Moving from brain breaks to brain energizers

If you are a teacher who thinks that last week's subject, "brain breaks," is something that you and your students simply don't have time for in a crowded curriculum, you might, instead, want to think about them as "brain energizers.”

Finland is frequently touted as one of the top educational systems in the world. Interestingly, though, according to author Tom Rath in Are You Fully Charged?, elementary students in Finland get a 15-minute break for every 45 minutes in class. An American teacher who moved to Finland in 2014 reported that he eventually started "to test the 45/15 model" and found that kids returned to class with a "renewed bounce in their step...more focused on learning throughout the day" (61-62).

Likewise, Rath reports that a software application called Desk Time that tracks employees time use found that the most productive 10 percent of their 36,000-employee user base were those who worked for about 52 minutes and then took a 17-minute break.  They worked "with intense purpose," but then took a walk or tuned out to recharge themselves (62).

And while no one in education would be naive enough to recommend 15-17 minute breaks once every hour J, you might want to consider trying a brain energizer at least once during your class.  After the brain energizer, do you see more student engagement? More interest? More focus?  If so, maybe after Memorial Day, you could add a second brain energizer to your class period.  If it works in Finland and for adult employees, the results should be equally good in your classroom!

Here are three brain energizers to get you started, all from Energizing Brain Breaks by David Sladke. You might  ask an energetic, charismatic student to be the leader for each brain energiizer.

Letter Spots:
1. Stand up and find a partner.
2. Take a second and think of a word that involves the letters A,B,C,D, and E. Don't say your word aloud.
3. Here are the spot values: right shoulder = A, right ear = B, nose = C, left ear = D, and left shoulder is E.
4. Without talking, the first person will make a word by touching a few of their own letter spots, and the second person will have to say each of the letters out loud, and then say the word.
5. Once the first person has given a word, switch and have the next person give a word.

Bizz-Buzz
1. Stand up  and get in a gorup of two, three, or four.
2. The goal is to count from 1-40 using the following rules: Say "Bizz" for every multiple of 5 or every number that has a 5 in it. Say "Buzz" for every multiple of 7 or every number that has a 7 in it. You will also need to say "Bizz-Buzz" when the number is a multiple of 5 and 7. (Example--first person says "1," next person says, "2," next person says, "3," then next says, "4," and next person must say "Bizz.").
3. Continue until you get to 40, following the rules above.

T Stretch
1. Stand up, and put your arms straight out at shoulder height like a T.
2. Keeping your arms straight, try to bend down to touch  your left hand to your right toe. Your right hand should be high in the air. Hold for a count of five, and return to standing.
3. Now bend and touch your right hand to your left toe for a five count. Repeat.  Be careful not to hit the person next to you when stretching.