Z2fHGzegEemFOA6Hm29iNA - Teachers Notes For All Videos PDF

Vídeo 1: Easy does it—
Why trying too hard can sometimes be a problem
Synopsis
The brain has two alternating ways of learning. The focused mode is activated when we pay
close attention to something. The diffuse mode is activated when we’re more relaxed and not
purposefully focusing on anything.
By using a pinball machine analogy for the brain, this video allows us to better understand
how learning involves going back and forth between the two different modes. When we grow
frustrated in our learning, it’s time to step back and allow the diffuse mode to go to work!
The two different “pinball tables” in the brain represent the

two modes of thinking and learning—focused and diffuse.
Why knowledge of focused and diffuse modes is important

Kids get frustrated when they can’t figure something out. If this happens too often,
kids can quickly lose their enthusiasm. They can’t help but look with at other, faster learners
with more “natural talent” (even though some of these other kids are also struggling secretly).
As frustration builds, kids can even end up hating a topic. It’s a vicious circle, but it can be
avoided.
It’s important to help kids understand that it’s perfectly normal not to understand
something difficult the first time they tackle it. If they have to take breaks as they struggle
and learn over several (or even many!) days, they can actually learn the subject more deeply
than the apparent super-stars.
But just telling kids to take a break doesn’t help much. If kids don’t understand why
their struggles arise, and why breaks are needed, your advice can sound like just so much
well-meaning, contradictory fluff. After all, aren’t teachers and parents always talking about
how important it is to be persistent?
The key is to explain how the brain works to kids before the kids begin to get
frustrated. After all, when kids are frustrated, it’s hard to get anything new into their brain.
Learning How to Learn, Video 1

Thus, you want to make children aware of the back-and-forth nature of learning as the
brain toggles between the focused and the diffuse modes. Teaching about this process before
the frustration arises can serve as a sort of vaccination. When frustration does kick in, you
can tell your student—“Ah hah—it’s time to take a diffuse mode break!” And they’ll know
what you mean.
Incidentally, learning to detect that frustrating feeling of “my mental wheels are
spinning uselessly!” can also help students avoid wasting time on a difficult problem on a
test. Teaching kids to let go and move on and return later to difficult problems or concepts is
an important skill that helps them have time for the easier problems they can solve.
EXERCISES TO BE CARRIED OUT IN CLASS:

Exercise 1-1 The Brain Is Like a Pinball Machine
Background:
Your goal in this exercise is to give children a physical feel for the differences
between the focused and diffuse modes. When students are close together, it’s an analogy for
the focused mode. When they’re further apart, it’s an analogy for the diffuse mode. The
thread, ribbon, or extension cords will also help kids begin to think about the patterns in their
brain that arise when they learn something. Remind your students that this exercise involves a
metaphor for how the brain works. It’s just meant to give an initial feel for what’s happening
in the brain.
Some inquisitive kids will want more specific details—for example, how exactly do
the children in this exercise relate to what’s going on in the brain? You can tell them that the
children represent synapses (connections between neurons), which we’ll explain with more
detail later.
These two different configurations of children represent the “close together”

connections, with pre-laid patterns of the focused mode, and the widely spaced
connections of the diffuse mode.

What to do: What you’ll need:
1. First, have the children stand relatively close to one • Roughly 15 or more
another—perhaps two feet apart from one another, similar youngsters and space enough
to the pattern above for the focused mode. Have one child for them to stand on an open
stand to the side—this child will later serve as the floor (perhaps move the desks
“thought.” (Make sure there’s room for the “thought” child & chairs to the side of the
to slip between the other children, as described below.) room).
Explain that this pattern, where the kids are close
• A 10- to 15-foot-long ribbon,
together, represents the focused mode of thinking. Each
jump rope, or extension cord
child represents a place where thoughts bounce through
(pretty much anything that is
connections as they move along in the brain.
long and relatively thin).
Then take the ribbon and ask some of the children
Several different colored
to hold it, so it looks from above a little like the strand in
ribbons are best.
the focused mode illustration. Explain that the ribbon
• A 10- to 15-foot-long piece of
represents a pathway in the brain that has already been laid
thread.
because an idea has been practiced. Then ask the
“thought” child to walk and follow along the ribbon.
Explain that this is what it’s like inside the brain when someone is focusing on solving a
familiar problem or thinking about a well-known concept. There are already mental paths for
their “thought” to follow. Notice what this means—if a person doesn’t know anything about
the subject, there aren’t any paths, so it can be very difficult to solve problems or understand
the concepts.
For example, if you asked the kids to add 4 + 7, (or a more complicated problem if
they already know higher level math), their thoughts would move along the “ribbon pathway”
that’s already laid in their brains as they worked to solve the problem.
Similarly, if you asked the kids to tie their shoelaces or recite a poem that they know
by heart, their minds would run along a different focused mode pathway. Ask the kids to hold
a second, differently-coloured ribbon to represent this second pathway, and have the “thought
child” (or substitute in a new “thought child” to share the fun), and have them walk and
follow along with the new strand.
Finally, replace one of the ribbons with the thin piece of thread. A thin pathway is
what happens when the student has just barely learned something, but hasn’t yet practiced
with it. The thin path can make it harder to follow along the strand and think the thought.
2. Next, remove the thread or string, and move the children further apart. Explain that
the more spread out pattern is the other mode—the diffuse mode—that the brain can work in.
Notice that this mode doesn’t have previously laid connections—there’s no yarn, string, or
thread. The “thought child” can trace any path they might like between the students. And the
thought can easily range much more widely.
This is the mode the brain falls into when you’re relaxing and not focusing your
thinking. It may look like there’s not much going on in this mode. But actually, this mode
allows your thoughts to range much more randomly and broadly. You can’t focus intently in
this mode, the way you can in the focused mode. But you can at least jump to a new place
with your thoughts. This “jumping to a new place” in your thinking is what can allow you to
figure out the answer to a tough problem, or understand a concept that’s really had you
puzzled. In the diffuse mode, you can start a new way of thinking more easily!

When you’re learning something new, especially if it’s a little hard to understand,
your brain goes back and forth between the two different modes as it figures things out and
begins to lay out the focused mode patterns of expertise.
Exercise 1-2 Toggling Back and Forth Between Focused & Diffuse Modes
This exercise helps children more fully appreciate that their brain toggles back and
forth between the focused and the diffuse mode—and that they can only be in one mode at a
time.
What to do:
1. Getting the idea of “only one mode at a time.”
A. First, have the children stand. Tell them to lift their
right arm out to their right side. This
“lifted” right arm represents their focused
mode.
B. Now tell them to put their right arm down and
lift their left arm. This “lifted” left arm
represents their diffuse mode.
C. Now, tell them to lift their right arm, or their
left arm, at random, depending on whether they
are imagining they are in the focused mode, or the diffuse mode. Tell them they can’t raise
both arms at the same time (at least when they’re pretending to be the focused or diffuse
modes in the brain!)
Helpful Background Information
Real brains are a little different from our arm exercises in that you can go into focused
mode (“right arm raised”) whenever you want. But going into diffuse mode is a little more
difficult. It’s like falling asleep—you can tell your brain to fall asleep all you want, but it
falls asleep when it chooses. It’s almost like your left arm (your diffuse mode) will raise only
when it feels like it—you can’t order it to go up!
Some people’s brains fall into diffuse mode more frequently—they can lose focus
easily. This may seem like a drawback, but it can actually help with creativity.
Focusing is important to help load the information in mind. Shifting to diffuse mode
after an intense period of concentration can allow the brain to start to make sense of the input.
After this exercise, ask the children to explain the concept of switching between
focused and diffuse modes to you, or to one another. Or ask them to create their own
metaphor for switching between the focused and diffuse mode!
Exercise 1-3 Table talk on the Diffuse Mode
What to do:
1. First brainstorm. Have your children team up in groups of three or four and take turns
describing an experience where going into diffuse mode helped them solve a problem.
This should take 3 to 5 minutes. Then ask some of the groups to share their best tips.

2. Second brainstorm. Ask the children to brainstorm in their groups what they will do next
time they begin to feel frustration in their studies. Then ask some of the groups to
share their best tips.
Teacher tip: Remind students that a little frustration is okay in their studies—you
want to make sure students don’t give up too soon. Finding the balance of when to take a
break can take some practice.
Exercise 1-4 Brainstorm a list of diffuse mode activities
What to do:
1. Ask the kids in your class to join together in groups of 3 or 4 students. Then get very
excited and tell them they will have only two minutes to do a very important task. But
first, they need to see who got up earliest that morning. (Give them a few moments to
sort that out.)
2. Select the group’s recorder. You can do this by saying—“Whoever woke up latest is
going to be the person who is the recorder—they need to get out a piece of paper and
a pencil.” (You can switch this up by selecting the one who woke up earliest, or any
other means you wish to use to select the person who is the recorder.) There will be
groans.
3. Describe the brainstorming session. Then ask the student groups to come up with as
many ideas for diffuse mode activities as they possibly can. Tell them that no idea is
a bad one—the more ideas, the better! The recorder needs to jot down the ideas.
4. Begin! With excitement, say “On your mark, get set, go!” The groups will begin chattering
with ideas. Walk around the groups and encourage them with phrases such as “I like
that idea!” or “Oh look—they’ve already got six ideas over here!”
5. Stop the brainstorming session. Sometimes it can be hard to stop children’s excited
chatter. A good technique is to say “If you can hear me, raise your hand!” Repeat it
several times if necessary to get at least a few of the students to raise their hands.
Then say “If you can really hear me, raise your other hand!” By this time, the children
should have quieted down.
5. Gather ideas by asking individual groups at random for some of their ideas. Do not
ask for volunteers until after you have selected some groups and individuals yourself.
(This prevents the same students from answering all the time.)
Below is a list of examples that students may come up with. For your convenience,
we’ve divided the activities into general diffuse mode activators, and those that are better
used as rewards.1 Note that sometimes there is overlap between activities. For example,
dancing can be very relaxing—but if you are focusing intently to learn a new dance step, it
can definitely be a focused mode activity!
General diffuse activators
• Go to the gym
• Play a sport like soccer or basketball
• Jog, walk, or swim

• Dance
• Travel in a moving vehicle like a bus or a car
• Draw or paint
• Take a bath or shower
• Listen to music, especially without words
• Play songs you know well on a musical instrument
• Meditate or pray
• Sleep (the ultimate diffuse-mode!)
Diffuse mode activators that are best used briefly, as rewards. (These activities may pull
you into more focused mode than the above)
• Play video games

• Surf the web
• Talk to friends
• Volunteer to help someone with a simple task
• Read a relaxing book
• Text friends
Exercise 1-5 Feeling the shift while forming a square

This exercise can help children to get a sense of what it feels like to go from focused
to diffuse modes.
1. 2. 3.

