Kids & Brain Power
I love Brain Research and wanted to share some tips;
You can help your child train their brain to help them remember things that they are studying. Here are four things you can practice with your child to help them be a ‘better thinker’.
________________________________________
1. Make Connections
Make the things you want to remember connect to you in some way. So, when you are trying to learn an idea, try to see how it can connect from your experiences to the topic you are studying. If you can make a connection, you can remember how the things go together, making personal connections is sure fire way to transfer the new information into long term memory.
2. Close Your Eyes And Visualize
Try to picture in your mind what you wish to remember. For example, if you are trying to remember that Columbus landed in 1492, you might want to close your eyes and visualize, or see a picture of Columbus on his ship with you by his side holding up a card with the date 1492 painted on the side.
3. Make it silly and or fun
Have them act it out and remember to laugh A LOT!
Repeat, Repeat, Repeat!
If you have to remember a list of words, for example, read it once and do this over and over again until you know it. Repeating what you have to remember can help burn the information into your memory
Sheri, nice blog! Great tips for helping remember things. I really like your layout and your idea for your blog. I like the third tip: Make it silly and or fun. To teach my anatomy kids the flow of the blood through the body and heart, I make them all stand up and do this foolish little dance with me. They always comment on how dumb it is between laughs and giggles, but you know, they don't soon forget it!
ReplyDeletePaul.
I love the visualization idea. Some kids have trouble picturing things unless you actually teach them how to visualize. Great ideas!! Thanks
ReplyDeleteSheri, those are great tips! I've found that making the visualization as silly or absurd as possible makes it stick in your mind the best. This combines two of your tips! Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteGreat tips Sheri. The brain is very impressionable! Kids and adults alike have to have a way to remember things. I am amazed at those who have photographic memories. I have to memorize a seating chart and visualize the students to learn their names at the beginning of the year.
ReplyDeleteThe brain like any other muscle in the body functions more smoothly if it is kept in tip top shape; Brain Gym is one way to activate students brains, “Quantum Learning”, ‘UNLEASHING THE GENIUS IN YOU’ suggests the following ideas (brain-activations) to do with students before starting class;
ReplyDeleteThink of new uses for old things (class discussion)
Do crossword puzzles and or word games
1 word whole class story (ex: Sam-ONCE, Tom-UPON, Alex-A, Jaime-TIME, Amy-A, Brittany-DOG, Lizzy-FLEW, Kim-INTO, John-A, Zach-SCHOOL....)
River of Words (go up and down the rows and as quickly as the students can come up with 1 word that starts with the same letter, ex: RIVER-RICK-ROCK-RESCUE-ROBIN), make it fun by having the class beat their prior time.
Sheri, it's amazing how powerful the brain can be when we let it. In your post, item 2, Close Your Eyes And Visualize, reminded of a story I once heard about the power of visualizing. A basketball coach split his team into three groups. The first group was told to practice free-throws at the hoop. The second group was told to practice free-throws at the hoop but without basketballs (just go through the motions). The coach told the third group to go home, lie down and close their eyes and just visualize themselves shooting free-throws. After some time, the three groups came back together. The group with the highest actual free-throw percentage was the group who only visualized themselves shooting free-throws, followed by the group who practiced without the ball, then the group that actually practiced real free-throws. The point I think this story makes is of the power of visualization--the players who visualized themselves shooting free-throws never missed! So, when it came time for the actual performance, their brains were trained to make the shots.
ReplyDeleteThanks for great information. I'm going to try some of those things for myself. I generally am not good with names, so I'll start there.
ReplyDeleteAlso, some brain research said there is also a way to make sure the students remember nothing. The part of the brain that decides what to do with sorting information is in the same part of the brain that deals with emotion. So if a student is scared or emotionally upset the only information that matters to his brain has to do with survival. Since when Columbus took his voyage is not survival based, that information would not be saved. Students not only deserve to feel safe at school, they need to feel safe in order to learn.