Articles

Mariola Strahlberg, Chestnut Ridge, NY

FINDING OUR PACE IN SUMMER SCHOOL

“I would like to let you know about an incredible experience I had during
the last summer school. After two years of negotiation, my school district finally
agreed for me to bring Brain Gym ®PACE to seven classrooms during the
remedial summer session. I did fifteen minutes training for seven teachers and
two coordinators; they were invited to look for changes in their students and
themselves in 21 days. Then I trained three adult volunteers who went faithfully
with me to the classrooms working with approximately 170 elementary school
kids for four weeks (remedial math, English, ESL).
All the classes did PACE in the morning and the kids loved it. The
teachers warmed up to it especially after the first two weeks. The challenges
were enormous since these were the kids who really have many issues. I can’t
say that all the kids benefited at the level I would have wished for them, but they
did benefit from the resulting positive atmosphere in the room.
Here is a comment from an ESL teacher who was truly moved by the
changes:
“I tried Brain Gym with my ESL students (grades 3-6) during summer
school for almost four weeks and I observed a noticeable improvement in some
of my struggling readers. The students came to me with limited reading skills and
after two weeks I began to see growth in some of these readers. The students
enjoyed participating in the Brain Gym program and I felt the greatest benefit was
that the students learned to coordinate their eye and hand movements which
helped them copy notes from the whiteboard with greater speed and accuracy.
In addition I noticed that these students have also shown improvements in their
memory skills. They retain and recall information better. “– ESL Elementary
schoolteacher
and from one of the summer coordinators:
“Any skepticism held by teachers diminished after a week or two. Students
in classes appeared enthusiastic about their participation. Students in other
classes expressed their desire to participate.” – summer elementary school
coordinator
What an experience that was for all of us! Now we have to wait for
approval from the Assistant Superintendent to expand the program and possibly
receive compensation. We trust that the process will be less than two years this
time. Thank you Gail and Paul for Brain Gym® PACE – I feel that it is truly the
key to success.”
Article published in the Brain Gym® Journal, Dec 2009, Volume XXIII, No.3, pg
11