1. On the class’s blackboard or whiteboard, draw the two triangles on the upper left of the
above drawing. Ask the children how you’d put those two triangles together to form a
square. This is easy—the kids will gladly tell you to draw the square underneath.
2. Draw the two squares in the middle of the above drawing. Then say—“I’d like to make a
square from these four rectangles.” And draw the two side-by-side ( )
rectangles underneath, as shown in the middle of the drawing.
3. Ask the children to brainstorm in groups of 3 to 4 whether the answer looks right to them,
and if it doesn’t look right, if there might be a better answer. When the children arrive
at the solution, applaud and ask them to observe the feeling of “ah hah” when they
realized what the solution was. That was the intuition of the diffuse mode!
Teacher tip: Your first tendency is to put four triangles together to form a rectangle, as
shown in the middle. This is because you’ve already laid down a focused mode pattern, and
you naturally tend to follow it. It takes an intuitive leap into the diffuse mode to realize that
you need to completely rearrange the pieces to form another square, as shown on the right.2
Exercise 1-6 Feeling the shift while rearranging coins

Like the above exercise with the triangles, this exercise can help children to get a
sense of what it feels like to go from focused to diffuse modes.
What to do
1. Draw the coins as shown at right on the board.
2. Ask the children to team up and see if they can figure out how to
create a new triangle that points down by moving only three
coins. Tell the kids that when they relax their minds, releasing their attention and
focusing on nothing in particular, the solution can most easily come to them. Tell
them not to blurt out the answer if they do get it.
Teacher tip: The answer is to the right, but don’t tell the children the answer
right away! Let them spend a few minutes on it, and then go on to other
activities without giving the answer. Don’t bring the problem up again until the
next day.
You should know that some kids get the solution instantly, while some highly
intelligent professors finally just give up. Everybody’s different, but letting your
mind drift free is key to seeing the solution!3
Notes by Barbara Oakley and ESIC Business & Marketing School.

For more information, see Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without
Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens
Illustration of focused & diffuse modes courtesy Oliver Young.
References

de Bono, Edward. Lateral Thinking. NY: Harper Perennial, 1970.
Oakley, Barbara Ann. A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science. New York,
NY: Penguin-Random House, 2014.
Oakley, Barbara and Terrence Sejnowski with Alistair McConville. Learning How to Learn:
Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School without Spending All Your Time
Studying; a Guide for Kids and Teens New York, NY: Penguin-Random House, 2018.
1
Oakley (2014) pp. 35-36.
2
This problem is from A Mind for Numbers, Oakley (2014) page 21, and was originally provided in a
different layout in de Bono (1970).
3
This problem is from Learning How to Learn, Oakley, et al. (2018), page 22.

1
Video 2: I'll Do It Later, Honest! Using a Tomato to Avoid

Putting Things Off
Synopsis
Procrastination means postponing what you should be doing and instead doing something less
important.
It turns out that when students even just think about something they don’t like, it can cause a
pain in the insular cortex. This is the “pain generating” part of the brain. The result? Students
turn their thoughts to something different, and it makes the pain go away. But this also means
they’ve just procrastinated.
If students make a habit of procrastinating in their studies, learning
becomes more difficult. It’s more stressful because you have less time to
review what you need.
One of the most effective ways to handle procrastination is to use the
Pomodoro Technique. 1 To do a Pomodoro:
1. Remove all distractions—no cell phone beeps or popups on
your computer.
2. Set a timer for 25 minutes.
3. Focus as intently as possible for those 25 minutes.
4. Give a reward!
It’s perfectly normal for distracting thoughts to arise while students are trying to focus during
a Pomodoro. When distracting thoughts arise, students want to be sure to simply return their
thoughts to what they are trying to focus on.
Why Is the Pomodoro Technique Important?

Procrastination is one of students’ most pressing challenges—the Pomodoro Technique gives
an excellent tool for tackling it. Perhaps as importantly, today’s students often don’t know
how to concentrate. Social media is designed to be addictive, which means kids can develop a
compulsion to check their phone constantly. The Pomodoro Technique is perfect for teaching
students to inhibit their desire for compulsive phone checking. It helps them learn to maintain
their focus and avoid distraction when necessary.
Finally, the reward at the end of the Pomodoro reminds students that all learning doesn’t take
place during periods of focus. The diffuse reward period also helps with learning!
EXERCISES THAT CAN BE CARRIED OUT IN CLASS:

Exercise 2-1 The Pomodoro Challenge
Background:
Your goal in this exercise is to help students to gain supervised practice with doing the
Pomodoro Technique.

2
What to do:
What you’ll need:
Propose an activity of your or the students’ choice and tell
students they’ll be doing the “Pomodoro Challenge.” Explain • A timer: mobile phone, app,
that the main objective of this challenge is for them to class watch or in on-line
recognize the benefits of studying in concentrated bursts for 25 format (https://tomato-
minutes, and then rewarding themselves. timer.com/)
The first time you do the Pomodoro Challenge, the following
steps are suggested:
1. Explain the technique and objective.

2. Ask the students to, as much as possible, eliminate distractions and get ready to focus.
Remind them it’s perfectly normal for distracting thoughts to arise—they just need to bring
their attention back to what they’re focusing on.
3. Put a timer on the board or start the timer on the teacher's mobile clock for 25
minutes.
4. Monitor the class to ensure that students are maintaining their focus during those 25
minutes.
5. When the Pomodoro is done, reward the students. Let them individually do whatever
they’d like as a reward (as long as it’s not too noisy so that it disrupts other students).
6. The first time you do the Pomodoro Challenge, after the reward period, ask students to
share amongst small groups for two minutes about how they felt. Then call on some of the
groups to share their feelings to the whole class.
Role of the teacher
The teacher's role is that of a facilitator: the intention is to help the students to incorporate
good study habits and internalize the mechanics of the Pomodoro Technique.
In addition, the teacher should try to identify those students who find it a little more difficult
to focus their attention for 25 minutes. Special encouragement can help. But try not to disrupt
the class’s Pomodoro with general words of encouragement for everyone—after all, the
students are trying to focus without disruption.
You may also wish to encourage students to try this technique at home. You can ask students
to share about their home Pomodoro experiences.
A Pomodoro can be done in class as frequently as you want—it’s a great way to help kids
learn to concentrate. After several weeks, you can give positive feedback to the class about
the progress of their studies. Your enthusiasm and excitement about the technique will help
students want to use it more.
Exercise 2-2 Procrastination Circle

Background:
Your goal in this exercise is to help kids to better understand when they are procrastinating,
and to help them form concrete plans to tackle that procrastination. Research has shown that
making a public commitment to other people makes it more likely the commitment will be
carried out. 2 So this exercise takes advantage of that fact.

3
What to do:
1. Have the children move their chairs so they can sit in small groups of five to eight
students apiece. If you have desks, you can have students arrange themselves around the
desks.
Have the children in your class sit in small groups of five to eight children each.
2. Model to the children what they will be doing by pretending you are the first person in a
group to speak. Begin by saying your name: “I am Miss Ana Santiago Gómez.” Then say, in
a dramatic tone: “And I am a procrastinator.” Continue by sharing briefly about something
you’ve been procrastinating on, and then say what you’ll do to tackle that procrastination.
Here’s a sample of what you could say:
“I am Miss Ana Santiago Gómez. And I am a procrastinator. I’ve been procrastinating

about studying French, which I really want to learn. So what I’m going to do is, every
morning when I first get up, or right after I’m done with my teaching duties, I’ll do a
Pomodoro on French.”
Notice that when you share about something you are struggling with, students begin to realize
that they are not the only ones who struggle with procrastinate! This helps them to trust and
to identify with you. If you are trying to learn something, that can be especially valuable for
students—it can help them better understand that learning should be a life long endeavour.
3. Ask the children to go around their circle and share about what they’ve been
procrastinating on, just as you did. Tell them they only have about seven minutes to share,
so only take about one minute apiece. Walk around the class to ensure that the sharing is
going smoothly and no one person is dominating within a group.

4
This is an important exercise that can be very helpful for students. You might try doing this
exercise once a week—you’ll notice that as the semester goes by, students will begin to tell
about how they are doing better in the work they’ve been struggling at.
Exercise 2-3 Table talk to generate ideas for the reward after a Pomodoro
This exercise helps children generate ideas about rewards they can do after they finish a
Pomodoro.
What to do:
1. Get in groups: Have children get into groups of three to four students each. Have each
group select one person as the recorder (the person who notes down the ideas).
2. Set the time limit: With great enthusiasm, tell the students you will give them three
minutes to come up with as many ideas in their group as they can related to reward they’d
give themselves after doing a Pomodoro. If you want, you can tell the students that the group
with the most ideas will get a prize ribbon (just make sure you have a little prize ribbon on
hand for them!)
3. Launch the group work: Say “On you mark, get set, three minutes, go!” Then, as the
students begin to talk, wander encouragingly amongst them.
4. Gather and share the results: After three minutes, stop the groups and ask which group
had more than 4 ideas. Most groups will have this. So then more than 6 ideas, and so forth. In
that way, discover which group had the most ideas.
5. Gather ideas by asking individual groups at random for some of their ideas. Do not
ask for volunteers until after you have selected some groups and individuals yourself.
(This prevents the same students from answering all the time.) If you’d like, at the end
of the exercise, you can ask students to vote for some of the most popular rewards.
Below is a list of some typical responses
• Listen to a favourite song—maybe even dance to it

• Play outside
• Play a video game
• Watch a video
Remember that you want to discourage eating as a reward. This is why generating ideas for
other reward activities besides eating can be very helpful for students.
Guidance for the Teacher
It can sometimes be difficult to get students to quiet down after these exciting active
exercises. Once the three minutes are over, you can use this trick to get students back on
track. Say “If you can hear me, raise your hand.” Students will begin quieting down. Then
say “If you can really hear me, raise your other hand.” By the end of this, all or almost all
students will be quiet.

