Whole Brain Teaching- Make Teaching Fun Again.

What is Whole Brain Teaching?

I was ready to quit teaching for good. The stress and apathy of the students and parents had worn
me down, robbed me of my love for teaching, and left me completely disillusioned with the career I
loved. It was almost too much.

The thing that saved me is Whole Brain Teaching. This is an approach that began about ten years
ago in Southern California.

Chris Biffle, a philosophy professor at Crafton Hills College, engaged the support of two former
students, Jay Vanderfin, and Chris Reksted, both former students, who are now elementary
teachers.

The three of them realized that a they all had the common problem of flagging student engagement,
and worse, it was becoming epidemic. Everywhere they looked, everyone they talked to, the story
was the same. Something had to be done.

They decided a radical change in approach was warranted. They set out to learn more about how
students should learn as opposed to the traditional ways teachers typically use. Research into whole
brain learning, and applying what they learned was the answer.

Whole Brain Teaching was the result. Whole Brain Teaching is a method that integrates an effective
classroom management system with learning approaches that tap the way your brain learns best.
This approach is amazingly effective, and fun for both you the teacher, and the students.

Classroom Management
The classroom management end is handled by the students, and is nearly stress free for the teacher
thanks to the positive, fun atmosphere it created. Kids can help manage the classes' behavior in a
way that is not threatening or insulting to one another. It is unbelievable how much fun it is to teach
this way!
The environment is encouraging and student centered.

Whole Brain Better Than Two Halves?

I Care!

Introduction
Human brain is a real marvel - it is intricate, intelligent beyond imagination, and makes human
beings what they are. Scientists are still light-years away from truly understanding it. Their
instruments like EEG (electroencephalograph) can at best pick up some electromagnetic signals
(brainwaves) resulting from the sum total actions of billions of brain cells.

Still, there are simple theories that help us understand the functioning of the brain that determines
our behavior and abilities. The simplest one looks at the brain as consisting of two hemispheres that
carry out different activities concerning our mental abilities. It is an interesting model that helps
ordinary people gain some practical insight into the functioning of brain as a whole.

Human Brain and Its Hemispheres

The human brain is a paired organ and consists of two halves (cerebral hemispheres) that look
pretty much similar but are not exactly alike. Each hemisphere has functional specializations –
different functions have neural mechanisms localized primarily in one half of the brain. The two
halves of the brain's cerebral cortex execute different functions. This theory was developed by Nobel
Prize winners – Roger Sperry and Robert Ornstein. It helps in understanding our behavior, our
personality, and our abilities to use the proper mode of thinking when performing different tasks.

The two hemispheres are joined by the corpus collosum, which is a bundle of millions of nerve fibers
that transmit data from one hemisphere to the other and helps them communicate.
Left Brain Dominant Personality
 Is future oriented

 Answers everything logically

 Is always running with a list of things to do and has no time

 Has little body-awareness and ignores physical symptoms

 Is impulsive, restless, hectic, and wound upIs a quick learner

 Has a tendency towards hypochondria

 Has difficulties dealing with feelings and intuitions

 Likes order and structure

 Has a systematic problem solving approach and prefers to work with facts and figures

 Is task and result oriented

 Needs success and recognition in order to be happy

Functions of the Brain Hemispheres

We can specify the general functions of the two hemispheres for right-handed people.

The Left Hemisphere

The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. It is primarily concerned with logic, thinking,
analyzing and observing. The left brained people always make decisions based on facts and figures.
They may not be the right ones if you are seeking opinion on color and choice of dress or shoes, for
example.

The left hemisphere is concerned with hard facts, abstractions, details, discipline and rules,
structure, categorizing, time sequences, mathematics, logic, rationality and deductive reasoning,
details, definitions, planning and goals, words (written, spoken or heard), productivity and efficiency,
extroversion, and physical activity.

For better or worse, our current educational system and society puts more emphasis on the left
hemisphere activities in general. Marshall McLuhan once speculated, "The day when bureaucracy
becomes right hemisphere will be utopia."

The Right Hemisphere

The right brain controls the left side of the body and is more commonly associated with issues
dealing with emotions and feelings. You are likely to find comfort in the company of the right brain
people if you are distressed.

