Daily Exercise
John Medina in Brain rules said ” The brain craves exercise. But we’ve built our classrooms and cubicles around sitting for eight hours a day.” He highlights through the first chapter (or Rule #1) Exercise the fact that we perform better with regular daily exercise. We think, work and play better.
That’s why is so amazing to see what MICDS has put in place with their students. Last year, the staff were given a copy of brain rules as required reading (this is an interesting concept, more on that later) and as a result of that and also the work of John Ratey & Eric Hagermann, in their book, Spark: the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain. They have changed their school day to include compulsory exercise for their students. With the younger grades this is scheduled for first thing in the morning and with the seniors through out the timetable.
“Exercise, enough to sweat and 4-5 times a week measurably improves all brain systems, executive function, creativity and 
learning. ” John Ratey & Eric Hagermann
I think this is brilliant and I given the concerns with lack of exercise and increasing weight (NZ is the 3rd Fattest country in the world after Mexico and the US) and the cognitive and behavioural benefits whether we shouldn’t be seeing this in more, if not all, schools.
As an aside – Required Reading for Staff. What an interesting concept. I can think of a stack of books that would be very beneficial to have the staff read. Here in America, its accepted practice and the teachers happily (or so it seems, no one has said otherwise) form reading circles and study various texts. I wonder how that would go in New Zealand or Australia?