5
Exercise 2-4 Table talk to generate ideas about typical distractions during a
Pomodoro
Similar to Exercise 2-3, you can ask students to generate ideas about typical distractions
during a Pomodoro. Ask students what they do to shut down each distraction when it arises.
EXERCISES TO BE CARRIED OUT AS HOMEWORK:

Exercise 2-5 Learning to Watch for Procrastination
This exercise helps develop children’s metacognitive skills about when they are
procrastinating.
What to do:
Give the children several days for this assignment. Ask them to start monitoring their interior
thoughts. See if they can feel a moment of that “pain in the brain” moment when they don’t
feel like doing something, which causes them to shift their thoughts onto something else.
Have them write the approximate date and time of their procrastination moment down on a
piece of paper. After the date and time, ask them to write a sentence or two about the thought
that caused their procrastination, and what their response to that thought was. Students should
bring their response paper in to class.
Exercise 2-6 Finding Good Pomodoro Apps
This exercise helps empower children to find their own productivity tools.
What to do:
Ask the children to go online and find their favourite This exercise presumes that
Pomodoro app. (There are hundreds available.) Students students will have access to the
should bring their response to class. If you’d like, you can internet.
ask students to share about their favourite Pomodoro app,
and what they liked about it.
Exercise 2-7 Procrastinate 10 minutes later
This exercise gives a tiny nudge to students to help them avoid procrastination.
What to do:
Ask students to play along with you. Their job is to begin procrastinating just 10 minutes
later: During these ten minutes they just have to take a look at their list of duties for the day,
so that their brains start working on it (diffuse mode working on the background); and then
they can go on “procrastinating.” This is just a first approach, your final aim is that they
change this behaviour—this is just the first step. 3

6

Pomodoro timer, Autore: Francesco Cirillo rilasciata a Erato nelle sottostanti licenze seguirÃ
OTRS, http:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ File:Il _ pomodoro.jpg.
References
Cirillo, Francesco. The Pomodoro Technique. 3rd ed. Berlin, Germany: FC Garage GmbH, 2013.
Salancik, Gerald R and Jeffrey Pfeffer. "A Social Information Processing Approach to Job
Attitudes and Task Design." Administrative Science Quarterly, (1978): 224-253.
1
Cirillo (2013)
2
Salancik and Pfeffer (1978)
3
Thanks to Elena Benito.

3 Broadening Your Passions
Synopsis
Many students believe that there are certain areas of study that are closed to them (for
example, mathematics, languages, music, or art), because they lack the ability to excel. But
even if students feel they are not naturally good at something, they can still become good at it
through practice. Practice makes physical changes in the brain’s neurons. Knowing more
about how the brain works, as this course teaches, will help students to practice more
effectively.
This video helps motivate students to face and overcome the fears that many subjects produce
in them, changing the way they look at their studies. Special emphasis in this video is placed
on the fact that, although math is abstract, learning math is much like learning other subjects.
Practice is the key to mastery!
Why Is Broadening Your Passions Important?

Students are often encouraged to follow their passions. This can cause them to narrow their
interests and do only what comes easiest for them. The hardest part of learning something
new is often right at the beginning. So we want to encourage students to persist in their
learning through the early, difficult stages.
Remind students that when they were first learning to ride a bike, they often fell down. It
hurt. But when they finally got the hang of it, it became fun! All sorts of subjects, including
math and language study, are like learning to ride a bike. The fun part comes later. A little bit
of practice every day can eventually lead to success and enjoyment.
Try to encourage students to not only follow their passions, but to broaden their passions—to
do what doesn’t seem easy. This will help them as they mature and begin to think of their
careers. Those who like math, for example, should also be encouraged in art, music, and
writing. Those who are more literary can be encouraged to be more analytical. Businesses
and institutions nowadays especially need people who are multi-talented.
EXERCISE TO BE CARRIED OUT IN CLASS:

Exercise 3-1 Table talk about learning and changing your mind
Background:
Kids often don’t realize that being able to change their minds—be flexible—is an important
part of mature thinking. This exercise helps students to realize that their initial dislike for
something can sometimes change dramatically—and that is a good thing!
It’s important for you as a teacher to model openness in this exercise—how you’ve changed
and grown because you overcame and changed your initial feelings of dislike.
What to do:

1. Explain that being able to flexibly change your mind about things is an
important part of life-long learning. Tell your students about a time when you
didn’t like something and then you changed your mind. Remember that you want to
frame the discussion as being one of openness and mutual support.
2. Ask students to form in groups of 3 or 4 around tables. Ask them to share of a
time when they changed their initial feelings about something from dislike to like.
3. After students have shared with one another, call on some of the groups and ask if
they’d like to share an idea or two with the class.
EXERCISE TO BE CARRIED OUT AS HOMEWORK:

Exercise 3-2 Conversation tracker about success 1
Background:
Kids often overlook the fact that they’ve successfully overcome learning challenges in their
lives. Your goal in this exercise is to help students to realize that they are far more resilient
and capable than they might think. This exercise will also be very helpful in allowing
students in the class to connect with one another, and get to know each other better while
speaking in a more private setting with one another.
What to do:
4. Give each student a conversation tracker chart to record conversations with

classmates. Require students to talk with a certain minimum number of students
(about 75% of the class is a good number) within the next two to three weeks.
5. For each conversation, the student should record the name of the person they
talked with, the date, and a brief summary of the discussion. Students should keep
finding new students to talk to until they reach the specified minimum number of
partners.
6. You want to frame the discussion as being one of mutual support. To start of the
discussion, you will explain the process and the tracker, and then model a typical
conversation by explaining how you were able to learn something you thought you
couldn’t learn. Remember that the idea here is to share with students your own initial
uncertainty and nervousness about what you were trying to learn, whether it was
learning to ride a bicycle, learning to play a certain computer game, learning to fix
some broken plumbing in your house, or learning to say a few sentences in a foreign
language. Tell students that they are forming a support group for positive learning, so
if they have helpful ideas to encourage others about what they thought they couldn’t
do, they should share.

1
Based on Jeffery Frieden’s work, as noted in https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/ongoing-conversations/, via
Marshall Memo 764, https://www.marshallmemo.com/.

Conversation Tracker 1
Directions: Over the course of the next _________ weeks, you must meet with _________ people, who you will list below, for a brief
discussion about an area where they have overcome a difficulty and accomplished something they thought they could not do. Share
initial feelings of confusion as well as ultimate feelings of accomplishment. Summarize the conversation below.
Classmates Date Summary of discussion (phrase or short sentence)
10
11
12
1
Based on Jeff Frieden’s conversation tracker: https://x78251kcpll2l2t9e46kf96a-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Conversation-
Tracker-2.png
Vídeo 4: Brain-Links and Fun with Space Aliens
Synopsis
Santiago Ramón y Cajal was a world-famous scientist
now known as the father of modern neuroscience. But he
wasn’t always a research superstar. In fact, he was a
terrible student as a child. He had a bad memory, which
made it very hard for him to learn—he hated school. He
loved art, but he especially hated science and math,
which caused fights with his father.
Santiago discovered that, despite his difficulties, if he

persisted, he could still learn very well, even if he wasn’t
a fast learner like some other people. When he became a
scientist and began making discoveries about the brain, he
discovered more about how the brain learns. It is when
students both understand and practice with what they are
learning that they can become successful, even if at first it
seems difficult.
In this video we learned some of the foundational

information related to neurons:
• Neurons and their parts

• Synapses (the connecting point between neurons) Practicing helps build stronger links
• The value of creating sets of brain links between neurons, so students can think
• Neuroplasticity—that is, our brain can change, more quickly and easily about what they’re
therefore, we can change by learning new things! learning.
EXERCISES TO BE STARTED IN CLASS

AND PRACTICED INSIDE OR OUTSIDE CLASS:
Exercise 4-1 Practice builds stronger, better neural connections
Background:
Students often don’t think about how practice over several days can help them improve in
whatever they’re learning. This exercise helps them see how improvement grows with a little
practice every day.

What to do:
1. Ask the students to make the thumbs up gesture their right hand, while making the pinkie
up gesture with their left hand.
2. Then ask students to swap the gestures between hands, like this. (They will probably
swivel their hands while swapping to the other motion—that’s perfectly okay.)
3. Then ask students to swap back to the original configuration, and continue to practice
going back and forth
This is harder to do than it looks. Sometimes the little finger or the thumb will still be left
hanging out when the other digit is the one that’s supposed to be extended.
If this is the first time you, as the teacher, are trying this exercise, you will be able to show
that this isn’t easy for you, either! As you are modelling how to do the exercise, you will also
be showing students how you are struggling to do it.
Give the students several minutes to practice. Ask them to practice some at home or when
they are taking a little break over the next few days. If you’d like, you can also practice with
the students a few minutes a day over several days in class.
Within a few days, the students will find themselves getting quicker with the motions. That
is because they are strengthening their new brain links!
[Jose, here is a video of someone doing this in English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NIrpR8pEjs. Did you want to film yourself in Spanish?
This could be done very simply, just using a cell phone, and embedded as an asset in this
note. Or you could take a picture of yourself in the first configuration and then in the second.
Those are Phil’s hands in the picture, but we didn’t want to take a picture of him showing his
hands, head, and body, because he’s much older than the target audience.]

The process of improvement with the hand gestures is similar to how you can improve in
sports, language learning, math, or anything else. Practice is what knits together the neural
connections and makes the process easier and easier.
Exercise 4-2 Neurons “Talk” to One Another—A Recall Exercise

Having students actively recall key ideas and points can help them remember and understand
the ideas better.
What to do:
1. Ask students to draw from
memory the space alien and the
neuron. Have them label the axon, the
dendrites, and the dendritic spines on
the neuron.
Neurons reach out with their “arm”—

the axon—and tap the toe of a
dendritic spine on the next neuron.
2. Ask the students to draw a neuron

“reaching out” with its axon to tap the
dendritic spine of the next neuron.
This is how neurons send signals to
one another. So if you’d like, you can
ask students to draw a bubble. Inside
the bubble, they should something
funny that one neuron is saying to the
next neuron.
Exercise 4-3 Creating Flashcards

Flashcards are one of the best ways to help students practice with new ideas.
What to do:
1. Ask students to create and practice with a set of flashcards involving anything they are
learning.
2. Ask students to share about and discuss the flashcards they’ve created—have they been
helpful in their learning?

Illustrations of neurons courtesy Oliver Young.

