Give Your Brain a Break

I had something planned to write about this week.  I know I did.  I spent time thinking about it and pre-writing in my head when I was out walking last week.  I cannot, however, remember what it was.  I normally post on Sundays, but I didn't post yesterday because when I sat down to write, I couldn't remember what I was going to write about.  I thought perhaps I would remember by this morning, but it hasn't happened.  Yesterday, my mom and I spent some time with my 94-year-old granny.  She has said a number of things lately that we believe is remembering things from months ago but believing they happened this week.  You may have found difficulty in recent weeks, searching for the next word you want to say or remembering what you had planned to do next.  We are all a mental step behind where we are accustomed to being.

Part of the reason for our mental slowness is the imbalance of neurotransmitters that come from social distancing.  Some of it is due to the diet many adopted during the pandemic as it did not include the nutrients that were good for the brain and did include ingredients that are bad for cognitive function.  If you aren't making a concerted effort to get some sunlight, your brain will be affected as well.  If you have noticed a more profound drop in the past few weeks than the rest of the pandemic, it is likely your brain is also suffering from the impact of world events on your mental function.  Even if they are not impacting your life directly, if they are in the back of your mind, they are taking up space in your working memory.  That lowers your ability to hold as many other things in your mind at once as you usually do.

So, what can we do?  I addressed some strategies back in April in my post about isolation as a single person.  Here are a few ideas.

Eat right - It's time to stop using the pandemic as an excuse to eat trash.  You know what you are supposed to do, and you are an adult who can make decisions, so make better ones.  In particular, for your brain, you need vitamins E and D and Omega 3 fatty acids.  You can supplement if you have to, but it is always better absorbed in the context of food and natural digestion.

Get some exercise - You don't have to reorganize your life to put in an hour-long, extra-strenuous workout.  I'm talking about going for a walk.  Take a lap around the outside of your house.  The mental break, fresh air, and vitamin D inducing sunlight will help your brain function.

Put your phone down - I know everyone has grown to think of their phone as a part of their left hand, but it doesn't have to be.  The non-stop scroll of news and social media posts about the news are keeping it in your working memory.  Set a time boundary (half an hour in the morning or one hour in the evening, scrolling during lunchtime - whatever works for you) on your exposure to news.  Reading the same story over and over again makes your brain respond as if the event were happening over and over again.  You aren't more informed.  You are more anxious, and it is bad for your brain.

Challenge your brain - Do something to keep your brain exercised.  I do a daily crossword puzzle.  You might want to read a chapter of a book and do Sudoku.  It doesn't really matter what it is as long as it provides a good amount of challenge for your brain, keeping it stimulated and working.  When you are trying to remember something, don't just Google it right away.  Give your brain some time to try to remember it.

Cut yourself (and others) some slack - I'm an organizer and a planner, and I try to teach my kids to organize as well.  It's an important part of equipping them for life, so I am have always held them to due dates and deadlines.  I take their late work, but there is a penalty, because I don't believe I am preparing them for adult life (where bills have late fees and there are consequences to submitting applications late) if I don't hold them accountable for when something is due.  I am, however, cutting them way more slack during this time.  Because I know we are ALL having trouble with our working memory, I am not penalizing them for something being late by a day, and I am reminding them more if things are missing.  I am giving less penalty for late submissions than I used to.  The EduTwitter mob would find it horrible that I am assigning anything with a deadline.  I believe they are wrong.  Preparing them for adult life is still important, even in a pandemic, and sending them the message that it isn't is likely to lead them to the conclusion that they won't have an adult life.  While I plan to return to more strict policies in the future, it is only fair to show everyone around us an extra measure of grace.

Now that you have finished this post, put your phone down and go for an outdoor walk.  Your brain will be glad that you did.

Good Problem Solving Takes Time

 This week, I went through the problem-solving steps required for credit with my physics class.  They're nothing special; I'm sure math and science teachers all over the world have similar requirements.  Identify your knowns (with units).  Identify unknown.  Write the equation you will use.  Apply the equation by substituting the variables.  Do the math and box your answer.  

While this method is not earth-shattering, is certainly not the only valid approach (just the one required in my class), and is meant only for having an organization system for solving math problems, I had a realization while teaching it to them.  It's a model for solving all kinds of problems.  If we zoom out from the specifics of math, what this method actually boils down to is this.

1.  Identify the information you have that is relevant to the problem at hand.

2.  Ask "What do I need to know to solve this problem?"

3.  Examine the tools you have available and choose the one that best fits.

4.  Apply the tool to the problem and analyze the results.  

We would arrive at better solutions to problems if we approached solving problems in this manner.  The problem is, we don't have the patience for it.  We want instant solutions.  Take a look at social media after a mass shooting, a weather disaster, or any tragedy.  Within minutes of the event, there are many posts with assertions of the solution.  Setting aside that the problem they are trying to address is large and complex and has no easy solution, these people have put five full seconds of thought into it before picking up their phone; so they clearly know what they are talking about.  