The faculties of the right brain include intuition, feelings and sensitivity, daydreaming and visualizing,
creativity (art and music), color, spatial awareness, gut feeling, first impressions, rhythm, spontaneity
and impulsiveness, risk-taking, flexibility and variety, learning by experience, relationships,
mysticism, play and sports, introversion, humor, and holistic way of recognizing patterns and
similarities and then synthesizing them into new forms.

You may read more on comparison of the left and the right hemispheres in terms of few clearly
observable behavior traits here.

Two Types of People

Keep Life Simple: Be Selfish and Forgive!

How to Transform a Judgmental Mind into a Discerning Mind

Brain Lateralization – Two Types of People

You must have noticed two kind of people: one, who are always very calculative, logical, rule-based,
or simply “business-like”. Examples of this type of people include, programmers, engineers, and
accountants. Two, people who are compassionate, expressive, sensitive, and artistic. You will find
such people among artists, actors, musicians, and sculptors.

Watching these two types of people you wonder if their brains are “wired” differently. Actually, you
may not be too far from the truth. Look at the construction of the brain – it is divided in two halves –
the left and the right hemisphere. Although the two halves appear similar, they're actually not. Even
the brain waves from both the halves are slightly out of sync and usually the waves from one side
are stronger in amplitude than the other. 

This phenomenon is called brain lateralization. In other words, the more you rely on one half of your
brain, the more lateralized your brain is. Lateralization develops during the childhood, based on
genetics, family environment and personal experiences.

Right Brain Dominant Personality

 Is past oriented

 Is depressive, moody, emotionally insecure, and has low self-esteem

 Is generally apprehensive expecting the worst

 Talks in feelings but mostly negative

 Often confuses feelings and ideas

 Finds fun in being creative

 Can think of many things simultaneously and start several activities at a time

 Is communicative and has good ability to express himself

 Is often spiritual and inventive

 Can inspire others and is also easily inspired by others

 Under duress loses sense of self identity and reacts with panic and helplessness

 Some right brained people are very charismatic and extroverted

 Solves problems intuitively with a sense for whole

Manifestation of Lateralization
Lateralization is often manifested in the likes and dislikes of the people. If you are a right-brain
person, you may judge your co-workers who are left brained, as boring or rigid. On the other hand, if
you are a left-brain person, you may view the right-brained colleagues as disorganized or unreliable.
However, employers have discovered that both types can be equally effective, if left to work in their
own ways.
Although by way of habit or occupation people tend to use one hemisphere more than the other
(brain dominance), a normal person, however, switches from one half to another, depending on the
situation and task.

If you are playing a friendly ball game, you are having fun (a right-brain activity). You will lose the fun
if you get overly apprehensive of the rules and discipline (a left-brain activity). If you are writing an
article and putting your thoughts in a logical manner (a left-brain activity), you may not like to be
distracted by the right-brain’s fascination with creativity or emotions. Gathering facts and information
to solve a problem is a left-brain activity, but brainstorming and incubation of the ideas is the task of
the right-brain.

It is Better to have a Mind than a Brain

Separation Vs Connection
You may note that the left-brain function is largely one of separation from other people. None of the
accepted functions of the left-brain connects us with people – at least not through human emotions
or feelings. Functioning solely from the left side keeps us isolated in terms of intimate contact with
others and what they think or feel.

The right brain perspective is totally different. It processes the messages coming from the senses
from a human angle – emotive and connective. It allows you to feel the presence of other humans
and the surrounding and does not perceives them as abstract objects, unlike the left-brain. So, the
perspective of the right hemisphere unites and integrates you with everything around you. Its lens
has a wider view of the reality.

If you are dominated by your left brain hemisphere, which is largely rational and analytical, your best
way of learning would be in looking at facts and details in an analytical manner and get to the big
picture. The left-brain follows rules of logic and does not easily move beyond the boundaries of what
is rational. Its talents are in sequencing, planning and sticking to the task in hand, and in rational
analysis of facts rather than feelings and speculations.

On the other hand, if you are largely a right brained person your approach to learning would be to
first get the big picture, and then fit in the details so that the whole thing makes sense to you. You
would also be more open to learning through your feelings and intuitions, and not just from facts and
reasoning.