5 Learning While You Sleep: How to Wake Up Smarter
Synopsis
Focusing and working as intently as
possible during the day helps to start a
new pathway between neurons—the
foundation of learning! But that pathway
really strengthens during sleep. Signals
pass over and over again over the new
pathway. This helps to strengthen and
broaden the pathways, so it’s easier to
think about that subject. This is why sleep
is so important.
Dendritic spines are a little like lie

detectors. The new spines and their
synapses only begin growing if a student
is really focusing on the new information
The pathway between neurons grows and
they want to learn.
strengthens tremendously during sleep.
Students sometimes think that if they just frown and

look seriously at something, that it must mean they
are concentrating. It doesn’t. It is only students are
actively working with the material in their mind that
they are pulling out the dendritic spines and starting
the new connections to form. So, for example, just
passively looking toward a teacher, or passively
letting their eyes run over a page in a book, will not
pull those new neural connections out to begin the
“Synaptic janitors” can sweep away
learning process.
dendritic spines if they are not used.
If students don’t review the material they’ve learned
soon after they’ve learned it, their little “synaptic janitors” can sweep the new connections
away.
EXERCISE TO BE CARRIED OUT IN CLASS OR AT HOME

Exercise 5-1 Draw a synapse
What to do:
1. Show students the picture at right of a synapse, and ask

them to redraw the picture by hand. Ask them what they
think the neurotransmitter molecules do.
Background: The neurotransmitter molecules are released

due to the electronic signal that travels along the axon—the
molecules attach to the receptors on the new neuron. The new

neuron can then start a new electrical signal that will travel along the new neuron. This is the
way that signals travel in the brain—electrical, chemical (neurotransmitter molecules), and
back to electrical.
HOMEWORK:
Exercise 5-2 Try sleeping on it
What to do:
1. Hand out the worksheet “Thoughts about learning and sleep.” Explain to the students that
over the week to come, they should keep an eye out for something they are learning that they
find to be difficult. This could be anything—a move in soccer, a concept in math, or a new
word in a foreign language they are trying to remember or pronounce.
2. Ask the students to practice several times during the day, and once again right before sleep.
Then ask them to try it again in the morning right after they’ve slept on it. Can they feel that
it is easier to pull to mind? Ask them to put their comments on the sheet. Several days of
practice on a particularly difficult concept can help make improvements every day.

Illustrations courtesy Oliver Young; synapse with neurotransmitters
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chemical_synapse_schema_cropped.jpg

Name:_________________________________________ Date:______________________
Thinking about your learning—how focusing hard, and then sleeping on it, helps you learn something difficult
Reviewed right before
Initial problem Thoughts on the problem after working on it again the next day
sleep? (Yes/No)
6 We Love Metaphors!
Synopsis and Important Related Information
A metaphor is a comparison between two
things. One thing is something a student is
familiar with, like an ocean wave. The other
is something the student may not be familiar
with, like an electrical wave. Metaphors
allow students to connect what they already
know to the new concept they are learning.
The similarities help speed learning.
Coming up with a creative metaphor is one of
the best ways to learn a new concept or share
an important idea. Teachers can use
metaphors to help students understand new
ideas. Or students can devise their own
metaphors.
Remind students that there are limits to the
use of metaphors—eventually the metaphor
Metaphor allows students to “reuse” the neurons
will break down. For example, students can
for concepts they already know. This is called
think of school as being like a bus climbing a
“neural reuse theory.” The similarities between the
mountain—the bus climbs higher and higher
old and new concepts help students to more easily
until the students reach the top (they understand new concepts.
graduate). But certainly a bus climbing a
mountain isn’t like a real group of students in
school! Metaphors and analogies just help us to grasp new concepts or key ideas in a fresh
way.
Depending on the age level of the students, you may wish to explain the difference between
an analogy, a simile, and a metaphor.
Analogy: a comparison of two otherwise unlike things based on certain similarities. The goal
of an analogy is to show that if certain things are alike between two things, other things may
be alike as well. “The solar system with its planets is like an atom with its electrons.”
Metaphor: A metaphor uses one word or phrase to mean another and makes a comparison
between the two. The comparison is not to be taken literally. For example, in the sentence
“He’s become a shell of a man,” we know the man has not literally become a shell with
nothing inside him.
Simile: A comparison of two unlike things that is often introduced by like or as. “He’s
become like a shell of a man.”
A simile compares two items, a metaphor equates two items. An analogy compares two items
with the implication that there may be much in common between those two items.

What You’ll Need:
Exercise 6-1 Analyzing a Metaphor for the Brain
• If you can, have as many
Background: shelled and unshelled walnuts
Students often don’t realize the power of metaphors, and they available as there are students
don’t tend to think in terms of metaphors. This exercise helps in the class. Hand these out to
students to realize the value of thinking in metaphors, and to the students.
get a little practice thinking metaphorically. • If you’re unable to get
What to do: walnuts, or there is a student
with a walnut allergy in class,
1. Remind students of the importance of metaphors in show a picture of a shelled
helping them to learn new ideas and concepts. Give them and an unshelled walnut.
some examples of metaphors, such as a mammalian cell is
like a factory, a pixel is like a piece of tile in a mosaic, or a
tectonic plate is like a moving walkway in an airport. Tell them they will be working in small
groups for this exercise, and ask them to divide up into groups of three or four students each.
2. Show some pictures of the brain, like these two:1
3. Hand out the nuts, or show pictures of partially shelled and completely shelled walnuts
like these:2

3. Ask the students to brainstorm a list of the similarities between the walnut and the brain.
Then call randomly on some of the groups to see what similarities they have devised. Typical
examples might be:
The student answers will probably look something like this:
• There are folds and wrinkles in the walnut and the brain.
• The walnut has two hemispheres to it, similar to the brain.
• There is an outer shell on the walnut, just as the brain is encased in the skull.
4. Ask the students to brainstorm a list of the dissimilarities between the walnut and the brain.
Then call randomly on some of the groups to see what dissimilarities they have devised.
Typical examples might be:
• The folds between the walnut and the brain look somewhat different.
• The actual material of the walnut and the brain are quite different from one another—
a walnut, for example, doesn’t have neurons inside of it.
• You can eat a walnut, but you wouldn’t want to eat brain!
5. At the end of the exercise, remind students that metaphors can provide good ways to
visualize or imagine ideas and concepts they may otherwise have trouble understanding. The
metaphor is never perfect, but it can help. Whenever a metaphor breaks down, just throw the
metaphor away and get a new one!
HOMEWORK:
Exercise 6-2 Developing a Metaphor
Everyone has something they find a little more challenging to learn—whether it’s in math,
language studies, sports, music, art—or anything!
What to do:
For this simple exercise, ask a student to think about a new concept they are learning about,
that they are having trouble with. The student should devise a metaphor to help explain what
they are learning and write it on a sheet of paper (that’s the homework). If the student is
stuck in developing a metaphor, they should take out a piece of paper and begin doodling.
Doodles can be very helpful.
You can provide some sample metaphors to help students think about what you expect.

• Electrons are like fuzzy little balls.
• History is like a tree, with branches that could go in different directions. What has
happened previously in history (the directions of previous branches) makes a
difference in the direction a branch goes in. Also, the tree has roots—that is, deeper,
unseen influences on how history unfolds.
• An algebra equation is like a balancing scale that balances on the “=” sign.
Exercise 6-3 The Feynman Method—Teach It to a Toddler

Richard Feynman was a Nobel-Prize winning physicist who was a master at developing
simple explanations. He often challenged the scientists and mathematicians he worked with
to explain their ideas in very simple language, almost as if to a toddler. Incidentally, the
secret to explaining something in simple terms is often to use metaphors.
What to do:
1. For this exercise, the student should devise a simple way of explaining something that they
have found to be complex. The explanation does not need to be exact, but it should convey at
least part of a key idea related to a concept.
For example, let’s say that a student is trying to explain the idea of torque. Torque, as it turns
out, is just a twisting force—like the twist you would apply to screw the lid off of a jar. A
meteorite is like a rock that falls from the sky. Continental drift is like a pie crust that you put
on the floor, and then start pulling apart.
None of these is a perfect explanation, but they each get across key ideas.
2. The student should then find three students who they don’t know very well. They should
tell the concept they are struggling with, along with the explanation, to the three students
(they can either do this with all three students together at once, or one at a time to each
student).
3. The student should then turn in a paper that describes the concept they are struggling with,
the simple explanation, and the names of the three students they have exchanged ideas with.

Credits
Illustration of neural reuse theory courtesy Oliver Young.
1
Brain in head by Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Skull_and_brain_normal_human.svg; Human brain from
Gutenberg Encyclopedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cerebral_lobes.png
2
Shelled walnut: By Lawrencekhoo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18303993;
walnut in shell Kkchaudhary11,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inside_of_a_walnut_in_growth.jpg

7 Recall
Synopsis
Recall means bringing an idea back to mind. Actively recalling key ideas has been shown to
be a great way to help students understand those ideas, and to do better on tests.
To do recall, the student should carefully read a page in a book, underlining a key word or
two if necessary (not too much!), and make a note or notes in the margin if necessary. Then,
the student should look away from the page and see if they can recall the key idea or ideas on
the page.
Pulling the key idea from the student’s

own mind is the key. Recall is what
makes the dendritic spines start to sprout.
Just passively reading or rereading a
page, or underlining parts of the page,
doesn’t help students form those all-
important new brain-links.
Notice that Video 7 is reemphasizing the

importance of active learning, which was
introduced earlier, in Video 5.
Some people need more practice and

repetition than others to get a concept
and create brain-links. That’s perfectly
okay—in fact, sometimes students can
learn more deeply if it takes them more
time to grasp a concept.
Nobel Prize winner Santiago Ramón y Cajal was a slow learner. He often wished he were
smarter. He stumbled over his words and forgot details.
But his research on neurons showed him that he could still learn. By working to learn math
and science, he gradually changed his abilities in those areas. He might not have gotten
smarter, but he became much more knowledgeable. Through slow, steady practice, he made
new links—changing the structure of his brain. That’s how he gradually went from a young
trouble-maker to a famous scientist!
Exercise 7-1 Recall Exercise
1. For this exercise, first remind the students about the idea What You’ll Need:
of recall and the importance of actively pulling those
dendritic spines out to make connections. Then give the A page or several pages of
students the reading assignment, telling them that this is an important reading that the
exercise in active reading. Tell them they should look up students would need to read
towards the ceiling after they finish the page, or each page, anyway for other classwork.
of the reading, to see if they can recall the key idea or ideas.

