“The brain is best at learning what it needs to survive – socially, economically, emotionally, and physically: From your typical student brain’s point of view, remember that ‘academic success’ is often quite low on its list of to do’s!”
I found this passage particularly interesting because I feel that it sums up students’ unwillingness to be in school in one succinct sentence. I was once a high school student so I know that it is hard to be at school early in the morning, but I never knew that the students’ brains were developing to the extent that they should be getting 9 1/4 hours of sleep per night.
At the high school age, the brain has “academic success” very low on its list of priorities. Since the brain is still developing, at this time it is still learning basic life skills – how to socialize, how to handle emotions, etc. After the brain has learned all of these skills is when it will move up “academic success” on the to-do list.
I loved all of the readings assigned to us for this week. I think that it is important for teachers to understand how students’ brains work in order to be able to adjust their teaching methods accordingly. Reading about the development of the adolescent brain shed light on some of my students’ behaviors in class. I used to think that it was their fault for being tired in the morning and for not getting enough sleep, but now I know that research says their brains actually do require a certain amount of sleep to function, and it is not just hearsay.
I can’t agree with you (and the article) more about the amount of sleep teens (and young adults) need. I for one can survive with 6-7 hours a night, but it is definitely not enough to get me through the day without a sluggish morning and a need to nap in the afternoon (though this may have to do with a lack of vitamins and minerals…). To remedy the situation on a short-term level, I think having snacks in the classroom for students can be helpful. I’ve seen my CT share almonds or chips with her students whenever they say they’re hungry. This can be a way to get some sugar into them and wake them up. The snacks, of course, should be foods that are not allergy inducing. A long-term solution would be to change the hours of a school day, but that is a problem for another day.