Shouting Won’t Grow Dendrites

20 Techniques for Managing a Brain-compatible Classroom

Dr. Marcia L. Tate

CEO, Developing Minds Inc.

Visualize the following story. Once upon a time, there was a small town. In the middle of the town, there was a highway. Cars that had not been to the town before would travel down the highway and, without realizing that the highway dropped over a cliff, would plunge into the valley below. The town council got together and decided that the best solution to the problem would be to park an ambulance at the base of the cliff, so that, when cars fell over, their occupants could be rushed to the hospital in the shortest amount of time possible. This story sounds ludicrous; however, it is a metaphor for the actions of a reactive, not proactive, classroom manager. Reactive managers wait until students disrupt, or fall over cliffs, and then they put them in ambulances and rush them to various places – the principal’s office, in-school suspension, or after-school detention. Proactive managers figuratively put up detour signs in their classrooms directing students around the danger. Let’s look at five detour signs that will help to keep every student in your classroom on course.

Detour Sign 1: Remain calm and confident with high expectations

Proactive managers are calm with the belief that every student who comes in their room is capable of meeting their high expectations. You do not hear them screaming and yelling at students. In fact, teachers who have loud voices tend to have students who develop even louder ones. Did you know that He who angers you, controls you!

Detour Sign 2: Create a positive physical classroom environment conducive to learning

Classrooms which most students tend to love are ones that give consideration to appropriate music, color lighting, aromas, and seating. These classrooms look less artificial and more like home. When students enter the room, calming (classical, New Age, jazz, etc.) music is softly playing. Oftentimes high-energy music accompanies appropriate lessons. Blue markers are used for most writing but things to be emphasized a written in the high-energy color of red. Rather than the harsh fluorescent lights found in most schools, teachers allow the natural light from windows to shine through or they may have lamps strategically placed to dim the light source. For classrooms where no student or teacher has an allergy, calming fragrances of lavender or vanilla may be the order of the day and students can be seen talking with a partner on the carpet, reading in a bean bag chair or standing while discussing a question asked by the teacher.

Detour Sign 3: Teach rituals and procedures until they become habits

The teacher has spent a great deal of time during the first few days and weeks of school practicing the routines and procedures with students until they become habits. Students know how to enter the classroom, get into groups when necessary, and when and how to converse with other students. There are celebrations and affirmations when students make progress and consequences are used sparingly. Time is spent working as a family and getting to know each student since rules without relationships equals rebellion.

Detour Sign 4: Engage students’ brains with 20 effective strategies

It has been said that we spend the first three years of our children’s lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next 15 telling them to Sit Down and Shut Up! Students get in trouble for doing the very things that come naturally to the brain – talking and moving. There are 20 brain-compatible strategies that actively engage students in the learning. They include such tools and music, movement, storytelling, visuals, games, projects, and so forth and when used correlate with increased student achievement, reduced behavior problems, and loads of fun! Remember that your best defense against classroom management problems is an engaging lesson.

Detour Sign 5: Get assistance with chronic behavior challenges

I am smart enough to know that even if you put up allof the previous detour signs, you may still have an occasional student who falls over the cliff. Rather than an ambulance, have a team of people (administrators, counselors, special education teachers, psychologists, and so forth) at the base of the cliff with a safety net and a proactive management plan for putting that student back on the road to recovery!

Reference

Tate, M. L. (2007). Shouting won’t grow dendrites: 20 techniques for managing a brain

compatible classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.