It may help shut out distractions if they close their eyes. Remind students that this exercise
will be done silently.
2. Provide the students a reasonable amount of time in class to accomplish the reading.
During this time, roam around the classroom to ensure that students are on task.
3. When the students are done, have them form into small groups of 3 to 4 students each. Ask
the students to share with one another what they thought the key idea of the page or pages
were. Once this is done (2 to 5 minutes), question a student or two about their thoughts. You
should select the student—do not allow students to volunteer.
Exercise 7-2 When You Can’t Quite Remember Something or Someone
Closely related to the idea of recall is the fact that we can remember better if we remember
the information better if we can remember the various cues that are involved in that memory.
What to do:
1. Name a famous actor and ask students to play a game with you. Tell them to try to come
up with everything they can think of except that actor’s name. Develop a concept map on the
board about the differing cues:
Hair XXX
Height XXX
color/length
What does
he look XXX
Movies
like?
he’s been
Eye in?
color Name of
Other actor? XXX
characteristics
Anything else
Begins with that’s
what letter? What does memorable?
his name
sound like?
How many
syllables? Ends with
what letter?

Remind students that even if they don’t know the actual name or word that they’re trying to
remember, they can create a similar map in their mind of ideas related to the word they are
trying to remember.
2. Tell students they can take a similar approach even about where they might have misplaced
something. Change the earlier concept map so it looks something like the one below.
XXX XXX XXX XXX
Where did
you have XXX
What were
it last?
you doing
XXX when you
Object last saw it?
XXX you XXX
misplaced
Anything else
XXX that’s
Were you memorable?
using the
object?
XXX
XXX
Why this works, and what else it’s good for:
Memories are stored along superimposed neuronal patterns, so reconstructing the thread of
thought may help you recover the forgotten thought by stimulating related ideas.
Memories are also context-dependent, meaning it is easier to remember information in an

environment that matches the environment in which the information was learned. For
example, if you thought of something in a room, but you forgot it when you arrived in the
kitchen, try to return to the first room. Returning to the original context can sometimes help
you recover forgotten information.
If you cannot physically return to the place of the original thought that you have now
forgotten, try to imagine where you were, what you were doing, and how your thoughts
connected with each other.

When a student does not remember an aspect or detail of the lesson, suggest that he or she
reconstruct calmly and pause what he was thinking. Encouraging him to remember the
forgotten details step by step.
Actively pulling the memories from the students’ own mind will help to build even stronger
neural patterns.
Credits
Neural image courtesy Oliver Young.

1
8 School Bags, Lockers, and Your Attentional Octopus
Synopsis
In this video, lockers and school bags were
introduced as metaphors for the two main
types of memory systems—long term
memory and working memory. Long term
memory can hold a lot of information, but
that information can take a little longer to
get to. Working memory can only hold a
little bit of information, but it is handy and
easy to get to, like a school bag.
But if we want to understand working

memory even better, a good metaphor to
use is an “attentional octopus.”
The attentional octopus “lives” in the
prefrontal cortex and allows people to hold
some information briefly in mind. If
students have built solid sets of links that
they have previously stored in long-term An “attentional octopus” and a locker are
memory, it is easy for their attentional metaphors for working memory and long-term
octopus (their working memory) to reach memory.
into memory and grab those links. This can
allow students to hold very complex ideas
in mind, even if their working memory isn’t that big.
On average, students have four “arms” in their working memories. Some students have more
arms, others have less. Some students have incredibly sticky arms in their working memory,
others have slippery arms.
When students are learning something new, their working memory is very busy. But once
they have understood and practiced with the information, they create sets of brain links that
make it easier for working memory to pull the information to mind.
A busy working memory is at left. On the right is a more relaxed

working memory pulling up a previously made set of links.

2
Why knowledge of working and long-term memory is important

Understanding the limitations of students’ working memory will
help you be a better teacher. Our tendency is to want students to
construct all their knowledge themselves. This is a laudable goal.
But the challenge is that if a student is presented with too much
information to process in working memory at one time, their
working memory can be overloaded. Students can become
frustrated and give up. This is why scaffolding your teaching—
presenting information so there is not too much new material at
once, is important. It is also why practice, which creates sets of
links that the working memory can easily draw into mind, is
important as well.
Working memory and cognitive control develops gradually in students’ brains. When a child
starts elementary school, their brain size and shape is roughly that of an adult. But there are
structural differences between children and adults. As children mature, pruning of
connections within brain regions and increased connectivity within and between neural
regions help them to gain increasing cognitive control. 1
Exercise 8-1 Making a Play

The purpose of this exercise is for students to have fun even while they’re reinforcing key
ideas about working memory and long-term memory.
1. Ask students to divide up into groups of 4 to 7 students each. Then ask them to create
their own stage play about the “octopus of attention” and the sets of links of long-term
memory, and how they work together to help you with your learning. There’s no one right
answer to this exercise—the more fun that students are having, the better!
2. Ask some of the groups to show their skits to the entire class. Everyone should have a
good time with this!

3
Exercise 8-2 Multi-tasking Makes the Brain Tired

Background:
One of the interesting features of working memory—

the attentional octopus—is that it takes a while for it
to get wrapped around the topic a student is working
on. This is why it can be important for students to
keep their focus on a given task. Every time they
pull up their attentional octopus arms from one topic
to turn their attention to, say, a friend who just
walked in, or a different task, and then later return
their attention to the first task, it causes a drain on the
brain.
This exercise helps students see what it feels like for their working memory when they are
multi-tasking back and forth between several different tasks.
What to do:
1. Ask students to count from 1 to 10. This should be easy.
2. Ask students to recite the alphabet from A to J out loud. This should also be easy.
3. Now ask students to switch back and forth between the tasks, reciting A1, B2, C3, and so
forth.
4. After the students have struggled through this task, ask them how it felt. They will say
things like “It was hard!” This is because task switching is hard on the working memory.
This is why, when students are studying, it’s a good idea for them to try to keep their focus
on what they are studying, without their attention drawn elsewhere. Every time a student
switches back and forth, they are putting their brain though more tiring effort.

Credits
Illustrations courtesy Oliver Young.
Bunge, Silvia A and Samantha B Wright. "Neurodevelopmental Changes in Working Memory and
Cognitive Control." Current Opinion in Neurobiology 17, no. 2 (2007): 243-250.
1
Bunge and Wright (2007)

1
9 Slick Tricks to Build Your Memory

Synopsis
In this video we learned about how Nelson Dellis learned memory tricks that helped him to
become a memory champion. Even ordinary forgetful people can become memory athletes.
A person’s long-term memory has two parts in it—one for pictures, and one for facts. We can
think of these parts using two metaphors—a toothpaste tube sitting in the locker, and the rest
of the locker.
Facts go into the toothpaste tube, and pictures go into the
rest of the locker. To the attentional octopus, facts are like
toothpaste—they're hard to handle. The octopus struggles
to squeeze facts into a toothpaste tube. But, if the
information is a picture, the attentional octopus is much
happier. It just sticks the picture to the wall of the locker.
This gives us an important idea about how to remember. If

a student converts a fact into an unusual picture, it’s a lot
easier to remember. If the picture somehow involves
movement, it will stick even more strongly.
EXERCISES TO BE CARRIED OUT IN CLASS: Students can think of their long

term-memory as being able to
Exercise 9-1 Remembering a Year store pictures and facts. Pictures
are easy to store. But storing
What to do:
facts is like putting toothpaste
1. Divide the class into groups of approximately four back in a toothpaste tube!
students each.
2. Put the year of an important event on the board and ask students to brainstorm in their
groups for a few minutes to come up with a memorable way to remember that year and
somehow associate it with the event.
3. Ask several of the groups (choosing randomly amongst the groups) to share their
memorable ways to remember.
Exercise 9-2 Remembering a List of Important Words or Concepts
1. Divide the class into groups of approximately four students each.
2. Make a list on the board of five to ten important words that are related to a subject the
students are learning about. Ask each group to come up with a way of remembering the list
using a mnemonic, similar to the way that a mnemonic was devised on the video.

2
Exercise 9-3 Coming Up with a Way to Remember a Difficult New Word
Iceland has a tradition called Jolabokaflod, (pronounced yo-la-boka-flot). It roughly

translates as “yule book flood.” In this tradition, friends and family exchange books on
Christmas Eve, and then they spend the evening together reading their books.
What to do:
1. Explain the word Jolabokaflod, and then ask students to brainstorm in their groups for a
few minutes to come up with a memorable way to remember the word.

Credits
Illustration courtesy Oliver Young.

1
10: Even Crazier Memory Tricks

Synopsis
One of the most powerful memory techniques is one that’s been used for thousands of
years—the “memory palace technique.” Modern research has shown that using this technique
changes your brain and helps start improving your memory. 1 All you have to do is think of a
place you know fairly well, like your home, or the route to school. Then take whatever you
want to remember and then mentally put funny versions of those items in the rooms of your
home, or on the route as you move through it. The crazier the images, the better! You can
use maps, places in a favourite video game, or even parts of your body for a memory palace.
You can use a different memory palace to allow you to remember the main ideas of a speech
you are going to give, to remember long series of
numbers. You can revisit a memory palace whenever
you want—when you’re standing in line, or waiting
for a friend. Revisiting memory palaces strengthens
brain-links.
Other ways to help you remember are to use rhymes
or songs, or metaphors, and to take good notes that
are written by hand (not type-written). Or teach
someone else what you are trying to remember.
Exercise 10-1 Using the Memory Palace
In preparation for this exercise, remind the students

about the memory palace technique, and how these
spatial memory methods can be very powerful in
enhancing memory. Tell them that you’ll be picking
students randomly to come up and relate the list from
memory, so each person in the group should make
sure they’ve got the list in mind.
What to do:
2. Devise a list of ten words that students need to remember. Write these words on the board.
These can be words in a foreign language, important terms students are learning or using
related to a class, or perhaps key words that indicate the sentences or paragraphs from a
famous speech.
3. Ask each group to come up with a memorable image for each of the items. Using their
minds’ eye, they should place each of those images around the classroom itself, or around the
school building and grounds. Each person in the group should make sure they can remember
the list using the memorable imagery and location that the group devises.
4. Ask several individuals to recite the list of words. The groups should also be asked to
share about some of the memorable ways they have used to remember.

2
HOMEWORK THAT CONTINUES IN CLASS:
Exercise 10-2 Research a funny song or rhyme
What to do:
1. For this simple exercise, ask students to search online Required materials:
at home to find a memorable song or rhyme online
involving something educational that other students are Students are assumed to have
trying to remember. Students can alternatively make up home access to the internet for
their own songs or rhymes. Students should come to this exercise.
class the next day prepared to share the mnemonic
technique that they have learned.
2. Ask students to come up in front of the class what they have learned and memorized as a
result of the song or rhyme they found.

