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Kathleen - Teachers.Net welcomes guest moderator Beth Bruno, certified School Psychologist/Columnist for a session about Memory and Increasing Brain Power. Beth, what is 'brain power' and where can I get some?
Beth Bruno - Brain power, in my mind, includes things like curiosity and concentration. What does it mean to you?
Kathleen - Well, because I have a memory problem, I associate brain power with memory.
Beth Bruno - When do you feel your brain is at it's best (most powerful?)
Beth Bruno - What is your memory problem, Kathleen?
Kathleen - what memory problem?
Mary K&1 - Brain power to me means being able to think and reason things out
Beth Bruno - Foul!
Beth Bruno - No fair ducking the questions.
Kathleen - :-) I have difficulty remembering what I read, remebering numbers, sequence, which way to turn when I come out of the store in the mall
quest - brain power is perception, use of memory to integrate with new knowlesde to create a solution and my brain functions the best when I choose to engage in the activity
Beth Bruno - If people aren't sure when their brain power is highest, what tells you when it's low?
quest - obviously I forgot how to spell
Beth Bruno - yes, quest, integration of knowledge and the ability to absorb new knowledge and make it part of what you already know is an example of brain power.
Beth Bruno - Kathleen has described several kinds of memory - remembering what she reads, remembering numbers, and remembering spatial directions. Do others experience any of those?
Beth Bruno - That is, do others have problems with any of those?
quest - i find students have a real difficulty utilizing brain power in an inegrated way, they feel very uneasy to integrate old with new knowledge
Kathleen - uh, oh, I'm the only one with those problems????
Djinn - I think of memory also - many of us who are approaching menopause have short term memory loss - it's very frustrating!
Beth Bruno - I have trouble remembering totally new material that I read, but with some familiarity, new stuff sticks
Beth Bruno - How do some of the people here improve their memories?
Mary K&1 - What about creative thought - divergent thinking - going beyond the known
Beth Bruno - I make lists, concentrate harder, sometimes quiz myself.
Kathleen - I write things down to remind myself, it doesn't improve my memory
Suburb - I have heard that playing games is good in keeping your memory.
quest - depends on how the material is presented, I'm interested in knowing why some individals have keen recall while others need clues to retain thier memories
Kathleen - Read Beth Bruno's articles about Memory and Expanding Brain Power at http://www.teachers.net/FAQ/schoolhouse/bruno_index.html
Beth Bruno - in my experience, for some people it's genetic - for others, it's practice.
Beth Bruno - Also, people have certain skill areas in which memory is exceptional and others that it's poor.
Kathleen - In my case, it's genetic, my whole family has the same problem
Suburb - Alzhimers runs in my family, I am worried.
Beth Bruno - I like the question about creative, divergent thought. Mine is most "on" early in the morning. That's when I do my most creative writing.
Djinn - I had a photographic memory as a young person - now I have trouble finding my keys!
LittlePam - How do you remember all those phonic rules?
Mary K&1 - I think that the brain structure has a lot to do with how people learn and remember - some people are just born more lucky than others
Kathleen - Twelve Steps to a Better Memory by Carol Turkington http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0028605799/teachersnet
Beth Bruno - Yes, I too have a photographic memory. I can picture things that happened from toddlerhood!
Beth Bruno - brain enhancement website: http://www.selfgrowth.com/brain.html
Mary K&1 - I'm best after midnight - but then I pay for it the next day
Djinn - Beth- I used to picture the page and words during tests. The answers would scroll across my brain.
littlecommerce - Beth - have you written a book?
Beth Bruno - Yes, brain structure and also early learning. I think the first three years of life experience contributes greatly to later brain development
quest - i wish I could turn my brain off at times, I think too much sometimes
Kathleen - Brain Power: Easy Ways to Power Up Your Memory, Sensory Perception, and Intelligence by Arthur & Ruth Winter http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312154879/teachersnet
Beth Bruno - no, I haven't written a book - maybe I'll put a collection of articles together someday.
Djinn - Beth - do you think that's the reason that children who are raised in literate house holds usually read early? Their synapsis are prepared?
Mary K&1 - I can remember things from when I was one year old - I remember them with feelings and sights - no words
Kathleen - Well, all research seems to point to experiences during the first 3 years of life are crucial for brain development
Beth Bruno - Yes. their brains are stimulated from reading, music, lively interaction, knowledge that their parents have about child development
Mary/WA - Djinn, and if that's the case, then how can we remediate children coming to us with absolutely experiences with books?
Beth Bruno - from one year old? that's truly remarkable!
