The Scope of Work Plan

Just Keep Moving

1. By experiencing movement in an activity, teacher candidates will see how movement impacts their ability to learn and stay focused throughout a lesson.  Teacher candidates will be able to see the evidence as to how movement affects Early Adolescent development and academics. This presentation will help provide understanding of the impacts of movement and how they can be implemented into their own classroom.

2. Creative Brief Link: 'Just Keep Moving' Creative Brief

3.  OBJECTIVES:

• Future teachers will be able to understand the impact that physical movement has on student's success.
• Future teachers will be able to state ways in which they will create movement in their classroom.
• Future teachers will be able to experience how movement affects their own ability to learn and stay focused.

4. Teacher candidates will be given the tools necessary to implement movement within their classroom, evidence to show the positive impact that movement has for students, and fellow educators examples and opinions through the use of the Facebook page.

5. Located on the Facebook page, links to related articles, videos, and ability to interact with 'Just Keep Moving' polls and discussions will be available.

•  The group will remain seated in silence, and complete a 2 minute activity
• The group will then have the opportunity to get up and move for 2 minutes, and then sit and complete another activity for 2 minutes.
• (4 minutes) Instructors will discuss the resources and facts that prove how movement affects students.
• Brain break- Get up and move for 2 minutes
• (3 minutes) Go to Facebook link and answer the poll on how movement impacted the activities, and comment on how and why they would use movement within there classroom 
• (5 minutes) Come to a conclusion on how and why future teachers will implement movement within their classroom

5.  For this presentation, we ask that teacher candidates have access to a computer and WiFi, as well as an active Facebook account. The presenters will provide directions to an article through the Facebook page that the audience will read during the activity. Facebook will be the hub for all resources used in this presentation, allowing for full access for the audience to use through the presentation and the choice of retrieving information for future use.  

6.  Example Challenges or Restrictions: Member of the audience may not have an active Facebook account or finding ways to implement movement for student with disabilities. Another issue may include school systems that have firewalls against Facebook. 

Facebook Page Link

'Just Keep Moving' Facebook Page

Here You Will Find Links To:

Polls
Related Articles
Video Clips
Teacher's Thoughts
Ideas for Movement in The Classroom
and So Much More!

Critically Analyze a Mentor Text

Critically Analyze a Mentor Text:

Link to Article: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-finland-keeps-kids-focused/373544/

Link to Timothy D. Walkers Blog: http://taughtbyfinland.com


1. Timothy D. Walker is the author for this article. He is an American teacher, blogger, and contributing author for The Atlantic education issues. Along with those contributions and daily updates to his blog, Timothy Walker has released his new book, "Teach Like Finland:33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms," which details his experience in education in Finland and the topic of "brain breaks" in more detail.  
In the article we used as our platform to researching our topic, he is describing his experience teaching in Finland. Like most of us in this classroom, we are only familiar with the teaching styles here in the U.S., but outside of the country school environments are quite different. He uses this article to inform readers what a difference 15 minute breaks made within his classroom. He has the knowledge and experience teaching in the United States and compares that to his first year teaching in Finland. He continues to write his experiences on his blog daily about life and teaching in Finland.  

2. Here we are able to relate to the authors point of view, because we are all to familiar with the school and classroom time frame. It is not out of the ordinary for teachers and students to go hours in a classroom without a break in the course work. We are programed to think the more time we spend with instructional time, the better the academic results will be. This has been challenged in other countries, and research has found that frequent breaks in between instructional time has improved academic success rates. The article and author showed the comparison between schools in Finland vs. schools in the United States, and made it easier to understand. While normal for Finland schools to take 15 minute breaks after every 45 minutes of instruction, in American we find that as a "waste of time." But studies have shown that these small breaks during the school day have encouraged and improved academic success for school that have implemented this style. Related articles and data will be posted on the Facebook page shared with the group.

