How Your Brain Learns!

Your brain is composed of 100 billion neurons that work together to form who you are and how you think (Carey, 2014, p. 3). Today, we are going to discuss how your brain learns and what we will do this year to help your brain learn more efficiently in class.

Your brain is split into two hemispheres (right and left) that work together to form short and long term memories. Your right brain is the visually creative artist that focuses on the "big picture" while your left brain is the logical story telling analyzer that worries about the details (McCrone, 2000). The importance of the left brain lies in that it makes sense of the information being processed by making stories to create meaning. It can to be engaged through hearing and creating stories (Gots, 2012).

This year, we will begin each lesson with a story that connects to the material being covered to help engage the storyteller in your mind. Plus, we will build in times during the lesson to allow discussion and application (can you apply what you learned into real world situations) of the material learned.

The information that your brain takes in is not stored in files, but it is embedded (insert) in pervious learning and experiences to form new memories and overriding old memories (Carey, p. 20).

This year, we will work on embedding content from the lesson by using various formats of learning like accessing previous background knowledge, building background through in-class experiences, demonstrations, projects and videos.

Forgetting is an essential part of the learning process.

• Forgetting can work as a filter to weed out spam (Carey, p.22)
• It can help us stay focused on new material (p.23)
• It can block background noise (p.24)
• It can breakdown memory to be rebuilt later-on (p.24)

This year, we will use this "Power of Forgetting" to deepen learning by setting moods when we learn and learning to study purposefully. We will also learn effective study habits that will allow for optimal long-term memory and higher ordered thinking.

This year, we will work on expanding your storage and retrieval strength by spacing out study times, pretesting and using tests to study. There will be a big push towards presenting and teaching others what you learned (Carey, 2014).

The goal for this year is to create independent, critical thinkers who have the ability to learn, think and apply their learning to positively change their world. The video below goes into greater depth into the potential of adolescent students and how they were born to learn. Enjoy!

Students and Parents: Please feel free to contact me anytime. I look forward to working with you this school year.

See you soon,

Amy McLaughlin - Bowman

Together, we can do anything. ~ Dora

Email: amy.bowman@bryanisd.org
Location: Sam Rayburn Middle School, North Earl Rudder Freeway, Bryan, TX, United States
Phone: 979 209-6600
Twitter: @imcteach

Carey, B. (2014). How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It

Happens. New York, NY: Random House.

Gots, J. (2012) Your Storytelling Brain. Retrieved from

http://bigthink.com/overthinking-everything-with-jason-gots/your-storytelling-brain

McCrone, J. (2000). 'Right Brain' or 'Left Brain' - Myth Or Reality?. Retrieved from

http://blog.culturaldetective.com/2015/03/03/how-storytelling-affects-the-brain/