Life Vision

Vision of Life
The right brain vision is more holistic: it looks at different bits of information and experience and tries
leaping beyond the obvious to arrive at an insight into the nature of the situation. It infers messages
from the body language and the feelings involved in an interaction. It also tries identifying forces
working behind the scenes. Finally, the conclusions it draws are more insightful and significant.

In fact, this last aspect of the right brainers also defines their approach towards life. They know from
their inner awareness that their life is part of the bigger universe and is connected to everything else.
This makes them more sensitive, holistic and spiritual.
Why Just the Half?

Why Use Only Half of the Brain

It should be clear why a high degree of brain lateralization is not desirable. People whose brains are
highly lateralized are likely to view the world in a rather lop-sided, dysfunctional manner.

A nerdy software geek who is completely married to computer codes and microprocessors and does
nothing else in the life is living only inside his left-brain. A crazy or spaced out artist or musician is a
victim of over dominance of the right brain. It is like trying to run a car with tractor wheels on one-
side and bicycle wheels on the other. Clearly, it is not the sane way to use the car as a car.

Ideally you need to be able to access both sides of the brain in order to tap the bigger potential of
the brain. When the left (analytical) and the right (emotional) hemispheres of the brain are balanced
and working harmoniously, you have optimized physical and mental health.

Whole Brain Personality

 Is balanced and pragmatic

 Does not have extreme tendencies and biases shown by the hemisphere dominant persons

 Respects emotions and knows their originIs generally aware of his feelings and thinking and
knows how to sees them from a broader perspective

 Is creative and logical simultaneously

 Has strong enough self conviction and does not easily crack under stress or pressure

Need to Use the Full Brain

The current education system is designed to prepare students for jobs. Hence, they are trained to
follow instructions and then perform. They are rarely taught to think on their own, because that would
hamper their ability to follow instructions and do the job.

If you are also a product of the current educational system, chances are high that the left
hemisphere of your brain has received much more training and exercise than the more intuitive and
creative right one.

However, in today's rapidly changing world, development of only left hemisphere functioning is no
longer enough. The future jobs and society will require more proportion of creative and intuitive
thinking and the ability to execute. So, it is imperative to learn how to develop and integrate both
sides of the brain and use it as whole.

The experience of “whole brain” functioning has been a common knowledge among those on the
path of spirituality for a long time. However, they only sought to still the mind that automatically
allowed creativity and intuition to surface. But today people would like to put the “whole brain” to
function in their normal working lives. This requires developing and integrating the two sides of the
brain.

Brain needs mental nourishment as much as physical nutrients

Source: Diets in Review

Developing Your Brain Power -- Use It or Lose It

Your brain is an active and thinking organ that develops and grows by interacting with the world
through perception and action. Mental stimulation as well as physical exercises improves brain
function and actually protects against cognitive decline.
The human brain is capable of continual adaption and can rewire itself. Even in old age, it can grow
new neurons. Severe mental decline is usually caused by disease, whereas most age-related losses
in memory or motor skills simply result from inactivity and a lack of mental exercise and stimulation.
In other words, use it or lose it.

There are ways to strengthen functioning of your brain:

 Try doing things in unusual or non-habitual ways. For example, use the hand your normally
DO NOT use, for brushing your teeth, dialing the phone, or controlling the mouse. Practice
writing with left hand if you are a right hander.

 Do a variety of exercises briskly, try walking backwards and sideways, etc

 Stay stress-free. You can relax with yoga postures, meditation, Brainwave Meditation or
hypnosis.

 Learn sports or musical instruments that you have never tries before.

 Do crossword puzzles, play chess or scrabble, start a new hobby, learn to speak a foreign
language, and so on.

 Watch less television because "your brain goes into neutral" according to Dr Amir Soas of
Case Western Reserve University Medical School.

 Play Brain Games.

For further tips, read 120 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power.

Finally, you may like to check your brain power and see where you stand in the competition. Just
enter your age and take the Free Brain Power Test.

Brain Games

Bookworm - Nintendo DS
Amazon Price: $18.60
List Price: $19.99
Test Your Brain Type
Find Out If You are Left-Brained or Right-Brained

You can easily find out your brain dominance by taking diagnostic tests. Determine your hemisphere
dominance with this Free Test at the MindMedia website.

