Teaching with the brain in mind second half

After reading the second half of Teaching with the Brain in Mind, I noted on a few points made in the text. It is amazing how social people are. We thrive on drama and relationships, but when I thought about it, I would have thought that these social interactions and cognitive development were two different things. In truth, they are dependent on each other. Not only have that, but the parts of the brain that process cognitive events process social events as well. As a teacher, it will be important to help our students create meaningful and positive social experiences so that they may develop in other aspects as well. I loved the diagram in the text that showed how emotional and social aspects such as heart rate, stress levels, and blood pressure can influence immune system, behaviors, and hormones. I know when I experience high levels of stress, I tend to start feeling sick, and I have to take time to relax. Another point I would like to note from the text is the section on motivation and demotivation. The most important part to me was to know the demotivations so that you wouldn’t need the motivations as often. Some of the demotivations included drug use, the sense that home and classroom work were irrelevant, and lack of positive relationships. Kids don’t need to like school, but they need reasons to keep coming back. Creating relevance in our lessons and presenting ourselves as positive individuals is important so that kids are drawn to school in some way. Finally, I appreciated the section on memory. It is amazing how even adults have a hard time retaining information. The chapter talks about how much of the things that we hardly ever forget are survival based such as eating, knowing our way home, and remembering positive and negative relationships. We remember these things so we can survive. Giving students a feeling of survival in school, without the danger of course, could help them retain information and help them be more prepared for the future.