Deep Dive into Brain Breaks:

Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

NeuroLogic by Lakeside

First Presenter’s Email Address

nathans@lakesidetraining.org

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Nathan started his career as a 5th-grade teacher in the Philadelphia School District. Desiring to find ways to help students who had experienced trauma, he left teaching to pursue a master's degree at Eastern University in Community and Clinical Counseling. After earning his master’s degree, Nathan was a Family-Based Therapist working with families whose children returned from Psychiatric Inpatient Hospital Stays. In 2015 he started at Lakeside as an In-School Counselor where he provided Outpatient Counseling to students in grades K-12. Nathan brings his diverse classroom and clinical experiences to his current position as the Coordinator of NeuroLogic Coaching Services.

Location

Ballroom D

Strand #1

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership

Strand #2

Heart: Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

Understanding the brain’s capacity for focus and attention in learning can help educators assess their students' needs to increase academic achievement. In this workshop, we help give concrete strategies and techniques to effectively increase students’ focus and attention through brain breaks and other brain-based educational activities. When done correctly, these activities can also give opportunities in small doses for students to develop leadership, social, and emotional regulation skills.

Brief Program Description

Do you have times when students are disengaged? Are they too squirrely to sit still? Or too tired to pay attention? During this session, we examine how best in the moment to assess what kind of brain break your students need. We also look at building brain breaks into your classroom lessons and routines to increase student engagement and academic retention.

Summary

In this session, we take a deep dive into exploring the uses and purposes of a brain break. Do you have times when students are disengaged? Are they too squirrely to sit still? Or too tired to pay attention? Do you ever have difficulties gaining the attention of the class before you start a lesson? During this session we examine how best in the moment to assess what kind of brain break your students need. We also look at how to build brain breaks into your classroom lessons and routines in order to increase student engagement and academic retention. We will look at several examples of brain breaks from each type that can be used with different age groups of students. We will go over best practices of implementing brain breaks and ways of troubleshooting common problems. We will finally explore how brain breaks can be used to enhance social skills, reinforce academic concepts, and spark creativity.

Evidence

We at Lakeside have four Alternative schools and have seen in working with our students how brain breaks and other brain-based educational avticities have increase students capacity to obsorbe and retain academic information.

Learning Objective 1

Equip educators with the skills to assess and implement appropriate brain breaks that revitalize student focus and engagement in real-time.

Learning Objective 2

Teach educators how to seamlessly incorporate brain breaks into daily lessons to sustain student engagement and improve academic retention.

Learning Objective 3

Explore the multifaceted benefits of brain breaks in enhancing social skills, reinforcing academic concepts, and fostering creativity.

Keyword Descriptors

Brain breaks, Educational Strategies, Socus & Attention

Presentation Year

2025

Start Date

3-4-2025 10:15 AM

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Mar 4th, 10:15 AM

Deep Dive into Brain Breaks:

Ballroom D

Do you have times when students are disengaged? Are they too squirrely to sit still? Or too tired to pay attention? During this session, we examine how best in the moment to assess what kind of brain break your students need. We also look at building brain breaks into your classroom lessons and routines to increase student engagement and academic retention.