There are several misconceptions that we all have about the human brain. Some of these can have a real impact on your teaching in the classroom. They can also have a negative impact on student achievement. Let's take a look:

Brain myths:

We only use about 10% of our brain: This has been floating around for years and has been attributed to Albert Einstein, although he never actually said it. In fact, we use most of our brain everyday. The 4 lobes send messages and make connections between the other lobes and send signals across the brain constantly.There are, however, unused neurons and connections in our brain. If these are not used for a long time, they may dissolve and disappear so the brain can focus energy elsewhere.

The brain is great at multi-tasking: Kids spend a good portion of their day multi-tasking. It's typical for a teen to have 10-12 screens open on the computer, be texting to his 245 closest friends, listening to his iPod, and-oh yes - reading a chapter in his history book - all at once. Teens firmly believe they are capable of doing all of these at the same time. It's very difficult to convince them otherwise. The reality: Google the statistics on car accidents when teens are texting to see how well multi-tasking works for them.

The truth is our brains are capable of focusing on only one task at a time.The teen in the example above is not really doing all those things at once. His brain is rapidly moving back and forth between the different tasks. Every time his brain switches from one task to another it takes a fraction of a second. With every change there is an increased chance of error. So what happens is that this teen isn't really focusing on any of these tasks and he's getting nothing accomplished. If he's listening to his favorite song on his iPod he gets to the end of a page in the history book and has no idea what he's read.

If accuracy is important, the brain needs to focus completely on one task. If you allow them to listen to headphones while they are working on an assignment, which task do you think will get most of their attention?

Giving a series of directions: Teachers, parents and employers often give teens a series of directions to remember at one time. This doesn't work well. Teen brains are somewhat "fuzzy" and don't retain multiple instructions. If you need to give more than 2 directions at once it's most effective to write them down. If you're giving directions orally, just do one at a time.

Our brains are capable of focusing for long periods of time: Long periods of time, such as a 50 minute class period? Our adult brains can only focus for about 10 minutes before they drift away. The teen brain is probably less than 10 minutes. Ask them for intense focus on your task but change that focus frequently.

Teen brains are still developing, even though they think they are grown-ups. If you want them to be successful in class, remove distractions, get them focused on what you want them to do, give directions one at a time, and change their focus about every 10 minutes.

Barbara is a professional speaker, seminar/workshop presenter, staff development trainer with 32 years of classroom experience.

Her book, A Teacher's Book of 10s: Best ways to Do Everything in Your Classroom, will be published in the summer of 2011.

Contact Barbara at http://www.barbaratoney.com