Have you ever had a class full of
restless students who are struggling to sit still and pay attention? As
educators, we understand that younger students benefit from frequent movement
or what is now considered to be called a “brain break.” Teaching for a full fifty-minute
period is almost impossible, therefore we need to constantly change activities and
keep the lessons engaging in order for the students to reach their highest
learning potential.
With the help of my colleagues, I have
discovered a fantastic interactive website that allows the students a short break
in between lessons that gets them up and moving. Gonoodle.com
is a brain break interactive website that has various channels where students
can follow along to different songs, dance along and even move to Zumba as
well. There has been proven research
that increasing physical movement during the classroom will help recall
information later. My students were very
apprehensive at first to the idea of using GoNoodle, but once we utilized it
two or three times, they began to really enjoy it. I even offered it as a Friday afternoon
reward and many students signed up for it. They had a blast having the
opportunity to choose the songs to sing and move along to!
Here's a short video of the class favorite!