MACC-sters, I write this as much to myself as to you, but I think the topic of sleep, and how it relates to our class, is worth discussing.  You may have noticed a trend in our morning check-ins: I don’t think we need empirical data from a statistician to tell us that the dot plot around the word “tired” would be pretty crowded…

We only have just over four months left with each other, and in the name of having the best, most fun, most supportive, most focused, most learn-y four months possible, I want to set a challenge: how many days of each week can you arrive ready to learn?  By this I mean organized, focused, and ready to go by the time the second bell rings and our morning drawing exercises begin.  

In aid of this, sleep will be our most powerful tool.  Remember, at your age, you need between nine and twelve hours of sleep a day (at my age, you can get by with a few, slow blinks…).  Not only does this help you process what you have learned and experienced during the day (think amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex), but it also balances your mood and makes you less likely to be thrown by difficult social interactions.  It helps you be in control of you.  It has also been proven that in order to enter a full and deep sleep, you need to have separated yourself from any screened device at least half an hour before you get into bed.  Easier said than done…

For the scientifically minded, here are a few articles:

“Sleep ‘resets’ brain connections crucial for memory and learning, study reveals”

“Helping our school-aged children sleep better” 

“Electronics in the bedroom: why it’s necessary to turn off before you tuck in”

For the most romantically minded, groove on this (and think about how breathing, enunciation, and articulation, like we practiced with our speeches, is at play here) : 

Now stop reading this and get some sleep!