Community Workshops
Brain Breaks
For students to learn at their highest potential, their brains need to send signals efficiently from the sensory receptors (what they hear, see, touch, read, imagine, and experience) to memory storage regions of the brain. The most detrimental disruptions to traffic along these information pathways are stress and overload.
Brain breaks are planned learning activity shifts that mobilize different networks of the brain. These shifts allow those regions that are blocked by stress or high-intensity work to revitalize.
The Neuroscience of Brain Breaks
For new information to become a memory, it must pass through an emotional filter called the amygdala and then reach the prefrontal cortex. When students’ brains become anxious, highly confused, or overwhelmed, the activation of the amygdala surges until this filter becomes a stop sign. New learning no longer passes through to reach the prefrontal cortex and sustain memory. Even if students are not stressed by the pace or content of new learning, a point arises when the amygdala exceeds its capacity for efficient conduction of information through its networks into memory. -Edutopia
Brain breaks should take place before fatigue, boredom, distraction, and inattention set in. Discover the many ways you can incorporate these into your classroom or your home routine to increase learning and emotional wellness. (1-1-5 hours)
