• From Prevention magazine, May… Smell Much? All the time and now researchers tell us how to use smells to our advantage! Ohio State University researchers determined “robust evidence that lemon oil reliably enhances positive mood.” There is a spike in norepinephrine, an energy hormone. Lavender and orange smells have a calming effect. NY University Medical Center has used lavender oil in the anesthesiology face masks and patients required less morphine. Lavender is used to ease headaches and increase deep slow-wave sleep. A Korean study found that massaging a woman’s abdomen once a day for a week before menstruation decreased discomfort by half. They used 2 drops of lavender oil, 1 drop of clary sage oil, and 1 drop of rose oil in an almond base. Peppermint inhalers are used by some athletes to stimulate greater energy and speed. In another study, 1,436 overweight people lost 30.5 pounds over 6 months while they added crystals scented with taco and pizza flavors to their less fattening food. It is also thought that savoring a smell before it is in your mouth will give you “smell satiety”. That must be why we are willing to spend more $$ at a coffee shop – it is filled with smells! But, before you go in and see the pastries smell a banana, a green apple or peppermint that helped people resist snacking. In the UK 48 students smelling rosemary did better than the control group on memory tests.

• From BrainWorks – The Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Univ. of Pennsylvania studied 110 children whose mothers were receiving public assistance. This group studied children ages 4 – 8 finding a positive relationship between toys and activities in the home and language development. “The more stimulating the environment, the better the child’s language skills.” “The more loving, attentive, and accessible the parent(s) the better the better the child’s memory.” Thus, lobby for parenting classes and our schools will be more effective.

• From Brain Connection – Brain scans on 16 dyslexic Chinese speakers and 16 of their Chinese peers showed that the dyslexic students had less gray matter in their pictographic reading area. This area is different from the sound based English readers.

• Free education sites online:

MIT http://ocw.mit.edu
Yale http://open.yale.edu

Worldwide http://ocwconsortium.org

• In the few days before summer vacation challenge your students to learn about people in the Olympics. When did the individual start training? How many hours a week did they practice? What changes have they made in their lives? Finally, after they have researched and spared, do a guided imagery. With eyes closed have them imagine themselves becoming the top _____. It doesn’t mean only top sports persons. They could be the top brain researcher… the top author… the president of a corporation, or president of the United States. Have them determine their goal before the imagery then take them on the steps needed beginning now, continuing year by year. Don’t use questions in imagery, rather let it flow… “Each day you study___. You search out successful adults in your field using Internet and write to them. Your journal your activities and set goals…” Marilyn King, "Olympic Thinking"

• Learn more about yourself, your loved ones and your students with these websites: www.outofservice,com/bigfive (interest inventory), www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory (learning preferences), www.queendom.com www.authentichappiness.org (emotional intelligence) www.mitest.com/omitest.htm (Multiple Intelligence for elementary students) and www.ldrc.ca/projects/miinventory/mitest.html (MI all ages), www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm#Visual%20Learners (Comprehensive learning style information sponsored by learning disabled association but good for everyone.)

• Other sites… www.obs.irg/wnet/brain 3-D tour of the brain, wealth of articles and videos. www.nia.nih.gov Nat’l Institute of Aging, www.mayoclinic.com has over 500 articles on the brain.

• From the Washington Post: Over 8,000 4th graders from Prince George’s County have been to the Kennedy Center as part of a program with the National Symphony Orchestra. Students interviewed after were astounded. Oscar Ruiz thought the music was “pretty great”. Alexis Garcia loved everything. “It made me happy.” In the best of all worlds every child hear great music.

• From Education Week: We all know there is a black-white achievement gap but a new Harvard study documented that by middle school “the test-score gaps that separate (black students) from their better-performing white counterparts grow fastest among the most able students and most slowly for those who start out with below-average academic skills.” One of the researchers observed, “It appears on average to be worse for a child to be in a school with a high black enrollment.” He noted the implications for the recent Supreme Court decision on using race to assign students.

• From the February issue of Phi Delta Kappa: By the end of 4th grade poor students are two years behind wealthier students, by 8th they are three years and 12th, four years. About 90% of white students, ages 18-24, have completed high school or a GED. Fifty percent of black have completed a GED and another 31% have a regular high school diploma. Only 61% of Hispanics have either. It is expected that in 2020 Latinos and African Americans will be the majority of students in our public schools.

• From the March issue of Scientific American: “White Matters Matter” explains the complexity of myelination. “White matter is composed of millions of communication cables, each one containing a long individual wire, or axon, coated with a white fatty substance called myelin.” “The wrapping occurs at different ages. Myelin is prevalent only in a few brain regions at birth, expands in spurts and is not fully laid until age 25 or 30 in certain places.” The last area is in the forehead responsible for higher-level reasoning, planning and judgment. Poor myelination in the areas used for reading is a factor in dyslexia. New machines that let scientists read the brain have shown that “White matter abnormalities have been found in people affected by ADHD, bipolar disorder, language disorders, autism, cognitive decline in aging and Alzheimer’s disease and even in individuals afflicted with pathological lying.”

• From The Developing Brain: “children from professional families hear about 11 million words per year. Middle class children hear about 6 million words. Welfare children hear about 3 million. Children that hear more words before age three will experience improved student achievement later in school.”

• From “Child Poverty in North Carolina: A Preventable Epidemic” Poverty is linked learning disabilities and behavior problems. “With our recent capacity to look at brain development through scans and really look at what’s happening without our children, we’re realizing how much more impactful growing up in poverty is,” said an Action for Children board member. “The brain doesn’t just form; it forms over time. Environmental factors impact the development of the synapses and the architecture of the brain is constructed, if there’s not appropriate nutrition and there are other health factors, that can impact the way the child’s brain actually grows and develops.” With 25% of their children under the age of 5, the report calls for sweeping and expensive changes. (While I’m glad to see the news article and study, this information has been available for years.)

• From the BBC in the UK… In 2007 there was 43% gap for students living in the 10% most affluent areas and the 10% most deprived.

• The April issue of Educational Leadership is on “Poverty and Learning.” The lead article reinforces the learning difficulties of children without health care, those who watch a lot of TV and move often. Does your school have strong, interesting after school programs? (Not just more reading when students are already tired.) Another article reminds us of the importance of summer reading. How can you creatively match students to books over the summer? We would like to know your experiences. Send me your ideas launael@att.net. There are articles on full-service/whole-child schools that are making a difference. They listed these sites for further understanding:

-Effects of poverty and racial segregation on education (www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/deseg/Why_Segreg_Matters.pdf) -Activities for classrooms (www.pbs.org/peoplelikeus)
-Resources and suggestions for action (www.classism.org and www.classmatters.org)

-Free materials for teachers (www.teachingtolerance.org).

• Hands-on science (with gloves) stimulates teens in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. With special notarized parental permission students who have dissected the typical frogs and pigs, continue on to dissect a human cadaver. The teacher raises the $1,200 it cost from university scientists interested in medicine.

• Keep in touch with www.wholechildeducation.org This site promotes “healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged students.”

• A 14 minute clip on mirror neurons that explains our connections to others: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01.html also note the video Brain Fitness if any of you are concerned about aging parents.