The Body-Brain Connection
Evidence-Based Ways to Reduce Anxiety, Boost Engagement, and Increase Comprehension Across Classrooms
Embrace movement, big and small, to fuel learning success.
Learning happens in our whole bodies, not just in our heads. Movement, both big and small, unconscious and conscious, fuels our success, and yet we don’t often acknowledge the body’s role in learning. In The Body-Brain Connection, author Gravity Goldberg explores the powerful relationship between physical activity and cognitive function. This comprehensive guide delves into evidence-based strategies that can help reduce anxiety, boost student engagement, and enhance comprehension in all K-12 classrooms. Helpful features guide your learning with:
- Prime Yourself personal experiences to bring your attention to key ideas in each section
- Guiding questions to set the purpose for your learning
- A Look in the Mirror self-reflection feature to encourage application of the material into your own life and teaching practice
- Summaries of key ideas and practices for each chapter
Whether you're a teacher or school administrator, this innovative book offers valuable tools and techniques to foster a holistic approach to education, ensuring that students thrive both mentally and physically. It’s time we start paying more attention to our bodies to create an environment where we can all feel safer, be more integrated, and be more successful as readers, writers, and thinkers.
Gravity Goldberg reminds us that our schools must be supportive of our students in their entirety - their brains and bodies. With practical recommendations to improve students' regulatory skills, mental health, and focus, this book empowers teachers and school leaders with tools to students' communication, collaboration, and comprehension.
In The Body-Brain Connection: Evidence-Based Ways to Reduce Anxiety, Boost Engagement, and Increase Comprehension in the Classroom, Gravity Goldberg offers a transformative approach to teaching that honors both students' humanity and the educator's role in fostering connection. By emphasizing safety, embodied learning, and productive struggle, Goldberg provides actionable strategies and reflection practices to reduce anxiety, boost engagement, and build a supportive community. This book is an essential guide for educators seeking to create grounded and impactful learning experiences that nurture both the mind and body.
Traditionally, the role of teachers has been to help students develop their minds. Gravity helps us understand that learning actually happens in a synergy between our minds and our bodies and offers teachers a wealth of practical strategies for supporting this connection in their day-to-day teaching, whatever grade and subject they teach.
Do you have stressed and anxious students? Students who are disengaged and not understanding lessons? If this sounds like some of the students in your classroom, Gravity Goldberg’s newest book is for you. It offers compelling evidence and advice for creating a learning environment in which students are supported to engage.