Djinn - I have read some articles that say that we are overstimulating our children from birth and that is why we have so many behavior problems etc now. Can you overstimulate a child that much?
Kathleen - Brain-Based Learning & Teaching by Eric Jensen http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0963783211/teachersnet
Beth Bruno - know what you mean about not being able to turn your brain off. It's annoying sometimes, isn't it?
Djinn - Mary- even stroke victims can relearn and develop new brain pathways
quest - I feel it is annoying to others more than to myself
Kathleen - I think there are different forms of stimulation, like the overstimulation of Sesame Street-type formats in tv programs.
Mary/WA - excuse -- that should say "absolutely NO experiences with books." I have an 87% bilingual building, and the majority of our kids have never held a book before they come to Kinder
Mary K&1 - I knew I remembered certain things, but didn't know how old I was until I was working on the family tree a few years ago and then realized how young I was when these things had happened
Beth Bruno - yes, I think children can be overstimulated. I think the kind of overstimulation that can be harmful is the passive kind, such as constant external input without much interaction.
Mary K&1 - Djinn, I know - my mother had a stroke and we went through a lot of rebuilding and relearning- using other parts of her brain
Kathleen - The kind of overstimulation seems to be the kind that raises the threshold of what a person requires later in order to be stimulated. Am I making myself clear?
Beth Bruno - I've watched adults constantly tickle their baby's feet - or constantly have TV-radio on- or loud music. I think that kind of stimulation can have negative effects.
Mary/WA - like my kids who've watched countless HOURS of TV, but have no book experiences? Some of our 2nd graders were in shock when their teacher told them that she read to her 5 month old.
Kathleen - For example, we all know that in the classroom there seems to be a need for ever-increasing amounts of stimulation to get (and hold) children's attention. Their attention spans are shorter and more fragile.
harricon - How about all the research on baroque music's effect on brain power?
quest - I also feel that using your brain is work and lot of our kids are not accustom to working ,I read somewhere that once a baby reaches and grasps an object that you should move the object a little further from its origin for a challenge and means to perservere
Djinn - Yes Beth I agree - too many do-dads haLOL- Beth I was thinking about how very LOUD our cafeteria was today and how my afternoon kinders were so wound up they couldn't settle today. Very over stimulated. So we went outside and ran .
Mary K&1 - Kathleen, I think I know what you mean, but I think that the stimulation that TV and such gives is too passive - does nothing for higher level thinking and problem solving
LittlePam - I'e heard that when teaching Phonemic Awareness that you should never use visual cues--do you think this is true?
littlecommerce - Don't visual cues help the brain make a connection
Kathleen - It seems that the stimulation children receive is passive, not interactive
Mary/WA - I don't, Pam. Best description of PA I've ever heard is "phonics in the dark."
Djinn - Speaking of TV - I think the Tele-tubbies are doing so much harm in reagards to language development. If a parent is using that program for a babysitter their child is definitely getting the wrong idea about communication
Beth Bruno - there is a great deal of research about autism and brain development. I'm not up to date on the findings.
Kathleen - Pam, I haven't heard that about teaching phonemic awareness without visual cues, but I suppose the intent is to avoid distracting from the auditory
Beth Bruno - The best way to learn more is through a search engine (like Metacrawler)
Djinn - Pam- what if the child is a visual learner?
Mary K&1 - LittlePam - I don't think that is the best thing to do - you should use both - not everyone learns the same way - use visual to get to the auditory for some kids and auditory to get to the visual with others - no one way serves everyon well
Beth Bruno - I agree that multisensory approaches help most young children learn more effectively (just about anything).
Beth Bruno - I also think that children get an overabundance of visual stimulation and not enough good quality auditory.
quest - when my kids, 6th graders, use music to learn their math rules and procedures, they remember so much
Djinn - Many parents are not giving their child the one on one conversations that our mothers modeled for us. It is so important in language aquisition - acknowledge approximate model
LittlePam - Beth, can you give us some examples of good quality auditory?
pescado - Beth--What can you offer about the relationship between memory and visualization. Sometimes when I'm trying to remember an incident/item/word/whatever from the past, I "picture" it in context and then I can actually "read" what I was attempting to remember. Is this a common tool?
Beth Bruno - When I taught flute, I encouraged my students to practice in the dark. It's wonderful for ear training.
Kathleen - Beth, I agree, children aren't developing visual memory, not constructing
Beth Bruno - Yes, visualization is a great memory tool. So is recalling sound/word sequences. I have two children - one a visual learner, the other an auditory one.