Credits
References
Anders Ericsson, K. "Exceptional Memorizers: Made, Not Born." Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7,
no. 6 (2003): 233-235.
Maguire, Eleanor A., et al. "Routes to Remembering: The Brains Behind Superior Memory." Nature
Neuroscience 6, (2002): 90.
1
Anders Ericsson (2003, Maguire, et al. (2002)

1
11 Why Brain-Linking is Important

Synopsis
Building strong sets of brain-links is important because they help students easily handle
complex information. Brain-links are made when axons and dendritic spines link together
through synapses. Students make a strong set of brain-links when they learn a concept well.
Their attentional octopus can easily zap and make a connection with a nice, solid set of brain-
links
When students are first trying to figure something

out, their attentional octopus—that is, their working
memory—is busy. All four “arms” of their octopus
are juggling information. They’re trying to put the
ideas together so they are connected and make sense.
A set of brain links is created gradually. First, the
working memory starts to put together and
understand the new concept. After some practice, the
new concept begins to feel natural—even easy.
That’s because a set of brain links has been
created—that nicely connected pathway in long-term Upper: Working memory—the
memory. The axons have linked across the synapses “attentional octopus” works hard when a
to dendritic spines.
student is first learning something. Lower:
The attentional octopus can easily link to a set of Later, when a student has understood and
brain-links. To make the connection, the octopus practiced with the concept, it’s easy to
slips an arm out of its mental school bag—the draw a previously created set of links to
working memory. The arm slithers through the mind.
brain’s hallways all the way over into the long-term
memory locker. There, the arm gives an electrical
zap to the set of links it needs. The set of brain-links
is activated—now the information can be used.
All the octopus needs to use is one arm. The other

three arms of the attentional octopus are free. A
student can grab onto other sets of brain-links with
those other arms, connecting complicated ideas or
actions. This explains how experts can think about
very complex ideas and process very difficult
questions, even with only four “arms” of working
memory.
Expert soccer players, airplane pilots, historians,

musicians, mathematicians, and scientists—experts
of any kind—have one thing in common. Lots of solid sets of brain-links: short ones, long
ones, and everything in between. Experts can use their attentional octopuses to easily
connect to large amounts of information.
It’s important to note that just understanding a concept does not create a set of brain-links. set
of brain-links is really created through practice. But the way a student practices is important.

2
A well-linked idea feels good to practice, because it’s so easy. But this can turn into “lazy
learning”—practice of the easy stuff. The best way to learn more rapidly is to avoid lazy
learning on the easy stuff. Instead, students should focus on what they find more difficult.
Exercise 11-1 When Something Hard Became Enjoyable
This exercise reminds students that learning is often difficult in the beginning, but can
become easier and more enjoyable through time.
What to do:
2. Ask students to discuss things they have learned in the past that were difficult at first, but
later, after they became proficient, became enjoyable. (Examples might include riding a
bicycle, doing math, playing a musical instrument, swimming, or performing in front of
people.)
3. Some of the groups should be asked to share with the class about some of these activities.
Exercise 11-2 Table Talk about Students’ Hobbies
This exercise reminds students that learning doesn’t always involve schoolwork. It also
encourages them to think metacognitively about subjects and areas they do like, potentially
bringing that passion to other areas.
What to do:
2. Ask students to discuss their hobbies. What do they like about their hobby? How did they
get good at the hobby? Can they apply some of the ideas and liking for their hobby to other
subjects? How?
3. Some of the groups should be asked to share with the class about some of these activities.
HOMEWORK
Exercise 11-3 Avoiding Lazy Learning
What to do:
For this exercise, a student should write a paragraph about a subject they are finding
themselves falling into “lazy learning.” What is the subject, what have they been doing that’s
“lazy learning,” and what specific actions will they take to minimize their lazy learning in the
future?

3
Credits

1
12 Who Stole My Parking Spot?

The Challenges of Information Overload
Synopsis
If working memory has too much information to hold, it becomes difficult to figure things
out. This relates to “cognitive load”—that is, the amount of mental effort that working
memory is making. Basically, your working memory can only hold so much in mind at once.
Brain-links can make things easier, though. This is because working memory can reach into
long-term memory to grab the brain-links that have been set up previously. These
previously-created sets of brain-links are kind of
like computer subroutines. They are little mental
helpers, in other words, that free up working
memory for other, more difficult tasks.
Distraction makes things more difficult for the

attentional octopus. If students are distracted, their
working memories can’t do their jobs as well,
because the octopuses have fewer arms to hold
onto things.
There’s another problem the attentional octopus
can encounter. That’s when students keep
switching their attention. Attention-switching is
makes the octopus tired. So, it’s important for
students to avoid distractions and interruptions Above: Excessive cognitive load makes it
when they are focusing on their studies. It drains difficult for working memory to grasp new
part of the brain’s learning power.
ideas.
Before students create sets of brain-links, what
they are learning can seem difficult and not very Below: Switching between different tasks
fun—like the feelings they had when they were can be tiring for working memory (the
first learning to ride a bike. (It’s all-too-easy to “attentional octopus”)
fall down!) In other words, sometimes students
may not enjoy what they are learning when they
are still in the early stages. It will get easier—and
more enjoyable.
There is always lots to learn when mastering a

new topic. A good approach is for students to pick
some key concepts to turn into solid sets of brain-
links by practicing and recalling the key ideas.
It’s nice to keep in mind a light-hearted idea

called the Law of Serendipity: “Lady Luck favors
the one who tries.” Creating good brain-links is
like creating good luck.

2
Exercise 12-1 Multi-tasking Slows Everything!
Students often make the mistake of thinking they are working efficiently if they are multi-
tasking—hopping from task to task. The truth is, they are far less efficient when they are
multi-tasking. This exercise clearly reveals students’ lack of efficiency when multi-tasking.
1. Explanation of the multi-tasking activity: Explain to students that for this exercise, they
will initially try focusing on two different tasks at the same time for two minutes. For one of
their tasks, they are expected to write a story about anything—the weather that day, what they
had for dinner the night before, their plans for the afternoon…. For the other task, (to be
performed at the same time), the students should count out loud backwards one-by-one, from
100 to 1. The students should try to progress as far and as fast as they can on both the story
and on the counting backwards tasks in two minutes.
2. Launch the multi-tasking activity: Tell the students to “Go!” and then time them for two
minutes. At the end of the two minutes, ask the students to stop. Then ask them to count up
how many words they wrote in the story, and what number they ended up at while counting
backwards. Ask students to write these statistics down.
3. Launch the single-task activity on story writing: Ask students to write a different story
from their first story for one minute—only concentrating on the story, not on anything else.
Then ask them to count the number of words in their story.
4. Launch the single-task activity on counting backwards: Finally, ask the students to
count backwards from 100 for one minute and note the number they stop at at the end of the
minute.
5. Comparing reactions: Ask the students to team into groups of four and compare their
statistics. Were they able to work as well when they were trying to work at both tasks? Or
were they better at only one at a time?
Background: In reality, it’s hard for people to focus on several things at once—instead, they
switch focus from task to task. This is very tiring—it’s hard to do very well at tasks when
task-switching!

3
IN CLASS AND/OR HOMEWORK:
Exercise 12-2 Would you sing a song just once? Math and Music
This exercise shows students how practice is important in creating sets of links that can
reduce the load on working memory. It also shows students how the learning approaches that
they use, for example, to become more skilled with a song, are similar to those they can use
to become more skilled at math.
What to do:
What you’ll need:
1. For this simple exercise, tell the students to listen
carefully. Then play or sing a few lines of a simple short • A short song that students
song—but only play it one time. haven’t heard before.
2. Say: “Now I want you to sing the song you just heard.” • Either be able to sing or play
The students will balk—most of them, anyway!—and if the song so that students can
you press them to sing the song, they will ask you to play hear.
or sing it again, maybe several times. Once the students can
sing the song, ask them if they would have felt comfortable that they knew the song if they
had only heard or sung it one time.
3. Then ask the students whether they typically work a key math problem (whether it be an
example problem or a homework problem) just one time and turn it in. Or do they work that
key problem from scratch several times, the way they do when they are learning songs?
(“From scratch” means they work it themselves, avoiding any peeking at the solution.)
Background: You want students themselves to arrive at the conclusion that their math
studies could benefit if they practiced more. Just as they wouldn’t claim to know a song if
they sang it one time, they can’t really know an important math or science problem if they’ve
only worked it one time.
Incidentally, you might remind students that there’s a big difference between just looking at
the solution, and actually working the solution out themselves. It’s like the difference
between listening to someone singing a song, and singing the song themselves.
Exercise 12-3 Distractions
Students are often unaware of the many distractions they have in their everyday life. This
exercise makes them much more aware.
What to do:
1. Ask students to team up in groups of 4.
2. Give students three to five minutes (approximately) to brainstorm the types of distractions
they normally experience.
3. Ask the groups to share their distractions, and what they recommend to help mitigate those
distractions.
Exercise 8-2 Multi-tasking Makes the Brain Tired

4
If you did not do exercise 8-2 earlier, this is also a good time to do this exercise.

Credits

1
13 How to Pump Up Your Brain

Synopsis
Julius Yego became the World Javelin Champion by watching YouTube videos, actively
practicing what he learned, and exercising.
An important point here, aside from the fact that online materials can definitely help with a
students’ ability to learn, is that exercise helps new neurons grow. That’s because when
people exercise, their brain makes a chemical
called BDNF. BDNF is like fertilizer for neurons—
it makes them strong and healthy. It also helps
neurons to connect more easily with other neurons.
So, exercise is healthy not only for the body, but
also the brain. It can help a person make brain-
links more easily.
A healthy diet can also help with learning. Eating
healthily means adding a variety of fruits and
vegetables to the diet. Vegetables from the onion
and cabbage family contain chemicals that help
keep away all sorts of diseases, from diabetes to
The upper image shows a neuron without
cancer.
BDNF added. The lower neuron shows how
Fruits of all colors are also great. Dark chocolate is dendritic spines pop out when BDNF is added.
very good, but chose chocolate with low sugar, and BDNF makes it easier for neurons to make
avoid eating chocolate later in the day, because it
new links. In other words, it makes learning
can interfere with sleep. Nuts are also a great
choice. A handful of nuts a day can nicely round easier. BDNF occurs naturally in the brain
out a diet. when students exercise—which is part of why
having a good exercise program is so
Avoid “fake foods.” These include highly
important to help students improve their
processed foods like French fries, chips, chicken
nuggets, and anything with lots of sugar or white ability to learn.
flour in it, like donuts.
HOMEWORK:
Exercise 13-1
Remind students that they can learn about all sorts of things effectively from the internet—
the internet can also provide great additional information about anything they might need
extra help with in learning.
What to do:
In this assignment, you would like students to discover and explore a good set of online
materials about healthy eating. They should then prepare a very short report (several
paragraphs) with the URL and title of the website, and a description about what the types of
materials they found (perhaps there are coloring sheets and short videos).

