Chapter 3: MMM

This was a very interesting chapter on how to take what we know about brain research and turn it into learning for the students. There were a couple very fascinating parts of the chapter, one of which was the discussion on how to keep students engaged. Wormeli has the suggestion which he follows in his own classroom; to ask a question and give time to answer, and once the student answers you then ask another student whether he or she agrees. Once that student has answered, you call on a third student to give an opinion; this is aimed at making sure that all of the students are learning and not just zoning out after the teacher calls on someone to answer the question. The chapter also talks about the importance of drinking water during the day to make the brain stronger. If you are well hydrated, then the neurons in your brain flow faster, and you get better results and quicker response time. The last part of the chapter that was interesting was the list of activities that a teacher can do so that students can practice how to reason; one of the big problems today is that students have a hard time being able to reason anything out for themselves because they are asked just to spit out answers. We should teach them meaningful information but at the same time teach them how to reason and be able to do things on their own.
I liked how the chapter was set up because it looked at learning from a scientific background which is huge considering many teachers, except those in science, know little about the human brain. This is a very important time for a young adult because he or she is starting to find out who they are and what they want to do with their lives. It is also a time with a lot of experimentation, not all of it good, which can cause a lot of problems for your students. I thought it was interesting to find out, and slightly sad, that students now do not see how giving a person an answer to a test or coping down homework is considered to be cheating. It appears that we have a moral flaw in our society, and more and more people are unaware of how their actions are morally wrong or detrimental to themselves or others. I am not saying that we should preach to students, but I do think that we need to set good examples and try and show students what the types of behaviors are that show good morals.