Chapter 6 Learning Log

What? Long term memory had infinite capacity, but short term memory and attention has limited capacity. No matter how interesting something may be, we can only learn so much so fast, and we can only retain so much information in our short term memory. In order to learn something efficiently, you need to give the learning process your undivided attention in order to retain that information. That is, you must mentally focus on it and temporarily make it the center of your cognitive world. Then, you need to make it meaningful. If you don't think it's important or there's no reason to remember that information, the brain will not recognize it as a priority to remember it.
So what? It is important to know this information because teachers need to know why it's important to remember things, and how students can remember. If we as teachers know how students can remember information, we will be able to teach in a more effective way. If we teach our students ways to remember information and teach them why it is important to give their undivided attention to the lessons, they will be able to use those skills in the future when they need to remember even more important things like for college or their jobs.
Now what? In the classroom, I will be sure to always emphasize the importance of understanding information, and I will let my students know over and over again that if they don't understand what's going on in the unit, they must come and meet with me so we can get it into their long term memory and they can recognize it as important. I will not only emphasize this in my words but also in my activities, assignments and assessment practices. I will do my best to make learning meaningful so my students will be able to feel success more often and be able to actually learn how to learn.