Educators Train on Applying 20 Senses to 5-Year-Olds
School Administrator, January 2021

A BOCES in northern New York launched an online platform for teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic to exchange resources and coping strategies.

Imagine yourself as a 5-year-old entering school for the first time. But instead of your entry taking place in a physical building, it begins in front of a computer screen at home through the World Wide Web.

Tens of thousands of young students nationwide launched their formal education in that fashion in recent months. Schools like those in the Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES, which serves 10 school districts along New York state’s northern border with Canada, continue to take part in professional development to train their educators in social and emotional learning and how to teach young students remotely.

Shortly after the pandemic struck, the intermediate agency created a social digital space known as The Community where teachers can share resources and discuss common challenges across the farflung region. The platform lets teachers form smaller learning communities based on subject matter, location or special interests that have arisen during the period of remote teaching and learning.

Being informed by neuroscience gives these educators the opportunity to impact learning. The lessons they deliver use real-life objects and examples activating the 20-plus senses. Knowing that the brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text and understanding the four phases of learning all can guide educators as they interact with their students remotely.

Parents’ New Role

Barriers exist for young learners, but these can be overcome. Imagine trying to log in using an alphabet you may not yet know. Keep in mind on most devices the keyboard has uppercase but prints lowercase letters.

The parent/caregiver partnership is needed to make the experience of remote learning possible. This begins by informing parents about their new role as a partner in teaching and learning and helping them understand how the brain learns.
Using the home environment to activate the 20 senses and real-life objects provides a context for learning and remembering content. A home is full of objects to count, de-scribe and interact with. Open the cupboards and encourage students to interact, as they did as toddlers, with containers, pans and household objects.

More insights on applying neuroscience to remote learning can be found in Exceeding Expectations: A User’s Guide to Implementing Brain Research in the Classroom (6th edition) by Linda Jordan, Susan Kovalik and Karen Olsen.

— LINDA JORDAN