3. These articles and research finds would best be beneficial to instructors with a fixed mind sets who might question the need for breaks. Some teachers may be more concerned with standards rather than meeting all of student needs. The challenges teachers face include high-stake testing, prescriptive standards, and evaluations. The stress that is put on teachers can also be transferred to our students. High expectations and course load are found throughout schools in America. While some may believe increasing course work and time will cause an increase in test scores, Finland and many other countries who put "brain breaks" in place displayed higher achievement scores. The education system puts pressure on our teachers and students do excel at achievement testing or standardized testing. Most schools rely on federal funding to operate, but annual achievement testing that measures student's knowledge can alter that funding. There have also been cases where schools have tied teachers performance, student success in testing, to salary. The United States puts so much emphasis on in class learning and test scores, that physical education and recess are often left out.

4. The main point of view was Timothy, the teacher who presented the lifestyle of Americans and Finnish students. The teacher displayed various experiences, specifically the fifth grade student in Finland whose face displayed frustration after an hour and half straight of instructional time. He explains in the beginning to readers,

"I didn't see the point of these frequent pit stops. As a teacher in the United States, I'd spent several consecutive hours with my students in the classroom. And I was trying to replicate this model in Finland."

He then changed the classroom schedule from having a 15 minute break after every 45 minute of instructional time to teaching two 45-minute lessons in a row, followed by a double break of 30 minutes. Although the break was longer, the back-to-back instructional time was overwhelming the students to the point where they felt "burnt out."
When he regrouped and realized the importance of providing "brain breaks" in the classroom, his students regained their enthusiasm and focus to succeed in the classroom. Timothy explained this to the reader by saying,

"Throughout the school year, my Finnish students would- without fail- enter the classroom with a bounce in their step after a 15- minute break. And most importantly, they were more focused during the lesson.


5. Walker referenced another author in his article who witnessed the same results as he did in Finland. Author and professor at the University of Minnesota, Anthony Pellegrini and his colleagues ran a series of experiments at a public school to prove that timed breaks in between instruction and attentiveness were strongly correlated. They retrieved the same results every time: Students were more attentive and ready to learn after their break compared to before the break. They also witnessed that if a break was prolonged, or a lesson dragged on, the students attention span decreased. This was a similar situation to what Timothy was describing in the beginning of the article. In his scenario, he thought combining two 45-minute lessons and giving the students a 30-minute break was more beneficial. He soon found out this was just the opposite. 
The purpose of including another American author and teacher as data in this article was to show the reader that it's not just Finnish students who need these breaks, but all student's benefit from them. Walker mentions that it does not matter where the break/ recess takes place, but it's the freedom we give them from their structured, instructional time. Anthony Pellegrini found that recess isn't a waste of time as some may believe, but that it encourages communication, socialization, and a time period for students to "rest and recharge."

Creative Brief

'Just Keep Moving'

• A project directed at Middle School level educators to incorporate movement in the classroom to increase student's academics and attention.
• A teacher lead Facebook page is the tool used in this project for audience members to access current articles and evidence of movement benefits for students' success, comment and share examples of movement in their own classrooms, and participate in a public poll.
• This project is designed for candidate teachers to identify that physical activity is a classroom tool which impacts student's health, behavior, and academic experience in all forms of education

The purpose for creating ' Just Keep Moving,' is for educators who don't believe movement is connected to academic success and focus of our students.

The 'Just Keep Moving' project is directed at future and traditional educations who's programs have not based the implementations of movement as a priority in the classroom. These educators need to be empowered with the knowledge of how to balance movement with the needs to instructional time.

How Will You Use The 'Just Keep Moving' Movement?

• We propose that throughout the school day, every 30- 45 minutes of instructional time, that students be given a 10-15 minute "brain break." Based on evidence, educators will find that these breaks correlate with an increase in attention and academic success within the classroom. These forms of evidence can be found in articles and researched linked on the 'Just Keep Moving' Facebook page.

Teacher candidates will be directly influenced through this presentation and activity and students indirectly affected, as well as fellow teachers by the use of the "trickle effect"-- Students will go into classes talking about experiences of movement in your classroom.

Why a Facebook Page?

• Our Facebook page will offer an endless resource for teacher candidates to use at their leisure. 
• This public page will provide access to all educations, both internationally and national, who can offer their own experiences and examples of tools used for movement in the classroom.  

As the goal of this project, the creators of 'Just Keep Moving' hope to inspire all educators to put movement in place in their classrooms. Movement encourages the increase in attention and focus, academic success, and the health of our youths.