Humans are not designed to be still all the time, but the traditional classroom learning requires students to sit still for long periods of time. Thousands of years ago, people walked miles to get things they need. Today, we get from point A to point B either by car or train. In the end, we should move more.
In class, teachers often stand and move around, while students sit still and pay attention. However, this does more harm than we realize. Sitting still for 20 minutes, blood accumulates on the lower part of the body – feet, lower legs and buttocks. The simple act of standing up and moving from place to another facilitates flow of blood and oxygen to the brain.
Standing up once in a while pays a lot in learning and will improve the scores of students in tests. One minute of standing up transports 15% more blood and oxygen to the brain. Research showed that there is an increased rate in vocabulary learning among physically active learners.
There are various exercises that can be done inside the four walls of a classroom. These are:
- March or jump in place – When a lesson seems too tough for the students, they can do these light exercises.
- Stretching – Simple stretching allows blood flow in the body.
- Group activity – Teachers should integrate group activities when conducting lessons like answering questions on the board or a short presentation.
That is why at POLY Languages Institute, we strive to integrate activities in class. Learning English can be boring when done in a traditional way.
We put importance in recess to better facilitate our students’ learning and to allow them to rest after taking in a lot of information from the course syllabus.
Aside from these “energy breaks,” POLY also organizes fun-filled activities in school every month. Activities like human bingo and BBQ party enable our students to practice their English skills in an informal setting.