Smartphones have made us less patient than any other invention.  Answers to questions are instantaneous as long as Siri knows the answer.  We can get what we need from Amazon in two days (or, in some places, two hours) without having to bother with going to the store.  I find myself getting impatient with the microwave because it is taking 3 minutes and 33 seconds (It's a quirk of mine to put in all the same numbers, don't worry about it) to cook something that would have taken an hour to cook in the oven fifty years ago or hours to cook over a fire one hundred years ago.  We don't want to wait for anything.  How much less patience do we have when we have an actual problem?  

Here's the deal, though.  The solution that immediately springs to mind is rarely the right one.  It usually leaves out some of the information we need to properly deal with the issue at hand.  It may neglect a good tool simply because we didn't take the time to think about the tools we have.  Using the wrong tool or neglecting relevant details can not only be ineffective but dangerous.  If I had a flat tire, I couldn't just grab the nearest tool, which would likely be a hammer or a screwdriver.

This tendency we have to impatiently jump to conclusions is precisely why we have grown impatient with science during the COVID-19 crisis.  We want to just grab the nearest bottle of pills and hope it works, but that's not science.  If it did work, it would be because we got lucky, not because we found a real solution.  This morning, the President tweeted that the CDC was making participating in a trial too difficult (and, as is his practice, made it about himself).  I don't expect him to understand the nuances of clinical trials and the details of how people qualify for them because non-scientists don't spend time thinking about these things, but I do expect him to know why scientific protocols exist.  Not following those protocols could lead to an ineffective vaccine, or worse, a treatment that causes more problems than it solves.  Individual human bodies are complex, and groups of humans are even more so.  This is why science takes time.  During the AIDS epidemic of the 80s and 90s, activists widely criticized Dr. Fauci for moving too slowly while their people were dying.  He knew that doing it right had to be more important than doing it fast, and he eventually won them over.  A diagnosis of HIV is no longer the death sentence it was then because scientists took the time to look for real solutions rather than jumping to conclusions.  

If you are facing a problem (or your students are), take the time to solve the problem rather than instinctively throw ideas at it.    

My Weirdness - Part 2 - No Cell Phone

Imagine there was a person in your life who insisted you take them with you everywhere you go.  "You won't be safe.  You won't be happy.  You'll be wishing you had me because you will always wonder what funny thing I would have been saying to you if you did.  Your friends won't think you're cool if you don't take me with you."  If that was a person in your life, you would find them controlling and manipulative and would not want them around.  I imagine, "You're not the boss of me" would be said at some point in your relationship.  That person would be a bully.

You let a piece of glass and metal, however, do this to you every day of your life.  It's called your smart phone.  This piece of technology that was designed as a convenience doesn't make your life easier.  It bullies you.
- Every day, it says, "You must take me with you, or you won't be safe."  When students find out that I don't own a cell phone, it is the first thing they bring up.  They say, "What if you have an emergency?"  I remind them that emergencies existed before the invention of the cell phone.  They launch into a stream of what if's questions in an effort to impress upon me how much danger I am in.  I'm not going to say that phones haven't helped people out of dangerous situations, but I have also never walked into traffic while chasing a Pokeball, and I've never had the issue of texting while driving; so I think it's a wash.
- Every day, it says, "You must take me with you, or you won't be happy.  You'll be wishing you had me because you will aways wonder what you are missing out on without me."  I do sometimes watch my students joyfully show each other a funny video, but more often than not, I watch them ignore each other because they are each so engrossed in their phone that they aren't present where they physically are.  When they don't have them, they have so much fear or what they are missing that they are riddled with anxiety.  These are signs of addiction, and we would recommend they seek treatment for that if it were anything but a phone.
- Every day, it says, "Your friends won't think you're cool if you don't take me with you."  This isn't just true of students but adults as well.  It's another way of showing your status to the world, and it is just as obnoxious to show off with the phone you have as it is to show off with the car you drive or the watch you wear.  They are all tools to achieve an end.  Having them in rose gold doesn't actually make them better tools.


As technology advances, we must make choices about our lives.  Accepting everything that comes our way for no other reason than because it is new makes us mindless drones.  Have a philosophy of life, and see if new technologies fit into your philosophy.  Note:  I'm not saying you should see if it fits in with my philosophy but that it should fit with yours if you are going to adopt it.  I have decided that there is too much noise in my world.  By that, I don't just mean sound.  As a teacher, I am bombarded with a constant stream of input from students, parents, other teachers, friends, grade analysis, research, and the internet.  Without a cell phone, I don't carry the noise with me twenty-four hours a day.  I decided some time ago that there needs to be some time in my life between thought and action; there needs to be some time between asking a question and the ability to get an answer.  If I don't have that in my life, my patience will plummet.  I use my computer to look for a lot of information; but because I have to wait until I get back to my computer, it allows for that little bit of lag time I personally need.  Smartphones do not give us time to think and process and reflect wisely before we fire off a tweet or look up an answer.  Therefore, they do not fit within the philosophy I have for myself.  My philosophy of any tool is that it should be used properly and for the convenience of the user.  If the phone rings at my house, I do not answer it if the timing is inconvenient because the ring is a signal, not a command.  People ask me all the time how I live without a cell phone, and my answer is always the same, "A lot more peacefully than you live with yours."

If any technology is determining your philosophy instead of the other way around, it is controlling you.  Take a step back and reflect on whether that is what you want in your life.