Google’s Gifts for Supporting Adolescent Development and Promoting Executive Function

Outline

Introductions and Finding Our Why (10-15 minutes)
* Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their own observations of students’ level of independence and executive function in the classroom
∙ “Think, Pair, Share” to see if participants can identify the issues and possible root causes.
∙ Collectively, we will create a list of goals for the session based on the needs we perceive
* Present research about the adolescent brain’s development and how it relates to learning.
* Compare the science to what educators already see and know from their experiences. (The discussion comes back to our preserved goals)

Share the Resource and “Create Your Own PD“ voting (5-10 minutes)
* I will create a Google Slide presentation as a shareable resource.
∙ The resource will have categories such as: organization, goal setting and planning, autonomy and self-monitoring, and decision-making.
∙ Each category will have tips, tricks, or workflows created with Google Workspace to promote these skills
* Participants will be allowed to vote for the topics they would like to explore live during the presentation (I typically use Padlet to upvote topics).
* Regardless of the votes, each participant will be able to keep the resources to try all of the strategies on their own

Live demonstrations of the Create Your Own PD (45-60 minutes)
* I will provide live demonstrations of the chosen topics until we run out of time within the session.
* Participants will follow along, test the tips and tricks on their own devices, and interject with their own ideas, questions, and enthusiasm.
* These presentations are very casual and conversation-like. There is a strong give-and-take attitude between me and the participants.

Supporting research

1. The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults by Frances E. Jensen and Amy Ellis Nutt Jensen (Jensen & Nutt, 2015)
I discovered this book during a presentation at the Model Schools Conference in Washington D.C (June 2019), and it sparked my hobby research into adolescent brain science as an educator, specifically chapters 2-6.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Teenage_Brain/0q5ZAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1

2. Adolescence as a Sesitive Period of Brain Development (Furhmann et al., 2015) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364661315001722

3. Cognitive Development in the Teen Years (Cognitive Development in Adolescence, n.d.) https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=cognitive-development-in-adolescence-90-P01594

4. A Flourishing Brain in the 21st Century: A Scoping Review of the Impact of Developing Good Habits for Mind, Brain, Well-Being, and Learning (Ekman et al., 2021, 13-23) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mbe.12305

5. Executive Function Activities for Adolescents (Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University) https://harvardcenter.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Activities-for-Adolescents.pdf