Stretching our memory

Stretching our memory

This week we discussed memory skills and how we can improve our students' memories. The book gave us several examples of how our memory works and how our brain triggers different memories through words, pictures, movement, etc. We realized that one little distraction can change or make us lose our working memory. The only way to remember is to have your brain start again. 

Since we all teach young students, we agreed that the younger they are, the more easily they are to get distracted and forget something they learn. They need to practice a skill over and over in order to master it. Also, we discussed the topic of whether students are easily distracted or if they just have different levels of attention. We did agree that younger students remember things more easily when they are "doing" and "experiencing" something. This helps improve their working memory.

Today, our memories are not very strong because we have quick access to technology. We do not practice our working memory because our phones memorize people's numbers, our computers contain our passwords, etc. This technology makes us think that we do not need to use our memory, when in fact, our memories are an essential part of our lives.

At the end of PLC, we reflected on how our brain breaks went and decided that our task for next week would be to play a memory game with our class to improve their working memory.