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The concept of a “brain-friendly school” is one that supports different learning styles and abilities, promotes active involvement, incorporates multimedia, recognizes the impact of environmental factors such as noise and lighting, builds connections to the world outside the classroom, and encourages community accessibility and involvement.

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Blue: Enhances creativity and alertness; promotes tranquility; improves overall health, memory, and mood; lessens fatigue and depression.

Blue is one of the most effective classroom colors. White can also be a good dominant color for a classroom if it’s accompanied by a colorful accent wall.

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Accent walls can add interest or focus to a room, or strategically use an accent wall to make a room appear larger.

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Light engages a non-visual system that affects the timing of our sleep-wake cycles and our cognitive performance. While the presence of any light can influence hormonal secretion via this non-visual system, blue light has the most powerful effect sunlight is rich in blue light.

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Students feel empowered by having some degree of choice and control over their environment. Flexible seating allows students to choose where they work and with whom. It also allows them to change their location and positions as needed.

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Flexible seating encourages students to find their best spot to stay calm, focused and productive.

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Group desks into pods, surrounding them with flexible seating zones to support different learning modalities.

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Pros: encourages interaction of all students, promotes teamwork, flexibility to strategically form groups, and suitable for small spaces.
Cons: increased noise level and less individual accountability.

Creating grouped seating with be beneficial in a social studies classroom due to increased number of group projects and debates.

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Children who are surrounded by print flourish in literacy development and are often more successful in school.
Putting information on the walls leads to repetition and familiarity with the content.
Avoid distracting walls and laminate posters.

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calendar with important dates, places for assignments, communal classroom supplies

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A well-organized classroom sends a clear and positive message to students.
I like the idea of having a "command center" with classroom supplies, schedule, and filing.

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I liked this idea of keeping past assignments and handouts in an accessible space for students to grab when needed.

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"The stress-reducing effects of nature have been documented in adults in a large body of controlled experiments and the available evidence points to a similar effect in children. Nature has been related to lower levels of both self-reported and physiological measures of stress in children."

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Klein, E. (2018, December 27). 10+ tips for Using Brain-Based methods to redesign your classroom - Edsurge News. EdSurge. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-03-01-10-tips-for-using-brain-based-methods-to-redesign-your-classroom.
Uncapher, M. (2016, October 14). The science of effective learning spaces. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/science-of-effective-learning-spaces-melina-uncapher.
Top 10 benefits of A Flexible-Seating Classroom. Smith System Blog. (2021, August 17). https://smithsystem.com/smithfiles/top-10-benefits-flexible-seating-classroom/.
Klein, A. (2020, November 29). Flexible seating: Collaboration catalyst or classroom disaster? Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/flexible-seating-collaboration-catalyst-or-classroom-disaster/2020/01.
Effective classroom seating arrangements. Tips for the Most Effective Classroom Seating Arrangement. (2020, July 29). https://www.displays2go.com/Article/Tips-Most-Effective-Classroom-Seating-Arrangement-32.
The best colors to use for school interior design. Design Resources Group. (2020, November 17). https://drgaia.com/color-in-schools/.
By: Ariana Fine | Issue: May 2020 April 14, & Fine, A. (2020, April 14). Designing brain-friendly schools and classroom spaces. District Administration. https://districtadministration.com/how-schools-are-designing-brain-friendly-classroom-spaces/.