Highlights from the Marcia Tate Workshop

Dr. Marcia Tate has much to offer any educator. The quote below and many other inspiring quotes were presented at Marcia Tate’s workshop, Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites. I was inspired and gained many strategies to share with our teachers. In addition to being a part of the workshop I also had the privilege of collaborating with 5 new teachers to our building. Each of them took some time to write the highlights from our eventful day.

Alannah Blair The biggest take-away I had from the Marcia Tate workshop is using worksheets, even though it allows for repetition and practice, will not help students retain the information. She discussed 20 strategies that are brain compatible to help students understand and retain the knowledge better. The two most applicable strategies to my classroom are graphic organizers and reciprocal teaching. By implementing either of these two strategies, I will create a more brain compatible classroom, which increases the student’s chances of remembering the content farther down the road. Two other take-aways I had were 1) teachers need to teach a concept three times before a students can remember on their own, and 2) to increase retention, the teacher needs to chunk the information and include an activity with each chunk. My goal is to implement the above strategies to help build a brain compatible classroom.

Katie Camlin “It’s lovely to meet you!” exclaimed a grinning Marcia Tate as my colleagues and I approached the meeting room for our workshop. My hands were full with breakfast, and I regretted not being able to shake her hand. Greeting students at the door is just one example of a strategy that Tate uses to create a positive, engaging classroom environment. By engaging our bodies and minds with games, dancing, music, and humor, Marcia taught us how to alleviate behavior problems by making our classroom “Brain-Compatible”. My main takeaway from the workshop-which was insanely fun-is that if you make your lessons engaging enough, your behavior problems will fall by the wayside. I’m hoping to incorporate all of her 20 Strategies in my classroom, but right now am working to incorporate more movement, and relaxing music to create a fun, healthy environment for student success. Throughout the entire day, I was constantly engaged and fixed on her every word, despite being tired or hungry. That is the kind of teacher I need to be!

Kristin Crane The Marcia Tate workshop was full of energy and movement.  This made the day fly by!  Sorry ELA teachers, I know I am not supposed to put a preposition at the end of a sentence, but it’s true!  We were constantly engaged.  It was designed with the teachers as the students, where Marcia taught some of the lessons she has done in classrooms to us.  We were able to take part in some activities that would be easy to incorporate into your everyday routine.  For example, having soothing or energetic music playing as the students come into your room depending on the mood of the lesson/activity you are doing that day. You could also use music to help with transitions.  You could tell students that when the chorus to a song is over they need to be back in their seats, ready for what’s next.  We also discussed the importance of chunking material.  Breaking lessons into pieces and doing activities in between the chunks will keep students engaged and less likely to zone out during your lesson.  These activities should include movement as much as possible.  Did you know students generally do better in classes they have right after P.E.?  I didn't!  They need oxygen to their brain to be able to put more information up there!  All in all, the workshop was a fun-filled day that I would recommend to anyone!

Megan Rawie I went to Marcia Tate's workshop called, "Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites". This workshop went over how the brain learns best and strategies you can implement in your classroom to meet the needs of all your learners. Some of these strategies include: writing, visuals, role-playing, music, humor, and technology. We went over 20 of these strategies and how they should be used. She also talked about ten characteristics of a brain-compatible classroom and challenged us to try and improve on two of the characteristics in the next 21 days. I chose to work on a positive environment and teaching content in chunks with activities. An idea she had to help promote a positive environment were to stand outside your door (which we all already do), but to also choose a different student to stand with you and greet their classmates as well. Another idea is to play calming music. The music you play affects your students' moods and memory. Her third idea was to always start with a positive, whether that was a compliment or joke. My big take-away from her workshop was that students cannot sit and retain information. We need to chunk the learning by presenting the content and then using one of the 20 strategies in an activity. Students have to practice a skill at least 3 times to be able to retain information. Implementing these strategies in your classroom will increase achievement for all students, decrease behavior problems, and making teaching and learning fun. I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop and can't wait to try implementing these ideas into my classroom!

Jill Schleiden The Marcia Tate workshop improved my understanding of many ideas others had introduced before, but in a way that allowed me to see how they benefit the middle school classroom. For instance, Tate spoke a great deal on the importance of teaching to both hemispheres of the brain, and what a vital role art plays in this endeavor. Calming classical music played during independent work (she recommended it not play more than 30% of any period) can not only help ADHD and students with autism to focus, but encourage students to retain higher quantities of the material they review while listening. Similarly, as many students are visual and kinesthetic learners, Tate suggested arts and movement be part of most activities. Student desks are not quite comfortable (what chair is for eight hours a day?), and moving gets blood flow out of the lower extremities and back into the brain, where it does more good. Overall, Tate gave us useful strategies for improving student learning and success without putting on a daily dog-and-pony show for every class.

Darcy Watkins I was lucky enough to be able to accompany some of my amazing coworkers to a workshop hosted by a wise woman. Marcia Tate put on an insightful workshop full of activities and information on how to boost retention and have fun doing it! As the workshop began, Marcia Tate played music and lightened the mood with jokes. She exuded positivity and seemed extremely down to earth with all of us. The sense of lightheartedness and everybody belongs made me excited for what I was about to learn. I loved how she used music to bring us in and out of our “turn and talks” and in and out of our breaks. I also noticed that her face always held a smile. Marcia showed us many ways to foster a brain compatible classroom and how to provide an environment where all of our kiddos at every level can thrive. I learned 20 strategies that take advantage of how the brain learns best: Writing, humor, games, movement, and many more. Here are the three things that really stuck out with me. The brain needs to hear things 3 times to remember (Read this again out loud two more times) Make sure you always give your students a hook and/or a connection (this prevents the “what does this have to do with real life questions”) Music and talking grows dendrites. Marcia suggested that we reflect on our teaching practices. As a result, I have decided to commit to an environment with more talking more music and more repetition for the next 21 days. I will let you know what I see at the end of my trials, but judging from how much I remember of her workshop over a week later, I think my results will be nothing short of amazing!