Drawing…It’s all about testing my memory

My assignment this week was to draw the image of a stranger from memory. I had to look at the stranger’s picture for a minute after finding it from the Internet and come up with the sketch. Here’s the original picture I found: 

 And here is what I came up with from drawing:  

I am not an artist, so please do not judge. J

The stranger I drew had some remarkable features. The technique I used to remember his image was association with familiar images and colors. The man on the picture has a well-defined face. He also has a long face, just like my father. The shape of his face was something I remembered because it reminded me of my dad. This stranger also has thick eyebrows, I do not. Thinking of this contrast helped me remember that aspect of the stranger’s face, especially because I wish I had thicker brows. 

For the things I did not remember or notice: I  remembered that the stranger was wearing a colored shirt which I thought was green. I associated the color of his shirt with the UNT color and that helped me remember the shirt he was wearing. Anyway, his shirt looks more turquoise than green. Also, I did not pay attention to the background of the stranger’s picture.  It was blue with some letters going across it. I also did not know that there were buttons on the collar of the man’s shirt, even though I they black and actually quite visible. I actually thought he had more buttons running down the front of his shirt. This forgetfulness of mine can be explained by this National Geographic video that explains how selective the brain is. We therefore are unable to remember information that our brains do not deem valuable after 20 seconds.

References

National Geographic. (n.d.). National geographic: Test your brain episode 3 - memory. Retrieved from http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xq2gon_national-geographic-test-your-brain-episode-3-memory_shortfilms

Ha! My evolution as a learner…a journey from high school to grad school

I believe in working smart, not working too hard. That is a philosophy that I incorporate into my studies. This does not mean that I don’t commit 100 percent to my studies; it simply means that I have adopted learning techniques which make learning less strenuous for me.           

I knew from an early age that I loved stories. I was that student who read a novel assigned to high school students seven years before I was assigned that novel for a class. One learning strategy that I have used over the years has been to make stories out of my lessons. Stories are fun to remember and they have certain elements that help make them more memorable; such as: conflict, characters and the progression of the plot. I study subjects that appeal to me and that way, I can take on the role of the character(s). That helps me remember the things that are important to me. As fate would have it, I now teach a storytelling class which makes learning fun and memorable for our students.

Another learning technique that works for me is attending my classes and taking down notes. In high school, I tried to write down almost every word that my professors said in class. Luckily, that worked for me. However, I realized as the years went by, especially in graduate school that concentrating on writing so much actually distracted me. Now I listen more during lectures and only write down concepts and ideas that I may have had a hard time understanding when I read through my textbooks. Reading the short notes I take in class helps me remember my lectures.