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Long term, short term, and sensory are types of memory that give us an enormous amount of information that has stored everything from people's names, birthdates, how to ride a bike, math facts, past feelings, and more.

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Memory is the faculty by which the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information as well as helping to guide us for future actions based on past experiences (Psychology Today, n.d.).

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The hippocampus, commonly referred to as resembling a seahorse, has an important role in memory and learning as it takes information from working memory and converts it over to long-term storage. Without this part of the brain working correctly, memory can be negatively affected.

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The amygdala also has an important part of memory and has the possibility of connecting our emotions to past experiences. This is important to know as educators when working with students as they may recall memories related to negative emotions and feelings. This area of the brain is attached to end of the hippocampus and is small like an almond.

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This type of memory is like the unlimited data file you have always dreamed of having. Our long term memory has an unlimited storage capacity and is located in our cerebral cortex of the brain (DiTullio, 2021). It is responsible for two categories known as explicit memory and implicit memory. Explicit memory is being able to consciously recall information or experiences whereas implicit is just the opposite and is where we unconsciously recall information from our memory on how to perform tasks like tying shoes, riding a bike, or even washing our hands.

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Short term memory can also be referred to as our working memory and has a very limited capacity. When students are young, they are unable to store as much information in their working memory because they just don't have the capacity as compared to say a high school students. Same with their attention spans. Younger students have a hard time focusing for longer periods of time, hence is why it is important for educators to have engaging lessons that don't require a lot of sitting or lecturing.

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Memory, whether short, long-term, or sensory, helps us to adapt to the situations we encounter based on past experiences. Memory also helps to learn from those past experiences and then adapt to changes in our current situations helping us to then move forward.

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We first start by what is called encoding. When a person is focusing on something and the details surrounding it, they are encoding. The details are being stored in a person's brain because they are paying attention to the detail of what is happening and making it personal for themselves (Psychology Today, n.d.).

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After a person encodes information, it is then stored or preserved in what it called a memory. This process is referred to as retention. However, some of the information does not stay and quickly goes away during this process. This would make sense as I watch student with ADHD especially have a difficult time storing information as they have a hard time paying attention to detail for an extended period of time.

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What are these little fires in my brain?

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What are these little fires in my brain?

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Those are the little neurons that are making memories! When we are creating a memory, each neuron in our brain fires through a process called synaptic awareness. When there is repeated firing of these neurons, it binds them together forming a memory trace also known an an engram (Sousa, 2022).

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We have all been told that how we make others feel can have the biggest impact on what happens next. The same is true for teaching. How we make our students feel and how we deliver our lessons to make learning enjoyable and engaging can help in the process of retention. How the learner processes new information presented to them has a significant impact on the quality of what is learned and is a major factor in determining whether and how it will be retained (Sousa, 2022).

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How to we make the information stay put in our brain?

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How to we make the information stay put in our brain?

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As educators, we want to see our students succeed! The lessons that we spend hours preparing and delivering, ultimately we want our students to come away with knowing and retaining the information from.

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As educators, we should be looking for ways to get students engaged in lessons so that we are not just lecturing them. This can happen through a variety of ways such as, chants, rhymes, songs, turn and talk, matching games, sorting activities, share the pen activities, just to name a few. Not only do these get students involved, but also help to work on memory retention, focus, and transfer of information.

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When teaching a new concept to students, more often than not, the information will not stay in their working memory the first time. Therefore, we need to rehearse what was taught. This simply means, as educators, we need to allow students time for repetition and processing of the information. This is different from just practice. Giving students time to rehearse, allows for the information to transfer to working memory. But wait...what if it needs more time?

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Time is of the essence! If a student can not make a connection in the first rehearsal of the information than chances are that it is lost and not stored in their working memory. If we allow for more time and repetition, then the second rehearsal can take place and the information can then transfer on to long-term memory.

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Transfer...What is it? Why is it important?

