Blog #2
What helps me remember things… COLOR CODING!!!
Color coding has literally been a life saver over my many years of quizzes, tests, and homework alongside athletic practice and club meetings. Dedicating a color to one activity or class and then only putting that color ink down for that activity is life changing!! Not only am I way more organized, but I am also a lot less stressed. I will definitely be finding time in my day to teach my future students this amazing skill. I will also color coordinate different subjects within my classroom in order to help my students can stay organized and hopefully remember assignments, quizzes, and tests easier. Branching of this idea of coordinating, writing things down has always helped me communicate easier and I believe that will also work for most, if not all of my students. This way they will have a written reminder of what they need to do. I write things in a planner so hopefully my students will be able to get one, if one is not already supplied by the school. I also will put things in my phone planner as well, just for a little extra reminder. So, if I have students with phones I will allow them to do this during class.
It is very important that when planning a lesson or design we think about how our cognitive abilities are relevant to our memory. One thing to always consider is our students short-term memory and that without a lot of repetition new information will not reach a student’s long-term memory. A lot of what we teach in school we want to reach our students brain closet, also known as their long-term memory. So, whether it is a new concept or a reminder of an important upcoming date, it is important to discuss it at least three time, and depending on the age level maybe more. However, be sure not to be to consistent when teaching your learners and creating lessons because this can become a bad thing. You do not want your learners to become habituated, a teacher should always switch up their teaching methods to keep lessons fun and fresh. You can create games and role-playing activities to try and switch up the daily classroom routine. This will not only keep the students from being bored, but get them interested about what is being taught to them. The more engaged you can get your learners to be, the more likely they are to retain the information being taught to them.
Computer and technology based learning have several implications on both our learning and our memory. This type of learning is becoming more and more popular in schools as they have begun supplying tablets or laptops for their students. This of course can be both helpful AND harmful. Let’s start with the benefits of using technology to learn and our memories. For one, if you forget something you will most likely be able to find the answer online, learn it, and hopefully get it stuck in your memory. Another benefit is there are so many more resource online than in just one textbook provided by the school, so the student will be re-reading things they learned in class, to help that info move to the long-term memory and some new, potentially helpful information. The amount of resources could potentially be harmful online though because of all the false information posted on the internet. Students are able to take notes in tablets and laptops, which is helpful because they can color coordinate it easier and store it to go back to later. Technology could have poor effects on a student’s memory because of how easy it is to get distracted and off topic while online. A student cannot learn and put new information into their closet if they are not doing the correct thing in the first place. Some kids do not work as well on electronics than they would be able to with a pen and paper so that could seriously affect their learning as well.