Turn teachers into brain builders!
Research in neuroscience has taken off in the past ten years...but have your teachers caught up? No matter the age or grade level, your teachers need to know how children's brains develop, how trauma and stress can impact that development, and what teachers can do to encourage healthy brain development.
Our innovative Brain Architecture Workshop takes educators from theory to practice and ensures that they are maximizing opportunities to build healthy brains for all children. The workshop is approximately 6 hours at its full length (not including break times), designed to occur on a professional development day. Bring the Brain Architecture Workshop to your campus and turn your teachers into brain builders!
Available for facilitation nationwide.
Playing the Brain Architecture Game
Learning through play is effective for adults too! The cornerstone of the opening portion of the Workshop is playing the Brain Architecture Game, developed by Harvard's Center on the Developing Child. The Brain Architecture Game takes participants through building a brain using pipe cleaners and straws to simulate brain development over the first 7 years of a child's life. Participants make concrete connections between the theory of brain development and what happens to the brain right in front of them. This experience provides a memorable foundation for the learning to follow.
Putting Theory into Practice
Many presenters share facts with the audience and hope that participants will take aligned action steps. Given what we know about adult learning, this is a terrible way to make sure learning sticks! At POP, we share knowledge, help participants process and integrate it into their existing schema, and then support participants to apply what they have learned to their everyday practice. Participants will leave with concrete action steps - that they developed - to support healthy brains in their work.
Customizable for Your Context
We are eager to work with you to customize the Brain Architecture Workshop for your context. We can adjust for various lengths of time, for different audiences (administrators, teachers, parents, social workers), and for different age groups of students served (there is no max age on brain development!).