What I Know as a Psych Teacher That is important For All Teachers And Students to Know

In honor of Brain Awareness Week which starts today ( according to  http://www.sfn.org/public-outreach/brain-awareness-week ) here is what I know it's a psych teacher about the brain and our minds that should help every teacher and student.

"Smart isn't what you are, smart is what you get"

Here are some notes and links I used in psych class. I was inspired to compile them by a Skillful Teaching training I am in today put on by RBT inc. Some video clips reflect outdated methods (shout out to CMS personalized learning and 1:1 initiatives!)  but I do love what this course teachs about psych concepts like growth mindset, learned helplessness, implicit assumptions, attribution theory and cognitive biases. 

Pair that with 21st century methods, student driven education, PBL, genius hour and the latest info on engagement versus being merely "on-task" and you and your students will be unstoppable!

Here are some resource links to get you started:

Growth mindset Neuroplasticity/ Neurogenesis resources:

I wrote about teaching growth mindset after my the first training. This link includes the great Ron Berger Austin's butterfly lesson: a fabulous concrete example of engagement, growth mindset, etc:
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/lesson-ideas/teach-growth-mindset



Here is a psych award-winning rap that might make your student groan, but still very useful for all kids and I tell them to write a better one if they hate the song http://youtu.be/vcLNNntt6Ts

More Great resources: 
 http://inside-the-brain.com/tag/sfn/


Plenty of stuff your kids will love about neurogenesis:  http://www.radiolab.org/story/235337-how-grow-your-brain/
Speaking of children, workshop participant Katherine Bird shared this link that she says will be good for upper elementary and middle students to explain how the brain is plastic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KLPxDtMqe8

Songs about neurons- sounds childish but AP psych uses some of this: https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/songs.html
Spea
Attribution Theory and Biases

Understanding the psych term "Fundamental Attribution Error can help our students develop growth mindset, but importantly, it can also help us as teachers recognize when we might be judging a student unfairly:

All of us are biased and our intuition fails us when we try to see them (even after studying them)
Cognitive biases Resources

• Exhaustive list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
  
• Fun Cognitive Biases Song: http://youtu.be/3RsbmjNLQkc
• 12 that prevent us from being thinking rationally (thinking skills)http://io9.com/5974468/the-most-common-cognitive-biases-that-prevent-you-from-being-rational
  
• "58 Cognitive Biases That Screw Up Everything We Do" from Business Insider Magazine:
  

 
Implicit assumptions:
Harvard's Implicit Associations Test - student or teacher needs privacy to take this!
Make sure they know it is confidential and allow to take at home 
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html 

A few more useful terms from pscyh to help teachers teach better:

• Metacognition here's one link of how to teach metacognition via metacognitive partner talk (a Reading apprenticeship strategy Ms. Lyttle and I tried
• Effective effort
  
• Learned helplessness
  
• Teach the behaviors you want - what it looks and sounds like.