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Transfer...What is it? Why is it important?

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As educators, transfer is essentially the goal of teaching and learning. Transfer is the basis for all other learning to occur as it takes information in our working memory, searches our long term memory for past experiences to build upon, and helps us to move forward. There are two types of transfer, transfer during learning and transfer of learning.

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Transfer during learning is the process in which new learning is taking place in the working memory and while this is happening the long term memory is searching for any thing that it can find that relates to the new learning that is happening. If there is past learning that has taken place, this can have an affect of the new knowledge that is being taken in, known as transfer (Sousa, 2022). This is important to know as educators as we are teaching new content to our students. Some may have already learned some the skills or knowledge and it is stored in their long term memory, so as they are taking in new information to build on it into their working memory, that transfer can take place. This leads into transfer of learning which can be helpful for problem solving, creative thinking, artistic talents to come alive, and for students to build on their knowledge to create new things.

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Teachers are spending time preparing lessons that they want students to learn from. However, as teachers, we should making our lessons meaningful to our students so that transfer can take place. We want our students to be able to transfer information they are learning and be able to apply it to their real life situations. As a teacher, I want my students to be able to acquire skills to be problem solvers, critical thinkers, and be able to communicate in and out of school. Successful transfer can be enhanced by educators who advocate thematic units and integrated curriculum (Sousa, 2022). By exposing students to cross curriculum, it opens up more possibilities for rich text, language, artistic opportunities, exploration of topics, and more to build on for future applications.

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Transfer doesn't always take place however, and teachers need to be aware of this. If we teach keeping in my mind the time sequence for the learning to occur as well as the complexity of what is being learned, this will help promote a positive transfer. When thinking about time, the transfer of information can take place from past to present or present to future. As far as complexity, some knowledge is simple such as getting a new toaster. A person knows that bread goes in, buttons need to be pushed, but it may take a few minutes to learn how it works. Other tasks may be more complex like learning about the history of Anthropology. Whatever the situation may be, teachers have a bag of tricks to help convey information to students to help them be successful on their individual levels.

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Remember the amygdala that I mentioned before and how it was responsible for the emotions that played a part in our memories? The amygdala is the like the fire alarm of our brain and can send us into the fight-or-flight mode if there is a sense of danger (Lebow, 2021). We all have a fight-or-flight that can be activated in our brains if we experience something traumatic. Our brains will actually shut down all other systems that are nonessential so that our body can focus on surviving this critical moment in time.

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All these emotions can come rushing back, especially if a person such as a student, has experienced this type of trauma in the past. They may start to shut down emotionally, physically, and socially. This can affect their learning in the classroom as well and impact their memory. As educators, what can we do to support our students?

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This is a great strategy for teachers to use with their students and students who have experienced some sort of trauma. It helps students to find their breath, listen to their body and be in the moment, calm their nerves and find their focus, help with memory and retention, cope with stress, and it is individual. Students do not have to share, but rather be in tune with their own thoughts. Those who are dealing with or have dealt with trauma can use this time to reflect and work through their own emotions as well.

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Going back to the idea of making learning interactive and engaging while working on memory and retention, another useful strategy for teachers to use is simply drawing. After or even during a lesson, getting students to take out crayons and draw what they have heard about up to this point and letting them express that through drawing is a great way to put that working memory to use. This is also useful for those who may be experiencing feeling that are brought up by trauma. They may not want to share out loud in discussion, but they can express through drawing what they are feeling.

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When doing any type of lesson, it's great to ask students what they already know. By doing so, this can activate background knowledge and help students to then build on that knowledge for future information. This can help to create connections for long term memory. Teachers can easily create KWL charts, engage students in think/pair/share activities, create concept maps, and more. Students who have experienced trauma can contribute to some of these in whole group if they choose, or they can participate individually and in smaller groups if they feel more comfortable. Either way, this is another strategy to help work on memory and recall prior knowledge.