Customer Reviews

Teaching Smarter With the Brain in Focus: Practical Ways to Apply the Latest Brain Research to Deepen Comprehension, Improve Memory, and Motivate Students to Achieve

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This book by Sarah Armstrong was a quick and easy read filled with GREAT strategies and suggestions I can use to make my teaching more effecting and my students' learning more relevant. If you know anything about Bloom's Taxonomy, or have ever had an "unreachable" student in your classroom, this is the book for you! I liked the "real-life" stories shared throughout the book; you can tell the author has lived the life of a classroom teacher! I can't wait to get back to school so I can put these ideas into practice. I wish I had read this book when I was a first year teacher!

I'm a new, second-career teacher; I've been reading book after book after book this year - many of them useful and all of them well-reviewed, but I believe this one will have the greatest impact on how I run my classroom.

It's a highly-readable book, the goal of which is basically to explain to teachers how kids (and adults for that matter) learn. It doesn't just present theories, however; it provides concrete suggestions for lessons. It gives teachers a new way to think about their timing in the classroom, the way they present material, and what type of assignments will be most meaningful. I particularly like how it addresses differentiation in the classroom; she stresses that creative thinking is something teachers need to encourage in ALL their students, not just their more accelerated learners; in fact stimulating the minds of the most at-risk students is particularly important.

I'll be reading this one over and over, and recommending it to other teachers.

This is an excellent read that supports the STEM initiative with brain research with suggestions that will work in the classroom. My 22 year old picked up the book when she was visiting and remarked that she wished she and her teachers could have read and practiced techniques because it would have helped her and other students tremendously in school. Just read it!

Teaching Smarter with the Brain in Focus is a practical teacher professional guide to enhances learning at a deeper level. It is inexpensive and so pragmatic compared to most brain sources/materials I have purchased. She is specific listing games, graphic organizers and different ways to engage students in collaborative tasks and cooperative groups. Her startegies are research based and fit standards of teaching including recent research facts on attention, music in the curriculum, etc.. I just heard her at the Brain and Learning Conference in Dc and like her book was a wealth of information.

Mary Ellen Gavin

My entire school staff is reading this book for ways to improve our interaction with our students. This offers a research based perspective on learning and teaching!

There is only one word for "Teaching Smarter with the brain in Focus" ...Amazing!
Her chapter on Lesson Design is worth the price of the book alone. Easy to read, well-illustrated and helpful to use, Scholastic has provided another winner.

Dr. Sarah Armstrong uses many great real life examples from classrooms and schools; she has obviously "been there and done that" which makes her advice so much more relevant. She encourages thinking in the classroom and avoids "Telling the information". This is a very thought provoking topic in this age of "teach the test'.

Sarah introduces active engagement/involvement through role-play, simulation, music, visual arts, etc and explains how these techniques can help the brain become better at learning.

I especially liked the different memory systems. I have started to use several of them myself to help my long-term memories. I occasionally teach adult education classes and I will use Sarah's innovative book for future lessons!

Sarah Armstrong has a real winner here for helping educators and teachers develop thinkers. Whether you are a first year teacher or a senior educator, "Teaching Smarter with the Brain in Focus" can help you in every aspect of teaching.

It is a "Must Have" for discerning teachers!

Sam Hendricks, author of "Fantasy Football Guidebook"

Wow... Dr. Armstrong has provided educators with a guide to lesson planning and classroom instruction that can be used every day!! I have worked as a teacher, principal, curriculum & instructional leader, as well as educational consultant. Never have a seen such a great guide with clear direction to how to use the brain research to support student learning. Thanks, Sarah!!

Would you like to teach the way you know works best but cannot defend your methodology as research based? Well here is your defense in one skinny little book. Yes, that music in the background of your classroom does have a scientifically researched significance to learning. Dancing on the playground to the rhythm of the times table is far more fun and makes learning easier, than sitting in straight, quiet rows trying to memorize 7x6 or 8x6. Dr. Armstrong makes the scientifically researched connection between how the brain learns and what we do in the classroom. She gives us the science behind the art of teaching that great teachers just seem to know. If I were the principal of your school, you would be reading this book with me this fall and we would probably be sitting in comfortable chairs with headphones on.