I am back in class. We are preparing for the upcoming September. This year, as opposed to the two previous years, class is good, useful: Brain research and how to use it to organize our teaching.
Today I learned that they've studied the dreams of rats. No couches with rats stretched out remembering their mothers. No questions answered with questions. Only MRI's of little rats (or not so little rats) after they've spent a day doing repetitive activities. Their brains (when awake) show rainbow colors in certain areas telling the researchers which parts of their little rat brains are active during the repetitive tasks. Then, while asleep, the rat brains are monitored again and the rainbow of colors are in exactly the same spots as when the rats were awake. They are reliving their day.
Result? We create and store memories/knowledge not only when awake but when asleep. Our dreams are practice for our neurons, firing back and forth to create neural pathways so the next day, when asked to find the food in the maze, we know exactly what to do because we've practiced it again and again in our sleep.
Odd insight: We have mirror neurons. When we see someone doing a task, say mowing the lawn, our brains record (in an MRI) the exact color patterns (active areas) as the person who is actually mowing the lawn. Our brains learn by mirroring the activity visually by observing someone else doing the activity. This, researchers believe, is the reason why pornography is so addictive...when observing pornography, are brains are mirroring the same activities as the person actually IN the pornographic act.
How does this relate to teaching? No pornography, but still, those little ones are watching what we do whether they are aware of it or not, whether we are aware of it or not. Actions speak louder kind of stuff.
It makes me wonder many things, but today I wondered, "Does Bush dream?" and if so, "Do his neurons ever fire?"
While I'd rather be climbing another mountain or kayaking on a serene lake, I'm glad that this year's classes are interesting and useful.
Tonight I shall dream of waterfalls and canoes just to see if I can build memories of places I rather be than places I have to be.
3 comments:
Yes. Bush does dream. He dreams of cowboys and Indians, of toy soldiers who fall down but do not bleed, of tiny little planes flying around John Wayne's head, of a huge expanse of what looks like desert but which, in fact, turns out to be Karl Rove's forehead. He dreams of his wife, and of himself, rescuiing her from so many fierce library books. He dreams of the Doublemint Twins. He dreams of himself, but he is not a grown-up in the dream, he is a little boy, reading a book about a goat. The goat is good. The goat has a mama goat and a papa goat and then....oh no! ...something is happening. What. Is. It? What. Bad. Thing. Could. Be. Happening. To. The. Goat? Can Goats die? Can HE, little Georgie, die? In the dream, his mother stands in front of him, she hefts a big rock and aiming it right at.......
Sorry about cutting off Bookworms's story with a string of dots, but I had to sedate her. If she thinks about Bush (or Rummy) for more than ninety consecutive seconds, her synapses start snapping and I have to rush to her with a syringe filled with pinot noir.
lol you two!
lovely image, that falling water
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