My Secret for a Great School Year
My Secret for a Great School Year
If you are parent and perhaps if you are a student you are currently obsessing about academic performance. So what does academic performance have to do with fitness…EVERYTHING!
The research is in and the numerous findings, like those below are clear: physical exercise directly correlates to a students academically performance.
If a student exercises on a consistent basis it will improve their concentration, learning, and test scores.
Don’t believe me? Checkout the Evidence below.
- Mr. Spark, the author of, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, had the Harvard Psychiatrist Dr. John Ratey cite studies that showed dramatic improvements in the academic performance of students once they started performing daily exercise.
- In Saskatoon Saskatchewan, which is an inner city school that struggled with both behavioral and academic challenges decided to bring in treadmills. Guess what? They saw dramatic and immediate improvement in the classroom regarding the students behavior and their academic performance. That is a win-win!
- In short, the students were able to concentrate better, learn more and as a result their scores improved. “In just four months, the students in Allison Cameron’s class began improving academically. Grade level increases were in the 27%-36% range, and math increases were similar.”1 — CRAZY
So this is the BIG SECRET! Students only need about 20 minutes of exercise each morning.
The big question is why does exercise result in such a dramatic change in academic performance? Studies are still ongoing but it seems that when students exercise, the brain grows new brain cells and these new brain cells create new pathways for learning to take place. The fancy term for this is Neurogenesis.2
The takeaway message? If you are truly interested in academic performance exercise should be a top priority. To push exercise to the side opens the door to both academic and behavior issues. As a once full time teacher, nobody wants this.
Go be awesome and get a good workout in.
KELLEN LAKE – Feed Your Brain By Training Your Body : )
Sources:
1http://impossible2possible.com/modules/baffin/AP%20Word%20Module%202%20-%20Exercising%20your%20Brain.f.pdf
2 Ibid.
3 http://abcnews.go.com/WN/exercise-school-leads-learning/story?id=10371315#.UD-6YKMq4uM
