Meet Me in the Middle - Chapter 3: Brain Research Applied to Middle School

This chapter brought up a lot of interesting information about teaching while keeping students brains in mind. Our brain is where we store all of our knowledge so it is important for teachers to understand how to utilize students brains. The chapter says that our long term memory stores information based on the interaction with the knowledge. Students need to interact with what they are learning and not have in droned into them through a lecture. Learning needs to be memorable in order for it to be a memory worth storing, it seems they call in memory for a reason. As teachers we shouldn’t call on just one student but turn it into a discussion or interaction among students. Also when asking questions providing wait time can be a very powerful thing.

I really enjoyed this chapter because my group read the brain based teaching book for a our book talk so this tied in really well with it. I was surprised to see logical fallacies in this section. I never thought to teach this to middle school students because I never really learned about them until I took a college class on it. I do think it is something important to learn so that students know how to analyze and perceive information properly so as to avoid misconceptions in the first place. I think it is important as a teacher to make sure that my students do not have any misconceptions on the content that I am teaching them so I need to take time to brush up on my lessons and make sure everyone is on the same page. I also really liked the information on water. I think it is a great idea to have a water cooler in you class. I try to drink a lot of water throughout the day and so should my students so it only makes sense to have it easily accessible in the classroom.