Djinn - Beth - I see my students creating their own pneumonic devices - lookingfor cues in familiar classroom objects
Beth Bruno - Both my kids got equal scores on general tests of mental ability, but the visual learner was stronger in math and the auditory learner was stronger in languages.
quest - Isn't amazing how two children from the same parents can have totally different memory styles, birth order???
Teach - Once the memory begins to fail, is there any way to regain it?
Beth Bruno - Djinn, tell us more about the mnemonic devices your students create.
Mary K&1 - Everyone's brain works a bit differently - so in the classroom you must approach everything with and through all or at least as many of the differnt modes as possible, don't you think this is true?
Beth Bruno - Yes, Mary, I agree. We need to present lessons using all the senses we can, so students with different strengths, get it.
Djinn - Beth- they are so funny - even after I have removed a chart or sentence strip. Some will look to that location and remember the information
Mary K&1 - quest - I don't think that it's so much birth order as it is just that they are put together a bit differently
Mary K&1 - Djinn, I still do that :-\
Beth Bruno - I think there are many ways to improve memory.
Djinn - and of course, we make up little songs and chants for memory
Beth Bruno - Have you ever tried to beat a 4 year old at the game - Concentration? They're amazing at that game!
Kathleen - Music (rhythm) seems to be a great help for memorization
Djinn - We are learning to count to 20 in ASL and Spanish - those little fingers really move when we count
Beth Bruno - As we get older, we may not remember details as well, but I think we remember concepts much better.
Kathleen - Beth, probably because we can associate better, easier to internalize
quest - I agree we shoul present information in a gamut of ways which is quality instruction and time consuming, is there any updates on how much time one should stay on a concept to enhance long term memory?
Beth Bruno - That's neat - that you notice children use rhythm to help them remember. I bet that would help me, too.
Kathleen - quest, probably differs a great deal from student to student. What do you think?
Beth Bruno - Length of time isn't the key variable. I think returning to it from different perspectives is.
Mary K&1 - quest - doesn't that differ from person to person? Also, I've read that the more modalities you incorporate into learning something new, the learning time is much shorter
Kathleen - Hi, tiffCO, we're talking about brain power and memory, join right in :-)
Beth Bruno - When a child can teach something to a friend (or back to you as the teacher), you know he/she's got it!
pooh - Mary K I would have to agree the more learning styles you accomadate the better retention for the child
Beth Bruno - How do you get your students to think "out of the box?"
Beth Bruno - Is there tolerance among the other students for divergent thinking?
Kathleen - I think 5-6 year olds are still pretty good at thinking "out of the box". That seems to fade with age.
quest - Visualization
Mary K&1 - Beth, what's "out of the box"?
Kathleen - Introduction to Brain Compatiable Learning by Eric P. Jensen http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1890460001/teachersnet
pooh - Beth I use cooperative learning in my room this really helps my speakers of another language
Kathleen - Thinking creatively
pooh - Beth I use cooperative learning in my room this really helps my speakers of another language
Beth Bruno - Out of the box is thinking in unusual and different ways - coming up with ideas others may never have thought of before.
quest - Jensen book is a good resource, we used it as a professional growth series discussion
Kathleen - pooh, and do you find that the kids often know how to teach each other more effectively than some of our attempts to do so?
Mary K&1 - Oh, divergent thinking - I ask a lot of "what else" and "how else"
DEE - Kathleen I find that another can explain something and they seem to understand
Kathleen - And beyond divergent thinking to creating
quest - what do you think about standards and bechmarks in enhancing memory for long term access?
pooh - Kathleen I can swear by it. My math scores were the highest in third grade on the CAT scores and I use cooperative learning mainly in math
Kathleen - How the Brain Learns by David A. Sousa http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0803967608/teachersnet
Beth Bruno - Do most of you encourage cooperative learning - kids learning from each other, including how to correct each others' mistakes?
DEE - my kids love to work together on projects
Djinn - Kindergarten is very much a cooperative classroom. We all help each other.
pooh - According to Literacy First 90% of learning takes place by doing, and teaching others only 10% by stand and deliver
Kathleen - My favorite times in the classroom are when the kids are productive and working together without any input from me.
Beth Bruno - I'm not sure I understand your question, quest.
Mary K&1 - Cooperative learning with five year olds is different than with older kids - quite often 5s are still too egocentric to get into forced cooperative situations - know what I mean?
quest - Yes inded, as a matter of fact all math brainwork(homework in my class) is assigned in groups to be placed on an overhead transparency, then present information to class which listen for accuracy and reasoning. They love it and they don't realize how much work theyre doing.
