Like myself, many people hear the term brain-based learning and think, “Isn’t all learning brain-based since that is what we use when we are learning?” Brain-based learning means that the brain responds and grows when presented with certain skills and activities. It is sort of like exercising your muscles. If you want to develop large biceps, there are certain exercises that will target that muscle group. You have to wisely choose what exercises you use if increasing your bicep muscle is your goal. Similarly, the brain is like a muscle. Certain skills and activities help it to grow more than others. And then there are others, many of which we employ in the traditional classroom, that do not.

So the question a teacher has to ask is, how do I avoid being the elliptical machine? Anyone who has ever been to a gym knows what this exercise machine is. It is the one that looks like a cross between a treadmill and an exercise bike. People are effortlessly pumping their legs and thinking they are burning fat. Although these machines are easy to use, make you look like you are exercising a lot, and are very popular, you are not burning the fat you think you are. There are many other exercises that would stimulate the body and burn fat far better, but of course they require a little more effort. The same goes with teaching techniques associated with brain-based learning. They require a little more effort than the traditional methods, but they are so much more effective at growing the muscle we want to grow in the classroom: the brain.

Here are three of the most effective instructional techniques for brain-based learning:

1. Orchestrated immersion–Creating learning environments that fully immerse students in an educational experience
2. Relaxed alertness–Trying to eliminate fear in learners, while maintaining a highly challenging environment
3. Active processing–Allowing the learner to consolidate and internalize information by actively processing it

All three of these techniques are the basic concepts I discuss in my book Creating Life-Long Learners: Using Project Management to Teach 21st Century Skills. By using projects...

I remember the first time I was placed in a classroom with students all on my own. I had been hired as a 7th grade teacher and it was the first day of school. A student came up and tried to give me a tissue box. My initial reaction was, “What sort of trick is this?” I nearly had a panic attack. What was I supposed to do with these tissues? Why was this child trying to pawn them off on me? (Turns out the kid was just trying to turn in the tissues his mom had sent in with him.) What this showed me almost immediately was that as much as my student-teaching experience prepared me for creating lessons plans, writing assessments, understanding curriculum, and other such teacher things, it did not really prepare me for how to manage my classroom. My cooperating teacher had done the work of setting the classroom expectations and management aspects. I had merely been there to maintain it. Now I had my own classroom and the question was how did I set this up for myself? And there was no easy fix, no book I could read or video I could watch. This was something I needed to learn...