Body- and Brain-Friendly Classrooms and Testing Environments
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• Consider how you will begin the class. First impressions count! Limit new information, review of classroom procedures, and introductions to just a few minutes to avoid overload. Setting up daily patterns and procedures will create a routine and promote a feeling of consistency.
• Use daily agendas to help students know the goals and game plan for the day. Teacher clarity about the schedule for the class and the expectations gives students a clear vision of what they need to do and complete. • Create and use clear procedures to reduce anticipatory anxiety and promote student self-regulation. Students will benefit when teachers take the time to develop procedures for routine tasks and maintain consistent patterns of behaviors. • Take five minutes to sit in a student desk after the class leaves and look around the classroom. It might give you a new perspective and inspire some cleanup and organization. We often get oblivious to the clutter build up. • Integrate organizational skills into every lesson. Help students develop strategies to save and file assignments, manage books, and review research materials. Teachers who teach organizational strategies really are providing valuable life skills for their students. • Make sure you review testing goals, expectations, and procedures during the days leading up to testing events. Anticipate student questions and worries. The added anxiety that high-stakes tests bring means that students may need to be reminded more often and instructions may need to be especially clear.
Basic Needs In 1943, Abraham Maslow first developed the hierarchy of basic needs and described how people are driven to get these needs met (Maslow, 1968). These basic needs are biological and can be overwhelming. Students cannot help but seek to meet their needs because “the brain is wired to maintain homeostasis. Hungry, thirsty, and tired brains will set aside opportunities to learn, seeking out food, water, and rest in order to feel satisfied and calm” (Kaufeldt, 2010, p. 67). In classrooms that have tight restrictions,
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• Include simple student-to-student interactions to build students’ confidence and reduce encounter stress. Clear procedures for social interactions will encourage polite conversations and discussions.
