More on Flashcards

Here are some more ideas on how to use flashcards effectively.

Start with 3 flashcards. Lay them out in front of you. Point to the first one, say the word and its definition. Then point the second one, and do the same. Then the third. Now mix them up and add one new card in. Repeat the process of saying the term and definitions for each card including the new one. Repeat the process–add in another card and go through each card. Continue until you reach about 15 cards.

More details of this type of technique can be found here on WikiHow:

http://www.wikihow.com/Memorize-Flashcards-Effectively.

Remembering Dates with the Peg System

A student of Jiva Public School recently asked me a good way to remember dates for his exam. Here’s the answer: Use the Peg System. The Peg System is a memory technique that is often used to remember long numbers and lists of items, however it is equally as valuable for remembering dates (such as the many many dates in India’s looooooooong history). The Peg System works like this:

The numbers 1 -9 (and the number 0) each get a sound associated with it.

1 – D or T (similar sounds)

2 – N

3 – M

4 – R

5 – L

6 – Ch or J or Sh (similar sounds)

7 – K or G (g as in gold) (similar sounds)

8 – F

9 – P or B (similar sounds)

0 – S or Z (similar sounds)

Note:

• Vowels, vowel sounds, and the letters  W, H, and Y (WHY) are never used to represent a number. However they can be added later to make words.

Replacing Numbers With Words

In order to remember a number, you are going to turn it into a word (or words). Simply replace the sound with the number. For example, the number 357 would be replaced with the letters MLK. You can then create the word “MiLK” by adding the vowel sound “i”. The year 357BC was when Rhodes fell to Persia. So to remember a date, all you need to do is picture Rhodes falling into Persia’s lap and spilling a glass of milk. Easy!

The Maurya Empire lasted from 322BC to 185BC. You can replace the letter 322 with MNN and 185 with DVL. I know a man named Mr. Menon (if you are Indian, you probably do too!), so I turn MNN into MeNoN. The letters DVL can easily be turned into devil (DeViL). In order to remember the Maurya era, all I have to do is think of Mr. Menon entering into the Maurya Sheraton Hotel. When he leaves, he meets the devil!

It hardly takes 15-20 minutes to remember all the numbers and their sounds. I suggest you make 17 flash cards with the numbers on one side and the consonant sounds on the other side. Flip them till you have them all memorized. (Ensure you can do them in either direction–numbers to letters and letters to numbers.) Then take a few numbers that you would like to remember and practice turning numbers into words. E.g., Try your phone number, house number, license plate number, etc. It also works great with birthdays that are hard to remember.

It will take you a few days or weeks until you are fluent in turning words into numbers (and vice versa). This requires practice. Don’t worry–it’s natural that you’ll be slow at it at the beginning. But I promise you that the more you do it, the easier it gets, and the faster you’ll be able to do it. You’ll soon start to see and feel how you have an unlimited ability to remember all these random bits of information.

I found it very easy to remember Confucious’ birth and death dates. I just had to picture him standing with my friend LaLiT, and playing RuGBy. (Can you figure out the dates?).

What was the year Gandhi was born? I just visualize a deaf sheep (DeaF SHeeP)–you know like the monkey with his hands over his ears, but in this case, it’s a sheet. Can you work it out?

How about the founding of the East India Company? Easy just envison, a dish on a see-saw (DiSH SeeSaw). It helps to exaggerate the visual association (e.g., someone is trying to fling the dish from one side of the see-saw to the other and all the dishes are breaking.

Building Students’ Concentration

I’ve been working with students and teachers at Jiva Public School to help students increase their concentration and memory. At this time of the year, when exams have become the singular priority, I wanted to reach into the traditional Vedic wisdom to find solutions to address the problems that surround the practice of having to study for long hours and remember copious amounts of information.

I spent a week every morning with 10 students in classes VIII and IX, providing them with tips on how to concentrate, using principles from Yoga and Pranayam (breathing techniques). For dietary issues, I drew heavily from Ayurveda. Ayurveda also provided valuable insights with respect to lifestyle practice and massage as well.

