I read this interesting article a couple years ago!
By: Curtis Kelly
Remember the original Star Trek with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy? It was hardly watched during the first run, but reached cult status years later. That is kind of how we feel about our 2018 Think Tanks. We don’t expect any of those issues to reach cult status, but we had some really good articles that year that we’d like you to know about. Since, we started that year with only a ninth the number of subscribers we have now, we know most of our current readers missed them. What a shame!
To fix that problem, we asked our readers, contributors, and editors to tell us about articles that impressed them. Over 30 of the articles were chosen (two thirds of the 2018 articles), but we are going to pass on just five, the ones listed in the table of contents. We’ll let you find the others by yourself.
Note that we have excluded articles written by editors, but Julia Daley’s and Marc Helgesen’s are included. This is because they were not editors at the time.
Our Think Tank issues are not just articles. We always start with a critically important video or podcast, by a leading expert, that gives us the brain science of that month’s theme. (If you have been skipping these, then shame on you!). The next page has the four most important lead-ins. Trust me; these are good. I mean really good.
We also started the PLUS section in 2018, but we did not put PLUS articles up for selection. One got chosen anyway: Marc Helgesen’s piece on telling students about sleep.
The 2018 Think Tanks and selected articles
Click on the covers to see the issues!
Sleep, Part 1 Jan 2018
Motivating Better Sleep Habits in Students: Are Grades Enough? – Josh Brunotte
My experience with a lack of sleep – Haruka Matsunaga (uni student)
Teachers Tackle Smartphone Addiction and Sleep Related Issues – Deborah Broadby
Sleep, Part 2, Feb 2018
Sleep … perchance to dream – Amanda Gillis-Furutaka
“Wetware” Maintenance and Good Sleep Practices – Lawrence S. Levy
When They Say “Get Eight hours of Sleep,” I Say, “Yeah, Right!” – Curtis Kelly
Sharing sleep science with students – Marc Helgesen
Working Memory, Mar 2018
The Role and Restrictions of Working Memory – Mike Kelland
Just what is working memory anyway? And what does it mean for language teachers? – Caroline Handley
Dealing with the limits of working memory repeated practice – Cindy Cheng
Starting with working memory and jumping on to something else – Curtis Kelly
Confirmation Bias, Apr 2018
Why we should seek opposite views – James D. Dunn and Hiroshi Nakagawa
How confirmation bias works in the real world – Bo Bennett
Why confirmation bias is natural, universal and… beneficial – Curtis Kelly
Emotion, May 2018
Beyond logic and why you should be careful in the classroom – Curtis Kelly
Emotions across languages and textbooks – Glenn Magee
If emotions are made, we can reframe L2 anxiety and empower learners – Harumi Kimura
What positive psychology is NOT, and a bit about savoring – Marc Helgesen
Mindfulness, June 2018
Mindfulness: Lotus-free Educational Objective – Curtis Kelly
Mindfulness in 3 New Yorker Cartoons – Marc Helgesen
Loving Kindness Meditation in Reading Class – Toyoko Schmidt & Megumi Sugiyama
Yoga for Schools – Levy Solomon
Mindfulness for Learning in a Digital-Physical World – Heather Van Fleet
Exercise, July 2018
What ”turning on the brain” really means: John Ratey simplified – a bilingual version! – Masda Yuka
Exercise and intermittent movement – Steve Jugovic
Finally, a brain science finding with a major impact on teaching and the story of my change – Curtis Kelly
Let’s move: 5-minute energy breaks – Marc Helgesen
Multiple Intelligences, Aug 2018
Teaching via MI – What is it about? – Ewa Suchecka
CLIL and MI – Can they change your teaching? – Zofia Aktonorowicz-Sobótka
Multiple Multiple Intelligences: MI and the Importance of Non-human Intelligences – Tom Gorham
Adolescent Brain, Sept 2018
Why are teenagers self-absorbed risk-takers and how can we turn this to their advantage? – Amanda Gillis-Furutaka
Talking with students about their brains – Julia Daley
How to teach teenagers and not die trying – Jorge Correa Rodriguez
Self-criticality and the brain – Glenn Magee
Assessing Complexity, Oct 2018
The long fight for learning instead of performance – Curtis Kelly
L2 Maturation and Lectical Analysis – Robert Murphy
Catch the Big Fish – Craig Dwyer
Aging, Nov 2018
Hopes, beliefs, and challenges of a third- age L2 learner– Harumi Kimura
Out of concern for that 50-year-old in your class of 19-year-olds– Curtis Kelly
A view of English teaching from two generations– Alex Burke & Mairead Offord
Aging (un)gracefully – Charles Adamson
Music, Dec 2018
Finding their voice: Singing and teaching with refugees in Australia– Skye Playsted
Turn up the music please! Music and language teaching for young learners– Herman Bartelen
Songlets for affective and cognitive self-regulation– Tim Murphey
How do we hear music? And why is listening to and performing live music so thrilling? – Amanda Gillis-Furutaka
Opening doors through ART in the classroom – David James McLeish
Curtis Kelly (E.D.D.), the first coordinator of the JALT Mind, Brain, and Education SIG, is a Professor of English at Kansai University in Japan. He is the producer of the Think Tanks, has written over 30 books and 100 articles, and given over 400 presentations. His life mission, and what drew him to brain studies, is “to relieve the suffering of the classroom.”