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Get up and move!

How movement and "brain breaks" can boost student engagement.

2 min read

Edtech

Get up and move!

Pixabay

One of the most touted benefits of Pokémon GO is that it gets adults and kids moving. Players walk about visiting public spaces looking for and catching Pokémon to add to their collection.

Allowing movement and breaks in your classroom can dramatically shift the attention span of students and the level of misbehaviors that pop up. I’ve seen engagement in classroom work increase when we students to brain breaks. One resource, GoNoodle, features videos designed to get students running, jumping and stretching. Sometimes I played songs, related to our learning topics – such as Subtraction Rap for math – and we would sing and dance. Other times we held class outdoors. This was also a good way to bring new energy to the classroom culture.

Whatever you choose, have fun with it. Join your students in movement and see how it changes in engagement in your classroom.

(This post is an excerpt from a Pokémon GO post on EmpowerMINT.org. It has been edited for space and style.)

Robert Pronovost is the founder of EmpowerMINT. For the past decade, he served in the Ravenswood City School District as a teacher, STEM coordinator, and director of curriculum and instruction. In 2013, Robert created the Ravenswood Makerspace Collaborative and was invited to the White House’s 2015 Roundtable on Making & Education. He has been named an ISTE Emerging Leader, CUE Outstanding Emerging Teacher, Google Certified Innovator, and co-authored a book, Creating a Google Apps Classroom.

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