Find out if you are suitable for creativity related studies with this Free Brain Type Test of The Art
Institute of Vancouver. In their opinion

“Being creative or artistic doesn't mean you know how to draw or play an instrument. Being creative
is a way of thinking, a way of viewing the world. Creative people use the RIGHT side of their brains
more than the LEFT."

Useful Hubs
 Left Brained or Right Brained
I've always been interested in the whole left brain vs. right brain thing. As a musician and
generally artistic person I have always sort of assumed that I am right brained. I am definitely
spaced out a...

 Learning with the whole brain

IF YOU LOOK at the human brain from a horizontal perspective, you will see that the cortex
consists of two distinct halves -- the cerebral hemispheres. They contain two sets of cortical
lobes which gradually...

 Want More Brain Power - Tap Into the Right Side of Your Brain
The secret to tapping into your unused part of your brain may be as easy as doing a drawing
each day. Drawing is unique in how it accesses part of the brain that we infrequently use.
Scientists agree...

 Improve Your Brain Fitness

In this fast paced world, how many of you find yourself continuously multitasking whether at
home or at work? Trying to solve life's simple and complex problems, taking important
decisions, coping with the...

 Early Childhood Education: The Right Brain Movement

Maria Montessori talked about the "absorbent mind" - a period in early childhood when a child's
 brain was most open to taking in information and when learning was easiest for a child. Glenn
Doman initiated...

10 Teaching Strategies for Whole Brain Learning.

September 25, 2012

Teaching strategies for whole brain learningTeaching Strategies for Whole Brain Learning.

Susan’s a math whiz and Caleb’s an artist extraordinaire. That’s, great but what teaching strategies
would support Caleb improving in math and Susan developing some artistic skills? They can and it’s
easy.

Researchers have recently discovered that teaching strategies that use whole brain learning is an
efficient and effective learning strategy that helps kids (parents and teachers, too) learn anything
easily without struggling.
One feature of teaching strategies using whole brain learning involves using both the right side and
the left side of the brain. Although nobody is just left brain or just right brain, most of us have a
dominance.

Susan’s math aptitude means she is probably left-brain dominant, and Caleb, the artist, has a right-
brain dominance.

A learning strategy involving reading and writing requires using both sides of the brain. So does a
learning strategy for math and even doing art. In fact, doing just about anything well, including
thinking clearly, and even problem solving, involves using the right and left hemispheres of the front
part of the brain.

How do you accomplish this? Easy. Develop teaching strategies that move across the center mid-
line of your body. Every time you move your right arm to your left side or your left arm to your right
side, you’re crossing the mid-line and improving learning, thinking, and problem solving. Now you’re
using whole brain learning.

Works for kids. Works for you. Try these teaching strategies.

1. Give yourself a big hug.

2. Tell kids the only rule is to cross the mid-line of the body, right hand to left side, left hand to right
side. Now let them invent ways of doing this.

3. Dance the hula. Or twirl a hula hoop.

4. Take a Brain Boosters TeleClass. Sign up at Brain Boosters for your Kids Or a Brain Gym class.

5. Do the twist. (So you weren’t dancing in the 50s and 60s? Ask somebody to show you how to
twist or get a dance video.) Twist with the kids while you listen to some old Chubby Checker songs.

6. Rake some leaves with your kids, making sure you’re raking off to the side instead of straight in
front of you.

7. Play a board game. (Use your right hand to move your piece when it’s in the left corner and vice
versa.)

8. Practice using your non-dominant hand to reach for things on the opposite side of your body.
Even writing and drawing with your non-dominant hand helps. (You’ll get better with practice.)

9. Do Yoga and Tai Chi. Lots of moves cross the mid-line.

10. Cross your ankles and arms in front or in back when you’re doing jumping jacks. Kids can
usually do this. If you can’t, try it in a swimming pool.

These teaching strategies involve using whole brain learning. This learning strategy really isn’t all
that complicated. Lots of everyday kinds of activities get the whole brain active. Sitting around
watching TV, however, isn’t a learning strategy that works. You and your kids have to move around
and cross your mid line.