Brain rules: strategies for stressed brains: mind mapping
Stressed brains don’t learn the same. Every brain is wired differently. Students will forget 90% of what you say in the classroom unless you find a way to help them remember it. The only way to help them remember it is to build pathways in the brain. The facts on this subject are covered in a wonderful book by a man named John Medina, Brain Rules, 12 principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School. To help someone remember what they have learned in the classroom use these proven techniques:
1. Create and accepting environment
2. Vary novelty and risk versus challenge so there is a good balance
3. Vary sensory stimulation. (5 sense: sight/visual. tactile/touch, movement, smell, taste)
4. Vary social demands.
Every student and thus every classroom is different. The teacher will reflect to what will work for those children and provide options that will work for them.
Since people forget 90% of what they learn in three days it is vital to build pathways in the brain by practice and understanding. First, the teacher will elaborate and expand on the learning. She will model what it is she’s teaching and show how it looks when it is completed. She will make it meaningful, by putting it in a contextual relevance and connecting to something that the students already know. She will make it link to something. She might use a technique called mind mapping. Here is an example of how to do some “mind mapping” (which can be adjusted based on the age of students learning).
