Brain Gym® Q & A – How to implement Brain Gym® at my school with limited budget?

Amy Choi, April 30, 2011

Question form Mr. Li from Hong Kong: How can I implement Brain Gym® at my school? We only have limited budget. Is there any solution?

Amy Choi’ s answer: Dear Mr. Li, Thanks for your enquiry. Brain Gym® can be implemented at any school with any level of budget. It depends on the goals of the school, how deeply and how widely the school would like to implement it.

The deepest way is to invite and subsidize interested principles, teachers and parents, etc. to finish the Brain Gym® Instructor/Consultant Programme. (total about 158 training hours + case studies). Your budget will be around HK$25,000/person, and will take 1-2 years. Those who get trained can implement Brain Gym® at school by training other parents, teachers, and can integrate Brain Gym® with other school programmes, such as classes for gifted and remedial students, classes for exams, competitions, performances, etc. They can also do private sessions for those who wish to improve their learning skills. If you adopt this suggestion, it is better that you look for those who are interested in the subject, and the source of funding should come partly from the school, and partly from the trainees themselves. This way, you are more likely to get the motivated people to join the programme. If you’d like to introduce new ideas and cultures such as Brain Gym® in your school, you need the support of most teachers and parents. Thus, it is better to do it step by step. Do it on certain groups or levels first. Notice the improvements and results before going onto the next step. This way, you slowly build a “movement-based learning” school culture, where everyone learns to honour the pace of each student, to look at the value and importance of building physical skills for learning for students. Some organizations in Hong Kong have adopted this solution, e.g. Heep Hong Society, Sheng Kung Hui, and some schools. Some organizations in mainland China have also adopted the same approach. Please note that the school management will face the risk of loosing trained expertise – so it is always good to send in at least 2-3 people at a time.

In the short and medium term, the school can invite any licensed Brain Gym® Instructor/Consultant to do training for their parents, teachers and kids. We offer training from an hour to a few days. Introductory workshop includes Brain Gym® 26 Activities (7 training hours), Double Doodle Play(7 to many training hours), Brain Gym® 101(28 training hours). Some schools have integrated Brain Gym® activities into their orientation camp, other learning experiences (OLE) and have invited our instructors to lead the programmes. There are other short courses too.

Your school may also consider creating a post called Brain Gym® Consultant to help device Brain Gym® strategies and facilitate implementation of these strategies.

You can also consider our Brain Gym-related products besides our training programmes, e.g. Brain Gym® books, teaching aids, DVDs, etc., to help implement and promote the programmes.

If you have other question, please contact me again. Thank you!

Brain Gym® is a registered trademark of the Educational Kinesiology Foundation/Brain Gym® International.www.braingym.org