My Learning Brain by Charlotte

My Learning Brain 

 Over the past few weeks I had the opportunity to explore how I learn through this exploration which was Cognition. An exploration is a “subject” that we spend  couple months focusing on. Reflecting on how I learn, I there are  certain circumstances under which I learn best. I learn best independently with no distractions or sounds. I also learn best when I am organized, energized, actively engaged or taking notes.  Finally, I learn best in small groups.  There are a lot of ways that I learn best, but these are the ones I feel are most important.



One of the things that we experimented with throughout this exploration was not listening to music during independent work time. In the previous exploration I listened to music when I was practicing French on Duolingo and doing math on IXL. Music helps me focus because it blocks off all the other sounds. I remember when I was writing a blog and there was instrumental music in the background, that helped me, but in the first half of the hour we did not listen to music and I got more work done.  I like to listen to instrumental music in the background but complete silence is best because there are no distractions. We learned in this exploration that it is difficult for the brain to listen to music and think at the same time because that is a lot of processing . Music activates connections in your brain. 



When the music has words I focus on the words of the song and I write those words instead. For example, when I was writing my article for the learning showcase I was making a lot of errors because I was listening to music with words. From this, I understand  that I learn best in silence or listening to music with no words.



I feel like I learn best when I am in language lab (library) which is a quiet environment and I learned that I learn best when we went to Impact Hub when I was alone and I was very productive.



I like active and experiential learning because when I am moving and exploring, it helps me remember more of what is being taught.When there are many different senses that are being activated well learning it is easier to remember. I became aware of my preference for active learning  when we went to NUTS  and we answered questions and then ran through an obstacle course.  NUTS is an obstacle course, that involves answering trivia questions.  When I was in my old school, I didn’t remember anything because we just completed math worksheets. Now here at Blue Sky, we do workshops where we get to draw equations on the walls and we put tape on the ground to measure, and now I remember everything like how I know that 2/4 is bigger than ⅓ because 2/4 is equivalent to ½, and ⅓ is smaller than ½ .



We also go on field trips like Impact Hub, Courtyards, Parkdale Food Center, and all over and I remember everything from those outings. An article about experiential learning from Carleton University says: “Experiential learning requires the student to not only engage in the experience activity, but also requires them to reflect upon their learning and how their skills learned through their academic studies can be applied beyond the classroom.” All of these outings give us the opportunity to apply these learning's beyond the classroom.

 https://carleton.ca/experientialeducation/what-is-experiential-education/



I also like when I can keep track of my learning and what I am doing most of the time,so that I know how much I need to balance out my goals . I learned this when we got our clipboards to keep track of our goals. On my clipboard I have a checklist to check off what I was working on. Before I had my checklist I usually only worked on one of my goals. Now, I am more aware of what I need to work on more.



A final reflection on my learning is about group size. One of the workshops that helped me was Deagan’s numeracy workshop. It was a small group and we did number lines and it felt easy because we were all communicating. I like small group workshops because it is easier to communicate our ideas to each other and get more work done. Being in a small school allows me to make progress on my individual goals because coaches the have the time to personalize all of our learning.



Throughout this exploration I have discovered a lot about how I learn. For individual goals, I have learned that I need a quiet and organized space. At other times, when learning is more interactive, I like to be in small groups and be immersed into real-world environments. I really enjoyed this exploration and I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on how I work and learn.