2
Exercise 13-2 Exercise While You’re Doing Homework!
Physical exercise can be a great way to get the blood circulating, bringing renewed focus to
studies.
What to do:
In this homework assignment, ask students to do a 25 minute Pomodoro on their studies. But
the twist is, when they might catch their mind wandering, they should get up and do
something physical—ten situps, pushups, or jumping jacks, for example, before returning
their attention to their studies. Students can write a brief paragraph or two about how many
times their Pomodoro was interrupted by exercise, and what type of exercise they did.
This technique can be surprisingly good at allowing students to relax and get more into their
studies!
Exercise 13-3 Pumping Up Your Attitude 1
Sometimes, students just need a mental boost to keep their spirits high.
What to do:
1. Take a few minutes out of the day to explore an encouraging sentence of the day. Start this
by giving some examples, and then ask students to look for sentences or stories that make
them feel powerful. Students use these sentences, stories or songs to boost their spirits.
You might begin by asking: “do you know what Edison and Rocky Balboa or Rambo have in
common?”
• Edison kept going forward mistake after mistake when he was working on the bulb (“I
have not committed 1000 mistakes, I have studied 1000 different ways that don´t
work, but I just have to find one way that works”)
• Rocky got up once and again in his fights.“It is not how hard you can hit but how hard
you can get hit and still keep moving forward.”
When Rambo felt alone and abandoned, Colonel Traumann asked Rambo: “How will you
live, Rambo? And he answered “day by day.” This is a good example of the “one step at a
time” approach.
Some other sentences could be:
• “Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today” (Benjamin Franklin): This is
a particularly appropriate sentence when talking about procrastination.
• Aldous Huxley used to say “The only corner in this universe you can be sure of
improving is your own self” (Students should compare themselves to their own
selves; Am I better than yesterday? Everyone is different and special; it makes no
sense to compare yourself to anyone else).
• In the same vein we have Michael Jackson´s lyrics (Man in the Mirror): “I am starting
with the man in the mirror, I am asking him to change his ways, and no message
could have been any clearer, if you wanna make the world a better place take a look at
yourself, then make a change…”

3
Arnorld Schwarzenegger has some good sentences from his biography Recall.
• “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When
you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength” (useful when
we talk about mistakes as powerful teachers, as signals to change our strategy).
• “What we face may seem insurmountable…but I have learned that we are always
stronger than we know”.
• “The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do
something, you can do it, as long as you really believe a hundred percent”.
• “The secret is contained in a three part formula I learned in the gym: Self confidence,
a positive mental attitude and honest hard work. Many people are aware of these
principles, but very few can put then into practice.” (When you want to accomplish
something, don´t think too much about it, just start, do it, don´t let your dream remain
just as an idea, make it materialize through perseverance, consistent work and faith.)
There is also great inspiration from Star Wars:
• “I cannot believe it.” (Luke Skywalker) “That is why you failed,” (Yoda) (You have
to believe in yourself first).
• “Always pass on what you have learned.” (Yoda tells Luke as he dies). (The
importance of teaching others).
• “Patience you must have, my young padawan,” (Yoda) (Persistence and patience are
great traits when we are learning something new.)
• “You must unlearn what you have learned.” (Yoda to Luke at the beginning of their
relationship.) (Sometimes we have to change strong beliefs, because they are limiting
beliefs; we need new empowering beliefs instead).
• “Do or do not, there is no try.” (Yoda) (Start now!! The first step is always the most
difficult one.)
Exercise 13-4 Watch a Documentary
What to do:
Required materials:
1. Watch the documentary Supersize Me.
Students are assumed to have
2. Write a brief report summarizing the effects of fast home access to the movie
food on the star of the documentary. Supersize Me.
Credits
Images by permission of Bai Lu, after “BDNF-based synaptic repair as a disease-modifying strategy
for neurodegenerative diseases,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 14, 401– 416 (2013).
1
Exercise courtesy Elena Benito.

1
14 Surprises About Learning:

Your Worst Traits Can Be Your Best Traits!
Synopsis
This video described learning surprises—sometimes what we believe about learning just isn’t
true. For example, people often think video games are bad. But research shows that action-
style video games, for example, can build the ability to focus. Games like Tetris can build
spatial ability. But the downside to video gaming is that, like many other things, it can be
addictive. Common sense—and moderation—are key.
Another learning surprise is that students who write their notes out by hand do better than
those who type them. This is because handwriting is slower than typing, which forces
students to try to catch the key ideas. The process of figuring out key ideas starts to pull out
dendritic spines—which helps students start a set of brain-links. If students review their notes
one last time not long before they go to sleep, they can nudge their dendritic spines to grow
even better.
Another learning surprise is that having a smaller
working memory can give certain advantages—
students with smaller working memories can
more easily see elegant shortcuts that wouldn’t
occur to the person with a strong working
memory. They can also be very creative.
Research shows that when one thought slips
from mind, another pops in. People with
challenges to their ability to focus, like those
with ADHD, can be particularly creative.
Whether students are fast or slow, they
Students vary in their abilities—and that’s can still learn the material. Your
perfectly normal. But whether students are fast or encouragement as a teacher, and your
slow in their learning, they can still learn the belief in them, can make all the
material. In fact, if some students learn more
difference!
slowly, those students can actually learn more
deeply.
Exercise 14-1 Encapsulate the key ideas of this video
What to do:
1. After watching this video, ask students to get into groups of 3 to 4 students each. Ask
them to select one person from the group who will be the recorder—this person should get
out a paper and pen or pencil.
2. Then tell the students they have two (or three) minutes to recall as many key ideas from the
video as they can. The recorder should jot down the key ideas.
3. When the minutes are up, tell the groups to stop. Then ask one of the groups for one of
their ideas. Ask that group (and the class as a whole) why they think that idea is important—

2
have they tried it out in their life? Will they try it? Continue asking groups about key ideas
until all of the video’s key points have been covered.
Exercise 14-2 An Exercise in Good Note Taking
It’s good to review good note-taking practices. For this exercise, students can watch (or re-
watch) this video and take notes on it.
Math, Ms. Pokorny, 4 Dec
What to do:
1. Before they watch the video, remind students about how

to take notes:
• Write down the subject, teacher, and date

• Write key words and phrases—don’t worry about
making neat sentences.
• It is a good idea to draw a line 1/3 of the way over
from the left side of the page and leave the left-hand-
side blank so that later, when the student reviews the
notes, they can jot the key ideas down there.
Students can in this way test themselves—if they see
the annotation for the key idea on the left, can they Example of how to take notes.
generate the more complete information on the right? The sample notes the
• Try to pick out the main ideas—if possible, fit them students take in class are
into a structure. indicated by the lines in black,
• Watch the teacher and see what they emphasize, on the right. The later “key
either with their voice or hands. idea” notes are in red on the
• Remember that good notes are brief, but clear and left.
easy-to understand.
2. Ask the students to watch the video and take notes as well as they can. Even if they only
catch a few of the key ideas, that’s a good start!
3. Ask students to compare their notes within small groups of three or four. They can see
what other people captured as the main ideas, and get a better sense for how good (and bad)
note-taking comes about.
Credits
Illustration courtesy Oliver Young; notes by Barbara Oakley

1
15: How to Do Well on Tests

Synopsis
A test prep checklist like the one on the next page can do a lot to help students be in the best
shape they can be when test day rolls around. This list reminds students about the things they
should be doing all along in their studies so they can do well on tests.
There are also techniques that can help during the test itself. One of the best techniques is the
“hard start” approach. Students begin this technique by quickly looking over the test once
they get it. They should make a little tick mark by the hardest problems. Next, they should
pick one of those hard problems and get to work on it. But they should only work on this
problem a minute or two, just until they begin to feel like they’re getting stuck. At that point,
they should stop and look for easier problems. The easier problems will help re-boost their
confidence. When students ultimately go back to the hard problem, they can make surprising
progress.
The “hard-start” technique works because it allows students to
use their brains in two different ways at the same time—a sort
of double processor. When the focused mode is working on
the easier problem, the diffuse mode is working in the
background on the other, harder problem. Students can use
the “hard-start” technique for both tests and homework. One
of the most valuable aspects of the technique is that it helps
students to practice disconnecting and moving on to
problems they can solve. Disconnecting can be one of
students’ biggest challenges on tests—they can run out of time
even though there were other, easier problems that they could
have solved.
Another trick is, when students catch themselves feeling The “hard start” technique allows
anxious, they should try to shift their perspective. Instead of you to use your brain as a sort of
thinking “this test makes me nervous,” substitute the thought: double processor.
“this test has me excited to do my best!”
A last word of advice is that when students get nervous, they can end up breathing from the
upper part of their chests. This is “shallow” breathing, and it doesn’t give enough oxygen.
Students can end up panicking, not because of the test, but because they aren’t getting enough
oxygen!
Deep breathing can help prevent this problem. To do deep breathing, students should put one
hand on their belly. Their hand should move out when they breathe in. They should try to
imagine their breath as a sail that also expands their back. In the days before a test, students
should stand sideways in front of a mirror to try deep breathing out for thirty seconds or so,
so they get used to it.
Remember, the best test preparation is to practice actively during studies!

2
Test Preparation Checklist

Answer “Yes” only if you usually do these things:
1. Did you get a reasonable night’s sleep before the test? (If your answer is
“No,” then your answers to the rest of the questions may not matter.) ____Yes____No
2. Did you review your notes from class not long after you took them? Did
you use active recall during your review to see if you could easily pull to ____Yes____No
mind the key ideas?
3. Did you study a little bit on most days instead of waiting until the last
____Yes____No
minute and cramming right before the test?
4. Did you focus carefully during your study sessions, doing your best to
____Yes____No
avoid distractions except when you were taking a break?
5. Did you study in different locations? ____Yes____No
6. Did you read your textbook or class worksheets carefully? (Just
fishing around for the answer to what you’re working on doesn’t count.)
While you were reading, did you avoid too much underlining and ____Yes____No
highlighting your textbook? Did you make brief notes about the book’s
key ideas and then look away to see if you could recall them?
7. If your studies involved working problems, did you actively work and
rework key examples by yourself, so you turned them into sets of brain- ____Yes____No
links and could rapidly call the solution to mind?
8. Did you discuss homework problems with classmates, or at least
____Yes____No
check your solutions with others?
9. Did you actively work every homework problem yourself? ____Yes____No
10. Did you talk to your teachers, or to other students who could help,
____Yes____No
when you were having trouble with your understanding?
11. Did you spend most of your study time focusing on the material you
____Yes____No
found harder? That is, did you do deliberate practice?
12. Did you interleave your studies? In other words, did you practice
____Yes____No
when to use different techniques?
13. Did you explain key ideas to yourself, and perhaps to others, using
____Yes____No
funny metaphors and images?
14. Did you take occasional breaks from your studies that included some
____Yes____No
physical activity?
TOTAL: ____Yes____No
The more “Yes” responses you recorded, the better your preparation for the test. If you
recorded three or more “No” responses, think seriously about making some changes in how
you prepare for the next test.

