Getting to Know Our Brains and Self-Regulation
Today in class as part of our Mind Up Curriculum we learned about the different parts of our brains and how they help us control our emotions and help us learn.
In our lesson today, students learned about their brains, specifically the limbic system which controls their thoughts and emotions. The three parts of the brain they learned about today were:
Prefrontal cortex: ‘our leader’ right in the front of our brain. It is in charge of making decisions, thinking, learning and problem solving.
Amygdala: our ‘security guard’ that warns our body of danger and stress to protect us.
Hippocampus: our memory saver or our filling cabinet that stores all of our experiences and everything we learn.
They learned that in a calm and safe state, their amygdala can communicate with the ‘leader’ or prefrontal cortex to make good decisions. They also learned that when they are in a negative emotional state where they feel stressed, anxious, or fearful, the amygdala fires a fight, flight, freeze response to warn them negatively impacting the communication with the ‘leader’ or prefrontal cortex part of our brain, which is responsible for clear decision making.
We examined various ways to calm the amygdala and train the brain to respond reflectively rather than reactively in different situations. We also discussed the importance of developing an awareness of what is going on inside our brains so that we can reason and think clearly to make better decisions.
Diagram of the Brain/Facts:
Videos From Today’s Lesson:
The strategies we will continue to build in the coming weeks will help students learn self regulation strategies and help them develop the capacity to recognize and take control of their emotions and actions while being mindful and aware of themselves and others.