Ready, Set, Go!
The Kinesthetic Classroom 2.0
- Mike Kuczala - Regional Training Center
- Traci Lengel - Educational Consultant
Foreword by Paul Zientarski, A Joint Publication with KidsFit
Use movement to spark learning with this one-stop resource!
Kinesthetic education is your answer to brain-friendly fun! Discover hundreds of practical, clearly explained movements and activities that rev up your teaching and spark optimal learning. This extensively researched 4-part framework of activities promotes an energized learning environment where mental and emotional growth is met with physical, social, and cognitive engagement. With little or no equipment and minimal planning time, this updated guide will help you:
- Find tips and information to initiate, manage, and organize a kinesthetic classroom
- Build a cohesive and safe learning environment that adapts to grade, fitness, and ability levels
- Enhance neural connections with 90-second activities
- Implement activities for use in teaching core academic content along with music, art, and health
Includes handy checklists, case studies, a graphic organizer, classroom management strategies, and more!
“Including kinesthetic activities in instruction has an incredible payoff for our students who are already, by their very nature, kinesthetic learners. The time to become a kinesthetic educator is, in fact, NOW!"
—David Argentati, Principal
Governor Mifflin School District
“This book gives us the confidence and ability to incorporate movement, music, and differentiation with meaning into our classrooms daily. This book will help you change student outcomes while having fun!"
—Wendy Miller, Principal & CEO
Challenge Charter School
“Building the connection between movement and learning calls for more personalized learning, brain friendly environments, less recall and more thoughtful application of knowledge, optimal conditions for eliciting intelligent behaviors, and respectful relationships that honor the learner.”
—Paul O'Neill, Director of Learning Innovation
The American School in Japan
"Awesome!! If you were to consider the list of instrumental people in a child's life who should be reading Ready, Set, Go - The Kinesthetic Classroom 2.0, it would have to include administrators, teachers and parents. It should undoubtedly also include education departments and professors at our Universities and Colleges producing our future educators. Anyone who has exercised knows what movement does for their self-esteem, psyche, and well-being. Including kinesthetic activities in instruction has an incredible payoff for our students who are already, by their very nature, kinesthetic learners. The time to become a kinesthetic educator is, in fact, NOW!"
"The Kinesthetic Classroom 2.0 is a must have resource for every educator seeking engagement at all age and skill levels. The Kinesthetic Classroom gave us the confidence and ability to incorporate movement, music, and differentiation with meaning into our classrooms daily. Now with even more research and strategies, Mike and Traci have taken that to the next level in Ready, Set, Go - The Kinesthetic Classroom 2.0. This book will help you change student outcomes while having fun!"
"There is a universal shift in education underway that has struck at the roots of every industrialized system of education. The result is a demand for more personalized learning, brain friendly environments, less recall and more thoughtful application of knowledge, optimal conditions for eliciting intelligent behaviors, constructivist tools and respectful caring relationships that honor the learner (Thom Markham, Redefining Smart: Awakening Students' Power to Re-imagine Their World).
This book and the ongoing work of the authors is a milestone for educators engaged in the push for brain friendly learning environments. Building the connection between movement and learning as a proactive stance to make learning environments more engaging is an amazingly simple building block. As an educational innovation this approach costs nothing more than a philosophical shift in thinking about how one frames learning and what is expected of learners in a more dynamic learning environment.
Having seen Michael Kuczala's impact on a cohort of teachers through a two day workshop experience and seeing the joy and enthusiasm to which teachers respond to this approach to learning, it has to be said that this body of work has a transformational capacity to change and improve learning outcomes exponentially.
This is not just something that expands the capacity for the fidgety kids who find it hard to concentrate for extended periods. This approach has capacity to change the learning environment for all. Compelling reading and even more exciting when applied to practice."