3
Exercise 15-1 Deep Breathing Exercise
It can really help students to internalize the ideas of deep breathing to reduce stress if you do
this activity with them in class.
What to do:
1. Ask the students to stand up and put their hands on their stomachs.
2. Model deep breathing for them by standing sideways to the class (as was done on the
video), placing your hand on your stomach, and trying to draw a breath in so deeply that it
makes your hand move.
EXERCISES TO BE CARRIED OUT IN CLASS OR AS HOMEWORK:
Exercise 15-2 Using the Test Checklist
Students can miss the big picture of how many different factors in their studying can all play
together to improve—or harm—their test performance. This exercise allows students to the
patterns of their studies—and how it affects their test-taking.
What to do: Required materials:

Print a copy of the test checklist to students. After the next A printed copy of the test
test, hand out a copy of the checklist for students to fill out checklist for each student in the
either in class or at home. You can ask students to simply class.
reflect on the results themselves, or hand in the results in as
homework.
Exercise 15-3 Prompt Students about the “Hard Start” Technique
Students can forget about the value of the “hard start” technique. Reminders can be very
useful!
What to do:
First, remind students that they should study the relevant material before they begin the
homework—they should not be hunting and pecking randomly for solutions to plug in
without understanding what those solutions mean.
Tell the students that once they’ve studied well for their homework, they should apply the
“hard start” technique. Remind them about what the technique is—ask them to circle the
problems they considered “hard,” and note whether the technique helped them.
For the next suitable exam, also remind students again about the “hard start” technique. Tell
them again that the most important part of “hard start” is the ability to pull themselves off the
question when they feel they are stuck—so they can return to it later. Right before a text, you
can also remind students to reframe by saying something like: “Remember, the excitement
you feel about this test is because you are excited to do your best!”

4
Exercise 15-4 Imagine You Are the Teacher
One of the best exercises for helping students understand what they need to learn is for them
to imagine they are the teacher.
What to do:
1. Ask students to either individually (as homework) or in groups (in class) brainstorm what
sorts of question the teacher (you!) will be asking on an upcoming test.
2. Ask the students to share between their groups, and with the class as a whole.
This is a surprisingly good way to help students prepare for a test!
Credits

1
16 Summing It All Up:

The Keys to Success in Your Learning
Synopsis
What students have learned in these videos will help them for the rest of their lives—
encourage them to share what they’ve learned with others. Students can make up funny
stories, draw pictures, and stage plays. Explain what neurons and brain-links are, and how
they help learning. Students will remember the lessons better by teaching them, and they’ll
help others at the same time.
Santiago Ramón y Cajal was the troublemaker who
became a great scientist—he won the Nobel Prize even
though his memory wasn’t very good and he couldn’t
learn very fast. But we know now that Santiago’s learning
challenges also gave him advantages that sometimes
helped him to do even better than geniuses.
Cajal admitted he wasn’t a genius. So, what was his
magic? How did he become such a successful learner?
There are three keys:
First, Santiago kept his options open. Originally, art was
his passion. But realized he had boxed himself in by
thinking he could only do one thing. He expanded his
passion to include math and science.
So, encourage students to be like Santiago as they grow
up. The world is becoming more complicated. We need Nobel Prize winner Santiago
people with broad skills and interests. Ramón y Cajal went from
Second, Santiago was persistent. When he decided to learn being a poor learner to
math, he went back to the basics. Slowly, he worked his becoming a great scientist.
way upwards. It was hard, but he just kept at it.
Persistence is key in learning. But remember that persistence doesn’t mean working without
stopping. It means that, after you’ve taken diffuse mode breaks, students should keep
returning to their work!
Third, Cajal was flexible. Race-car-brain learners can be right more often than others, but this
also creates a trap. Some super smart learners can end up jumping to conclusions. When
they’ve made an incorrect conclusion, it can be hard for them to admit it and correct it,
because they’re not used to making mistakes.
Since Cajal wasn’t a genius, he got a lot of practice correcting his mistakes. When Cajal
became a scientist, he actively looked for ways to determine whether he was right or wrong.
When he was wrong, he changed his mind.
A flexible approach that allows students to admit and correct errors is the kind of approach
that can allow them to do great work of any kind. It can also help them to lead a happy,
successful life at work with colleagues and at home with friends and family.
And remember—Lady Luck favors the one who tries!

2
Exercise 16-1 Helping Students to Appreciate the Importance of Flexibility
Students are often unaware of the vital importance of flexibility—of being willing to change
their thinking and admit when they are wrong.
What to do:
2. As their teacher and role model, share something about yourself where you have either
changed your mind or made a mistake. Then ask the groups to share within their group about
some of their experiences in changing their mind or overcoming mistakes.
3. Ask if anyone would like to share their experiences with the class.
This can be a deep and searching exercise that can allow students to have a better
appreciation of the imperfections that make them human.
Exercise 16-2 Education is a Privilege
Learning and education is a privilege and not an obligation—

this exercise helps students to better understand that. Required materials:
What to Do: Students must be able to watch

the video “On the Way to
Show students the video “On the Way to School” (Pascal School,” Pascal Plisson.
Plisson). This documentary tells the stories of children from
four different countries in the world (Kenya, Morocco,
Argentina and India) who put their lives in danger every day to get to school. 1
Many students cannot believe that these children make the effort they make to go to school
This video is a terrific eye-opener for students about how grateful they should be to have the
opportunity to learn.
Another excellent video is “The Butterfly Circus” (with Nick Vujicic)—this helps students see
how they must tap into their potential.
EXERCISE TO BE CARRIED OUT IN CLASS OR AS HOMEWORK:
Exercise 16-3 A Stage Play about Key Ideas in the Course
There’s nothing like acting out the key ideas of the course to help students have fun even
while they are helping to cement the ideas in mind.
What to do:
1. Ask students to get into groups of 4 to 6 students each. Then give the students an hour (if
assigned to be done in class), or a week (if assigned to be done as homework) to devise a

3
five-minute play that teaches about the key ideas of the Learning How to Learn course in a
humorous way.
2. Once the students have their skits ready, they should perform them, group-by-group, for
the rest of the class.
HOMEWORK:
Exercise 16-4 Create a Poster that Teaches Key Ideas from the Course
Creating a poster can help a student enjoy creative artistry even as they are re-visiting and
strengthening the ideas they’ve learned in the course.
Required materials:
What to do:
Each student will need to get a
1. Ask the students to make a list of the top ten (at poster and the materials to draw
least) ideas they have learned from the course. Then on the poster.
ask the students to (individually) make posters
illustrating those ideas. Remind them that funny is
good!
3. When the posters are due, set them out in the hallways, or prominently on the walls, so
everyone can enjoy and learn of others’ creative insights!
Credits
Original photo of Santiago Ramón y Cajal is anonymous although published by Clark

University in 1899. Restoration by Garrondo.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cajal-Restored.jpg
1
Exercise concept courtesy Elena Benito.

Z2fHGzegEemFOA6Hm29iNA - Teachers Notes For All Videos PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Z2fHGzegEemFOA6Hm29iNA - Teachers Notes For All Videos PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Vídeo 1: Easy does it—

Why trying too hard can sometimes be a problem

The two different “pinball tables” in the brain represent the

Why knowledge of focused and diffuse modes is important

Learning How to Learn, Video 1

EXERCISES TO BE CARRIED OUT IN CLASS:

These two different configurations of children represent the “close together”

Learning How to Learn, Video 1

Learning How to Learn, Video 1

Helpful Background Information

Exercise 1-3 Table talk on the Diffuse Mode

Learning How to Learn, Video 1

Exercise 1-4 Brainstorm a list of diffuse mode activities

General diffuse activators

Learning How to Learn, Video 1

• Play video games

Exercise 1-5 Feeling the shift while forming a square

Learning How to Learn, Video 1

Exercise 1-6 Feeling the shift while rearranging coins

1. Draw the coins as shown at right on the board.

Notes by Barbara Oakley and ESIC Business & Marketing School.

Learning How to Learn, Video 1

Learning How to Learn, Video 1

Video 2: I'll Do It Later, Honest! Using a Tomato to Avoid

Why Is the Pomodoro Technique Important?

EXERCISES THAT CAN BE CARRIED OUT IN CLASS:

Learning How to Learn, Video 2

1. Explain the technique and objective.

Role of the teacher

Exercise 2-2 Procrastination Circle

Learning How to Learn, Video 2

“I am Miss Ana Santiago Gómez. And I am a procrastinator. I’ve been procrastinating

Learning How to Learn, Video 2

Below is a list of some typical responses

• Listen to a favourite song—maybe even dance to it

Guidance for the Teacher

Learning How to Learn, Video 2

EXERCISES TO BE CARRIED OUT AS HOMEWORK:

Exercise 2-6 Finding Good Pomodoro Apps

Exercise 2-7 Procrastinate 10 minutes later

Learning How to Learn, Video 2

Notes by Barbara Oakley and ESIC Business & Marketing School.

Learning How to Learn, Video 2

Why Is Broadening Your Passions Important?

EXERCISE TO BE CARRIED OUT IN CLASS:

Learning How to Learn, Video 3

EXERCISE TO BE CARRIED OUT AS HOMEWORK:

4. Give each student a conversation tracker chart to record conversations with

Learning How to Learn, Video 3

Learning How to Learn, Video 3

Santiago discovered that, despite his difficulties, if he

In this video we learned some of the foundational

• Neurons and their parts

EXERCISES TO BE STARTED IN CLASS

Learning How to Learn, Video 4

Learning How to Learn, Video 4

Exercise 4-2 Neurons “Talk” to One Another—A Recall Exercise

Neurons reach out with their “arm”—

2. Ask the students to draw a neuron

Exercise 4-3 Creating Flashcards

Notes by Barbara Oakley and ESIC Business & Marketing School.

Learning How to Learn, Video 4

Dendritic spines are a little like lie