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 | | MESPA President Kristine Stueve |
December 2011
from MESPA President Kristine Stueve
Respect Yourself and Enhance Your Leadership:
Reconnect Your Mind and Body
Greetings, MESPA colleagues! I trust this message finds you heading into the holidays with calm seas and great expectations! As we move closer to our signature event, Institute 2012 Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds, I want to write a few words regarding the important connection between learning, healthy and balanced lifestyles, and respect for yourself.
Elise Moore, in an on-line article titled Mind & Body Connection for Learning states: “Movement and particular types of exercise can stimulate the mind and facilitate learning.” She explains the exercises should be a combination of balance coordination and complex movements in order to maximize the generation of connections between neurons. These types of exercise also may help memory and mastery of new information. Moore references Gessner Geyer, president of Brainergy, as saying: “Learning can be enhanced in the classroom if students get out of their seats and start moving, breathing and laughing.” Couldn’t the same thing be said for adult learners at faculty meetings, workshops, presentations, etc.?
Dr. John Ratey, author of SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, states: “Our culture treats the mind and the body as if they are separate entities...(but) to keep our brains at peak performance, our bodies need to work hard.” Dr. Ratey suggests that as people, we are “born movers” who have “engineered movement right out of our lives.” He believes we must reconnect the mind and body.
As leaders how do we model healthy minds and healthy bodies and support that connection in our schools? We as leaders need to encourage and support a healthy school climate in order to maximize student achievement. We need to show respect for our own health and learning by following practices to keep ourselves healthy and invigorated for our position as leaders and role models. We need to fill our own buckets in order to maintain the personal reserves to be able to help others. If we do all this, we motivate students to do as we do, not simply do as we say.
One of the ways we can be respectful of our need to rejuvenate, refresh, relax, and reconnect our minds and bodies is to attend the MESPA Institute Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds: February 1-3, 2012. The Educational Advisory Committee, chaired by Mary Hanson, has been working long and hard and has put together a fantastic slate of keynote speakers and breakout sessions focused on the mind and body connection. Our Institute co-chairs, Jayne Ropella and Patrick Glynn, will be on board encouraging us to be movers and shakers!
Our Wednesday keynote speaker will be Salome Thomas-EL, author of The Immortality of Influence. His address will focus on the importance of leadership, parenting, mentoring, and service to others. What can we learn about leading for a healthy school climate that will support increased opportunities and achievement for students?
Mark Fenton, author of the Complete Guide to Walking for Health, Weight Loss and Fitness, presents our Thursday morning keynote. Mirroring Dr. Ratey’s philosophy, Fenton recommends “engineering physical activity back into American communities and lives.” What steps have we taken to support and encourage focused physical movement for our students and staff?
Our Thursday afternoon keynote is Jim Winter of Wavelength, Inc. Winter will help us expand our “sense” of humor! He’ll review the research – and help us explore forms and styles of humor that support student achievement and create a climate for learning. As leaders, do we understand humor’s source and its function in effective teaching and learning? How do we model the use of humor and help our teachers recognize appropriate uses of humor for the classroom? How can we use improvisational activities and laughter exercises to boost the learning culture in our schools?
So, respect yourself, reconnect your mind and body, rejuvenate and relax with your colleagues at MESPA Institute 2012 Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds.
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