One week from today I will be in the Berkshire Mountains, participating in the CAIS (Connecticut Association of Independent Schools) Academic Tech Retreat at the Trinity Conference Center. I have the pleasure of speaking Thursday morning, and it seems a most fitting way to celebrate two years, to the month, of Neurons Firing! [Update May 15: The CAIS wiki includes a summary of the Retreat, as well as some additional links.]
I could tell you the topic of my session, but how much better if you try and figure it out from the list of resources below. After all, that’s a much better way to get your neurons firing!
Brain Bits
• Exercise grows neurons
• Ongoing learning strengthens memory
• Novelty fosters synapses and creativity
• Communities stimulate thinking
Videos
• Ben Zander – Davos Annual Meeting 2008 closing talk
• TED Talks – Tim Brown: The powerful link between creativity and play
• TED Talks – Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
• TED Talks – Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight
• main page for all the amazing TED Talks
References
• Building Online Learning Communities by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt
• Teaching with the brain in mind by Eric Jensen
• Learning & Memory: The Brain in Action by Marilee Sprenger
• Achieving Optimal Memory by Aaron P. Nelson with Susan Gilbert
• Brain Rules by John Medina, plus the website
• Neuroscience for Kids, perhaps the BEST site about the brain, and it’s not just for kids!
• SPARK, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John Ratey with Eric Hagerman
• The Neuroscience of Adult Learning edited by Sandra Johnson and Kathleen Taylor
• The Art of Changing the Brain by James Zull
Staying Sharp Pamphlets, produced by The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and NRTA: AARP’s Educator Community
• Your Brain at Work: Making the Science of Cognitive Fitness Work for You, 2008 (produced by the DANA Alliance and The Conference Board–Mature Workforce Initiative)
• Learning Throughout Life, 2006
• Memory Loss and Aging, 2006
National Center for Learning Disabilities
• Executive Function Fact Sheet
• Executive Function: A Quick Look
SharpBrains articles
• The brain virtues of physical exercise
• interview with Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg
• interview with Yaakov Stern – Build Your Cognitive Reserve
• 5 Tips on Lifelong Learning & the Adult Brain
Conferences
• Learning and the Brain conference, which takes place three times a year – February in San Francisco, May in Washington, D.C., and November in Cambridge, MA
• The Brain, Learning and Applications: CAIS Summer Institute, which takes place in August
Activities
• Writing Exercise
• sketching comes from the Tim Brown TED Talk (see above)
• all other activities provided by Candy, Middle School Learning Specialist
Thanks
• Dulcie, for patient tutelage
• Candy, for mentoring
• F and R, for listening, looking and suggesting
• Justine, for asking in the first place!
The slides for this presentation are available here, on SlideShare.
Neurons Firing 