WELCOME to the MAGICAL WORLD
of BRAIN FRIENDLY LEARNING!!
Let me paint a picture for you of what Brain Friendly Learning looks like in the classroom.
Simply sit back, relax, and picture the following scene in your mind:
See yourself standing in front of the classroom. You are full of self-confidence and there is a glow of positive natural authority surrounding you. You feel good. About yourself. About teaching. About your students. An atmosphere of trust, of productivity and of joy in learning fills the room.
As you stand there, glance to the right. Yes! It’s there. Right there on the shelf: Your brain-friendly resource toolbox. You smile and your confidence is even greater because you know that in this box you have all the non-verbal and verbal teaching techniques you need to get — and to keep! — your students’ attention during the lesson. Everything you need to manage the classroom calmly, with fewer words. So that you can save your voice for what you became a teacher to do — to teach!
Today you are going to teach the lesson — maybe math, physics, a foreign language, communication techniques or some technical subject — with Suggestopedia, the first brain friendly learning technique, developed by Dr. Georgi Lozanov at the University of Sofia, in Bulgaria, in the 1960’s. A creative, innovative learning approach which enables students to learn 3 to 5 times faster than with traditional methods – and have fun while they are doing it!
Music is playing in the background while you dramatically read and act out a dialogue, a short theater piece, or simply a text from your students’ textbook to the rhythm of the music. All the material to be learned is in this dialogue. Your students are fascinated! It’s like going to the theatre!
Now you ask your students to close their eyes and relax. You play classical music softly in the background as you repeat the new material. Wonderful! The information has now been stored in the brain.
It’s all there — passively.
The next step is to activate the material in the following lessons: you do this with the creative, interactive, and communicative activities in your brain friendly toolbox. You carefully select activities which encourage teamwork and stimulate all the senses.
You are an expert at appealing to all learning styles and therefore the individual needs of each and every student in your classroom are met. Their creativity, social behavior and sense of well-being are enhanced. There is laughter and at the same time they are working hard. Learning is joyous.
Another lesson has finished. Your students enjoyed the lesson. You did too! And you are all looking forward to your next meeting!
You gently close the lid of your teaching toolbox, with a feeling of gratitude. Yes. It is true. Learning can be efficient, enjoyable, creative, and rewarding.
Learning can be enjoyable. And teaching is too!
Utopia?
Luckily it can become reality!
As it is in brain friendly classrooms around the world.
Welcome to the
MAGICAL WORLD of BRAIN FRIENDLY LEARNING!!
