Attention

As learners, at times it can be challenging to learn new things. I think that this comes in part because learners want to be entertained. I believe that students constantly look to the teacher to provide us to meaningful, interesting facts and details. And, while this can be challenging for a teacher, I think that students are right to feel this way. In fact, I would argue that students’ brains almost demand this. If is as if brains are shouting, “Give me a reason to pay attention, or I am not paying attention at all!"

When information is given, brains quickly take in all of the information given. Here, there is absolutely no limit as to what the brain can take in! However, here is the kicker: if one does not pay special attention to it, after just a split second all of that information suddenly vanishes. At this point, although your brain has seen or heard the information, it is simply unable to retrieve it. This is known as the sensory memory.

While this may sound a little discouraging, there is an important fact to note here: attention can change everything! If brains are able to pay attention to something, information will not suddenly vanish. This attention enables information to be moved from the sensory memory to the short-term memory. Once here, after a process known as encoding, information can be passed on to long-term memory.

With all of this in mind, it is no wonder why students’ brains are begging for some sort of reason to pay attention. If there is there is no reason to pay attention, nothing will be processed into short-term memory, let alone long-term memory. And, if that is the case, nothing will be learned. However, if brains’ find that reason to pay attention, it will make all the world of difference. In this case, students are able to truly learn new things.

This knowledge has undoubtedly impacted me as a student. At time point, I understand that I need to honestly pay attention in order to learn anything. However, with this in mind, I know that I cannot leave my learning responsibility on the shoulders of my teachers. I know that I must do what I can in order to want to pay attention in class.

With that, I have had to learn various strategies to focus my attention during my studies. One way that I have done this is by allowing my brain to take breaks when it needs it. There are periods of times when I feel that I have given my brain a sort of overload. In these instances, it seems that my brain cannot possibly take any information; I have been studying for too long. When this happens, I take a little break and then I go back to work. As I have done this, I have noticed that I am better able to process new information. Here, I feel as if I am more capable of learning new things.

With this information, I know that I can better myself as a future teacher. The following are three ways in which I plan to go about doing that:

1. When I begin a new lesson, I know that I am going to have to work to gain the students’ attention. In order to do this, I will strive to have good anticipatory sets.
2. During a lesson, as the students’ are starting to loose attention, I will do things that enable the students to hold that attention that is needed. I could begin talking softer, change the light, show a picture, etc. At this point, I would just need to do something that makes the brain want to pay attention.
3. I understand that the students learn most at the beginning of a lesson, as well as at the end. Obviously, this means that the middle of a lesson gets pretty foggy for students. Knowing that, I know that I can take the time to have mini “brain breaks”. With these, I hope that more learning can take place.

The Brain

These past few weeks I have learned much about the brain. To start, I have learned that there are many misconceptions about the brain; there have been many things that I have supposed to be true, but are truly false. Of these things, unfortunately, I have found that I am not good at multitasking. Furthermore, I have come to realize that I am not a left or a right brain thinker. This fact alone brought me great surprise. And as if these two things were not astonishing enough, I came to learn more of how the brain functions. These few weeks, without a doubt, have been very interesting. 

To mention a few interesting things about the brain, I have realized that the brain uses 20% of my calories each day. That is quite a bit! With that in mind, I have learned that I constantly need to keep my brain fuel. My brain needs sufficient water, oxygen, and glucose to keep going. Without these things, my body sends signals (that are most times uncomfortable) that let me know that I am missing something. It is all quite amazing. 

In learning how the brain works, I have come to realize that I am in desperate need of a new lifestyle. In the past, I have always considered myself a busy body. I would arise in the morning, rush out the door, and I would frequently find that I had forgotten to eat anything for breakfast. A few hours would past and I could feel that my body was upset with me; it needed some sort of fuel. However, for the most part, I chose to ignore these feelings of an upset body. I felt that I did not have time to eat. To make matters worse, I found that I rarely made time to drink water. By the end of the day, my body felt tired and my brain was fried. It seemed like I did have the energy to make it through the day.

Well, as mentioned from above, I have realized that my brain needs fuel to function! That being said, I have begun the process of changing my lifestyle. Each morning, I make time to eat breakfast. Before rushing out the door, I throw a few snacks in my backpack to give me strength through a crazy day. To top it off, I now keep a water bottle handy. I am now supplying my brain with enough fuel to make it through the day. In doing this, I have seen great results! Now, I am able to make it through a busy day without feeling so drained; I actually have a bit if energy by the time my day comes to an end. It has been a great experience. 

In realizing these new concepts about the brain, I now have ideas to implement as a teacher. These ideas include the following:

1. I want to have a supply of fruit within my classroom. When my students start to feel hungry, I want to be able to supply them with a piece of fruit. I hope this would give their brain a kick-start.
2. After the students have been working for a long while, I want the students to get up and have a brain break!
3. In addition to having fruit for my students, I always want the students to have access to water at anytime of the day. They can bring their own water bottles, or I can supply water. I know that water is so important.