Kathleen - Realted to this discussion would be learning theory, so here is a site full of links to information about learning and learning theories: http://www.tiac.net/users/lsetter/learn.htm
pooh - Mary it can be done first you have to sell them that they are a family and that families help each other
Beth Bruno - I think brain power is also enhanced by mystery and ambiguity
Kathleen - Beth, interesting, please explain
quest - Beth, my question is realted to standardized tests based on Standards of Learning?
Djinn - Mary _ I did a lot of coopertive grouping with 5th graders. You are right - whole different ball game.
DEE - how realible do you think those standardized test are?
Djinn - Beth - do you mean the "how comes" and what if's?
Beth Bruno - I think we like to provide answers and wrap tasks up in neat packages instead of staying with discovery and no answers for awhile.
Mary K&1 - pooh, yes, I understand that, but there are times - often when they are still doing their own thing, even when in a group - but when they invent the activity - like during play time, that's when I observe more cooperation
Beth Bruno - Kids need to learn how to enjoy and bask in ambiguity and discovery.
Kathleen - Beth, please expound on the ambiguity portion, I'm not understanding
Beth Bruno - Yes, I mean the how comes and what ifs and the "I don't know" - and that it's fine not to know.
Kathleen - ok, I understand. Yes, that is an important part of being a teacher, being able to nurture the sense of wonder, not necessarily being able to (or willing to) provide the answer.
Beth Bruno - One area of learning that is full of ambiguity is learning about our emotions.
Mary K&1 - Is that like "free exploration"?
quest - I agree Beth, learning should be taught as a quest with a multitudeof possibilities and I believe that the quest of knowing is the spirit behind a democratic society!!!!!!!
Kathleen - If we expose kids only to what we understand, we are limiting them, not nurturing imagination, creative thinking, problem solving
Beth Bruno - Emotional intelligence, as some people call it, is a rich and fascinating area of learning for young children.
DEE - What happens to the kids creativity when they leave the primary level?
Kathleen - the teaching of Science is full of the what if, and I wonder why, and isn't that interesting, I don't know why or how that happens
Djinn - Beth- do you have a resource for emotional intelligence?
Beth Bruno - I think we all have tremendous reservoirs of creativity all of our lives.
quest - EQ is te key to motivation and motivaton is the key to do
Beth Bruno - Yes, read Daniel Goldman's work on emotional intelligence. He's a fantastic writer.
DEE - I think everyone has creativity also but when kids is in upper grades they do not use it.
Beth Bruno - Do you think teachers gradually introduce less creativity because there is so much text and skills to cover?
Beth Bruno - in the higher grades, that is.
Mary K&1 - DEE, maybe they are afraid to use it
pooh - I think creativity goes out the window as schools and states are forcing moe teachers to "TEACH TO THE TEST"
DEE - I think some teacher or so concerned with be grammically correct the kids are afraid to express themself.
Beth Bruno - Some people think that we hold our creative ideas and expression back as we get older, but that the abilities are still there.
Djinn - I have found that kids in upper grades really 'get" the material if they are allowed to use drama and art as a tool for learning
quest - Yes they do but what they don't realize that more will be retain for long term memory when taught in sesory approaches which is based in creativity and criticial thinking
pooh - Allowing children to write in an ungraded joural is the best to get creavity juices flowing
DEE - Spelling is great but what is wrong with creative spelling when getting your ideas down,
Beth Bruno - using drama and journal writing - yes - both are wonderful tools.
Kathleen - Judging by the inventions and innovations our society is turning out, maybe we needn't be as alarmed as we are about how much students are learning and how creatively they think.
Beth Bruno - It's already 10:00! Where did the hour go? Thanks, everyone for coming
pooh - Dee thats great on rough copies! I tell my kids just write don't think about spelling mistakes we will catch them later
quest - Late bloomers like me never seem to give up on crerativity and remember Solomon, he grew to bea pretty creative, criticial thinker with divergent skills
Beth Bruno - we can all let our brains wind down now. :-)
Kathleen - The hour went quickly, again! Thank you Beth for another interesting conversation! And thank you to all participants!
Djinn - Thak you Beth- this has been a wonderful conversation
DEE - pooh that sounds great but all teachers do not agree with me. They think it must be right the first time
Beth Bruno - Anybody have some ideas for next month's chats? Write to me at bbruno@snet.net
Kathleen - A terrific resource: Brain Enhancement Related web sites related to Brain Power: http://www.selfgrowth.com/brain.html
Beth Bruno - Good night, all.