Jaishree and Rajni (Class XIII, Jiva Public School) show off their project summarizing what they learned during their concentration classes.

My aim with the program is to enable students to learn self-discipline, improve time management, increase learning efficiency, increase their learning capacity, and most of all, help them reduce stress. There is just far too much stress put on kids in general in India, and many kids don’t know how to handle it. Therefore, I’m designing this program is to equip young learners with with a new set of mental skills that they can use to become more capable, balanced, lifelong learners.

Here are some more photos of the students with graphic organizers they created, which visually (and colorfully) represent what they learned in the class. This morning, they addressed the students in the assembly to share some of what they learned.

From the new session in April, we will be implementing these techniques through a school-wide program. If you’re an educator, or have a child and want to know how he or she can benefit from this program, feel free to get in touch.

Learning through Association

I was working with a group of students recently who wanted to know some learning techniques, so I asked them to bring me a lesson they thought was particularly tough. One student from Class 9 took out his biology textbook and showed me a lesson on the kidneys. What he showed me was this daunting page with detailed diagrams, and large numbers of long words.

Kidneys, Nephron tubules, Malpighian tubules, renal tubules, collection tubules, bowman’s capsules, Glamerlous tubes, Henle’s loop, and so on.I looked at the magnitude of it all, took a deep breath, summoned my creativity, and launched into a session of “association”.

OK, Nephron. What does it sound like? How about nephew? So now we have to think than the Kidney has a nephew. There are three things under him. A pig wearing a mala (flower necklace)–malpighian. “What does ‘Renal’ remind you of?” One student said, “A person named ‘Rena’.” OK, so imagine Rena riding on the back of the pig. Now everyone was cracking up. And what is she doing? Collecting test tubes–thousands of them. Now back to that pig. Imagine a bowman is trying to shoot the pig, not with an arrow, but with medicine capsules (Bowman’s Capsule). “What do I do with glamerlous?” One student answered, “It sounds like glamour.” Very good! So the pig runs into the middle of a Glamour Fashion Show and everyone starts screaming. (Glamerlous Tubes). Henle’s loop? Easy: A hen riding a rollercoaster and doing a loop….and laying an egg…Hen lay loop.

At this point all the kids were laughing like anything. I asked them how they felt. Tired? No way, they were all energized.

It’s important to remember to keep associations clear, funny, crazy, and exaggerated, otherwise you won’t remember them. It’s also important to remember that this is only a learning technique. You still need to undertand the content. I know of examples where kids have written the associated words on tests. Well, although it might better than writing nothing, you still don’t get points for by doing so!!

Music for Your Memory

I’ve developed some music that is based on scientific principles related to memory. If you listen to it, it has the ability to improve concentration. Here are two songs:

• Raga Mind (MP3 format, 7.6MB, 6.4min)
• Feeling Good (MP3 format, 8.4MB, 7.2min)

Give them a shot while you’re studying. Or if you are too old to learn, but have kids who are learning , have them try it out. After, please come back to this post and let me know:

1. Did you find any positive effect?
2. In what way?
3. Which song worked better? Or did they do different things?

The basic principle behind the songs is that they are slow, set at 60 beats per minute. This rhythm puts the brain into a relaxed state that is ideal for learning.

The “Feeling Good” song is based on Western classical style that utilizes counterpoint, a kind of musical grammar, which supposedly gets the brain operating in a more structured way. The other song, Raga Mind, uses an Indian raga as the basis.

You’ll notice that each piece is simple in composition–few instruments, playing simple, repetitive phrases. This ensures that the brain doesn’t become distracted by the music. The challenge is to get the brain into a state of “flow.”

I have been listening them while I study Hindi and have found them to be extremely helpful. I am also working with students at the Jiva Public School doing research with them to find out how music can positively affect concentration and memory–a major issue these days, especially with exams going on.