One of the bountiful blessings of the internet is site-linking, which can either provide endless hours of entertainment, education, or endless procrastination. A recent serendipity was finding Angela Maiers on Twitter, and that discovery brought me to her blog, Angela Maiers Educational Services.  She had me at, “Teachers need to be great learners to lead great learners.” Pronto bookmarking there.

Anglea’s blog today features a slide show by Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen on Dr. John Medina’s book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School.

His book should be required reading for every classroom teacher, school administrator, and school board. If you’ve been to as many workshops as I have where the presenter is reading, word for word,  the power point presentation on the screen from the copy of the power point presentation slides that each participant was given on the way….well, no need to explain, right?

The Twelve Brain Rules according to John:

FROM DR. MEDINA’S SITE:

A sampling of the ideas you’ll encounter:

-For starters, we are not used to sitting at a desk for eight hours a day. From an evolutionary perspective, our brains developed while working out, walking as many as 12 miles a day. The brain still craves the experience, especially in sedentary populations like our own. That’s why exercise boosts brain power (Brain Rule #1) in such populations. Exercisers outperform couch potatoes in long-term memory, reasoning, attention, problem-solving tasks, and more. I am convinced that integrating exercise into our eight hours at work or school would only be normal.

- As you no doubt have noticed if you’ve ever sat through a typical PowerPoint presentation, people don’t pay attention to boring things (Brain Rule #4). You’ve got seconds to grab someone’s attention, and only 10 minutes to keep it. At 9 minutes and 59 seconds, something must be done quickly—something emotional and relevant. Also, the brain needs a break. That’s why I use stories in this book to make many of my points.