Exploring the Brain

This article expands a bit on what was included about the frontal lobe in the video about the parts of the brain. I found it interesting that planning, as well as creativity, are conducted here and that depression can interfere with the functioning of this part of the brain. 
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=177208

There may be a connection between amygdala size and the size of a person's social network, according to this article. In addition, individuals with autism tend to have smaller amygdalas, but it is unclear if this is a cause or effect of difficulty socializing. I'm fascinated by the idea that parts of our brain can shrink. If we don't use a region of our brain, does it shrink/do we lose synapses? This makes me think that our ideas about our mental strengths and weaknesses are self-fulfilling. If we don't believe we are good at math; we don't do math; our "math" synapses begin to decrease in number. I may be taking this pseudoscience too far.

I noticed that several other people reflected on emotions and the brain. I've always tried to make students feel comfortable in my classes and to create a positive, safe learning environment. I'm not sure what else I can do besides breath new life into my lessons and make them more interactive. There is always room for improvement.

These conversations about emotions and learning make me think of the work done by Elaine Horwitz on language learning anxiety. While I respect Dr. Horwitz' research, that topic has never been terribly interesting to me because there doesn't seem to be a solution to the problem. What can teachers do beyond what they are already doing to support and accommodate these individuals? With adult learners, the learner must make efforts to address his/her anxiety. I'd like to see how other members of the EVO class address creating a positive classroom environment.     

Week 1 Reflection

I've been asked to respond to how learning about the brain helps me understand how my own brain works.  I found the video to be very positive. It emphasized the possibilities and potential of our brains. Sometimes I feel like I'm under utilizing my brain, but this course is forcing me to be a student again and to be more thoughtful and reflective. Right now, I'm imagining thousands of neurons in my brain firing at once, and one thought leading to an unexpected, tangentially related new thought. Does that explain why I struggle to stay focused on one thing for very long? Perhaps I should just embrace that as a function of my brain.

I'm eager to get past the introduction and into a more substantive exploration of learning and neuroscience. 

Braining-Up

I started this blog a few years ago to reflect on my experiences learning and teaching a second language. I will continue to use it as a place to reflect on my teaching and learning. I'm looking forward to participating in my first EVO, Braining-Up.

Reflections

I think I've learned something about language teaching. I'd like to continue my studies. I'm considering buying the book my university uses to teach Arabic.  My only concern is that I get an audiovisual component.

I realized that my own students in 7 weeks are finally able to express themselves. They can tell me what they like and don't like using basic language and what they did/are going to do. That's huge progress. That's also when language is fun.

For me, I'd like to be able to express myself more in Arabic. Finally, I've got demonstrative pronouns and some adjectives and nouns, and I can put them together. That is VERY SATISFYING. It is very frustrating to have nothing but words. I wish we'd spent more time with some more practical terms or using the nouns in phrases.

Lessons Learned: Any time I give students vocab, I need to give them a phrase or a dialogue they can use it with. Even "This is a dog." "I want a banana." It is way more interesting than just drilling nouns.

Learning a language is frustrating until you can do something with it.

I try to focus on really practical vocab.

I just learned at a conference that words shouldn't be taught in groups, eg. body parts, all together. I need to see that research so I know whether or not to believe it. They say it makes it confusing for the reader to distinguish between the words on a list.

Sixth Class

Not much to say about it.

We watched a video about the letters, and I realize that I still have a lot of work to do before I can really read easily. It's hard to focus on the words and sound them out. I need to spend more time learning the positions of the letters. I'd like some more digital flashcards, so I could get used to seeing letters in different positions, plus audio.

I really want to be able to read without the phonetic equivalent next to the word.

Fifth Class

I am posting this several weeks after the class.

It was a good class. I was the ONLY student. I was nervous after the previous week's experience, but I actually enjoyed it. I didn't feel so judged for my lack of mastery of vocabulary, and she realized I'd studied some of it.  I got a lot of praise, and she noted that I have good understanding of language based on my questions and my understanding of the lesson on vowels. It isn't that I'm good at ARabic, I'm not, I just like languages.

So I left class feeling good about things. 

Fourth Class

I am posting this several weeks after the class. 

I think I stopped posting because I was so embarrassed after this class. I'd had a busy week and hadn't studied much. My teacher spent half of the class reviewing old vocab and quizzing us. There were only 2 of us, and it was embarrassing.  I didn't remember a lot, and I hadn't studied all of the old words. I felt like the teacher was wasting time going over this old stuff, but she felt like we had to master the old before we could learn new. She kept saying things like, I remember I taught you this. Just because you've taught things, doesn't mean anyone remembered. 

The class improved once we starting learning something new. We could shine by applying that new knowledge, not by recalling vocab. We learned "this" and combined it with adjectives and nouns. This new dress, etc.

Lessons learned: It takes students multiple exposures to learn things.  Presenting the vocab in a new way rather than drilling it may be more effective. USING vocab helps build connections.  Drilling feels like a waste of time to students.

Language is arbitrary. I left thinking that although basic vocab seems SO Easy for a native speaker of the language, it is just gobbledygook for the learner until it is learned. It is meaningless sounds and symbols until it acquires meaning. We know the importance of helping students connect personally with a story, but they must also connect with the vocabulary.