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NCCAT Program Builds Active Kids and Active Readers

CULLOWHEE (November 20, 2015)—Sarah Lowell knows if she could have moved more in school she would have learned more.

“I was one of those kids who would have loved school if I had been able to move and learn,” said Lowell, a former physical education Teacher of the Year in North Carolina. “School was torture for me, up until high school, because of not being able to move. Now the research is there that proves kids will retain information better and learn more if moving.”

Lowell, a adjunct faculty member at Western Carolina University, and Natalie Boone, an instructor at Western Carolina University, are now helping teachers learn this lesson in a program “The Active Classroom: Using Movement to Enhance Literacy and Learning” from the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, recognized national leader in professional development programming for teachers.

Educational research and experienced teachers recognize that most school-aged students learn by doing. Teachers who build kinesthetic movement into their instruction report that their students are less disruptive and more engaged.

“There are several things you can do in classroom,” Boone said. “Students can stand up at their desk. You can teach punctuation with action. You can say that a comma means to slow down. So you can have kids put hands on their hips and say “slooow down” for a comma. This gives them an outlet for movement.”

Educators can be afraid this movement might lead to unruly classrooms, but Lowell and Boone say the opposite happens. Moving helps students get out energy and actually helps make classroom management easier. The physical activity improves memory retention, comprehension and self-regulation in students of all achievement levels.

Teachers in this program learn how you can transform a typical desk-and-chair classroom into an active classroom. They design and create movement-enhanced lessons with low-cost materials for use in the differentiated classroom.

This program will be offered by NCCAT again Feb. 22–25 in Cullowhee