donated. Education InSite

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