What Type of Brain Break?

A few members of our team are considering using the Hoberman sphere to teach the students deep breathing. Breathing patterns can have a deep effect on our health.  In times of stress, breathing can become fast and shallow. Teaching children deep breathing exercises can help them calm down, focus, and relax.  

How to do it: 

To begin, ask students to breathe in deeply from down in their belly as you slowly expand the sphere.  As children are breathing, you can have them place their hands on their bellies so they can feel it expanding like a balloon.  Once the lungs are full of air and the sphere is round, ask students to hold their breath for a count of three.  Next, have students slowly exhale as you slowly close the sphere.  Repeat this exercise ten to twelve times. (We are planning to have the students pass the sphere around in a circle so each student will have an opportunity to practice deep breathing with it.)

Hoberman Sphere Breathing

Moving Forward

Today, our team met at the Loyola campus in Baltimore.  We shared our progress with regards to defining the methodology for our Action Research Plan.  We discussed different data collection ideas and what intervention treatments each of us are thinking of implementing in our classrooms.  A few team members like the idea of using the Hoberman sphere to teach deep breathing, whereas others are considering a more active agenda, like a brain break from www.gonoodle.com or a Zumba-like activity.

Next, we discussed our team and personal Wikis.  We are in the process of consolidating information so everything is more comprehensive and flows smoother.

Lastly, we touched on the number of participants to use for our Action Research Plan.  Many of us decided to collect data on one or two students in each one of our classes.  Due to departmentalization, some team members have two classes.

On Monday evening, we will meet with our our Research and Inquiry professor and discuss the progress of our plan and our next steps.

Methodology

This week our team has been learning about Methodology.  We're laying out the design of our action research plan.

One major detail that has brought about discussion is our data collection.  How do we do it?  What will it look like?  Who are the participants and how will we select them?  While each teacher seems to have a slightly different plan, we all need to decide how to track off-task behavior.

Here's a quiz from Glanz (2014):

Place a check next to the target behavior that can be observed and measured by two independent observers without defining the behavior prior to observation:

1. Johnny is acting out in class.
2. Natasha says "thank you" during the lesson.
3. Felicia is disruptive during art class.
4. Billy completes his class assignments.
5. Sally is behaving well.
6. Kisha raises her hand to ask or answer a question.

Numbers 2 & 6 are target behaviors that can easily be developed.  The other choices require observers to define what is "acting out," "disruptive," "completing assignments," and "behaving well."  

In my search of a data collection form, I came across this site which has some great tools.

Now, my question becomes, how many behaviors should we track?  Is 1 enough to get a good picture of the student(s)?  Will 2 or 3 behaviors be too hard to track accurately?  

Mindfulness Practice in the Classroom

During a recent meeting between a few of our team members and their PDS Coordinator, the topic of behavior management strategies was discussed. The PDS Coordinator mentioned that 95% of teachers who resign during the first five years of teaching leave due to the stress of behavior management issues in the classroom. We wondered if brain breaks could alleviate some of this professional burnout if they effectively reduce off-task and oppositional behaviors. While conducting our literature review, we came across an article that addresses this very question! 

The article is called Integrating Mindfulness Training into K-12 Education: Fostering the Resilience of Teachers and Students, by J. Meiklejohn, C. Phillips, M. Freedman, M. Griffin, G. Biegel, A. Roach, and A. Saltzman. It posits that both teachers and students can benefit from the calming, focusing, and self-regulating effects of mindfulness practice.

Regarding teachers:

"The brain regions that are impacted by
mindfulness training are implicated in executive functioning
(EF) and the regulation of emotions and behavior. Executive
functioning is an umbrella term for cognitive processes such
as planning, working memory, attention, problem solving,
verbal reasoning, inhibition, mental flexibility, multi-tasking,
and the initiation and monitoring of actions (Chan et al. 2008).
In essence, evidence-based research is indicating that mindfulness
training fosters enhanced resilience and more optimal
brain function in adults." (Page 5)

Regarding students:

"Napoli et al. (2005) conducted a randomized control trial (RCT) with 194 first to third grade students, from nine classrooms in two elementary schools, using the Attention Academy Program (AAP).
Students were randomly assigned to attend AAP or no
intervention. The AAP lasted for 12 sessions over 24 weeks
for 45-min per session and included sitting, movement, and
body-scan meditations as well as relaxation exercises.
Compared with control students, AAP participants showed
reductions in test anxiety and improvements in teacher-rated
attention, social skills, and objective measures of selective
attention." (Page 9)

The goal of our action research project is to find out if brain breaks--which can take the form of mindfulness practices, such as breathing exercises--have a positive impact on student behavior. If these breaks help the teacher, too, and thereby positively affect teacher retention rates in the profession, then all the more reason to incorporate them!

The full article is available here.

Literature Review

This week our team completed a literature review to become familiar with the existing body of knowledge, data, and trends with regards to the effect of brain breaks on student behavior. We discovered the following key points:

• Exercise increases circulation and the flow of oxygen to the brain, which improves cognitive performance. (Jensen, 2000)
• Exercise increases the levels of neurotransmitters in certain areas of the brain, which help increase the ability to focus attention and control impulses. (Reilly et al., 2012)
• Breaks are critical to the learning process because our brains require breaks in order to process and encode new learning. (Jensen, 2000)
• Researchers have found that “offering physical activity breaks during standard classroom instruction” results in positive associations with attention/concentration, classroom conduct and/or academic achievement. (Rasberry, et al, 2011)
• There is an increase in the amount of educators who are incorporating the use of “brain breaks” to help their students be academically and behaviorally successful in school. 

Our team consulted the following resources in writing our literature review:

Jensen, E. (November, 2000). Moving with the Brain in Mind. Educational Leadership, 58(3), 34-37.

Mahar, M. T., Murphy, S. K., Rowe, D. A., Golden, J., Shields, A. T., & Raedeke, T. D. (2006). Effects of a Classroom-Based Program on Physical Activity and On-Task Behavior. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 38(12), 2086-2094.

Meiklejohn, J., Phillips, C., Freedman, M., Griffin, M., Biegel, G., Roach, A., & Saltzman, A. (2012). Integrating mindfulness training into K-12 education: Fostering the resilience of teachers and students. Mindfulness, 3(4), 291-307.

Peck, Heather L.; Kehle, Thomas J.; Bray, Melissa A.; Theodore, Lea A. (2005). Yoga as an Intervention for Children with Attention Problems. School Psychology Review, 34(3), 415-424.

Reilly, E., Buskist, C., & Gross, M.K. (2012). Movement in the Classroom: Boosting Brain Power, Fighting Obesity. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 48(2), 62-66. DOI: 10.1080/00228958.2012.680365.

Rasberry, C.N., Lee, S.M., Robin, L., Laris, B.A., Russell, L.A., Coyle, K.K., & Nihiser, A.J. (2011). The association between school-based physical activity, including physical education, and academic performance: A systematic review of the literature. Preventive Medicine,52, S10 –S20.

Wells, Stephanie L., (2012) Moving Through the Curriculum: The Effect of Movement on Student Learning, Behavior, and Attitude, St. Mary’s College of Maryland Department of Educational Studies, Rising Tide, V. 5.

Would you use this type of "brain break" in your class?

Would you use this type of "brain break" in your class?

Slap Trivia! ACTIVE BRAIN BREAK FOR THE CLASSROOM