Weekly nuggets come from a brainstorm the class does together every Thursday to review the most important concepts discussed during that week in class. As you can see, we are quite busy. I’m so proud of them!

Cognitive Classes

• There are many different ways to take notes. It is important to find the right way for you to take notes.
• You should review notes ASAP after you take them.
• Read notes from class as soon as class is over for best recall results.
• Problem-solving and decision making are highly involved in organization. If there is a problem in one of these areas it can impact all the areas.
• There isn’t just one way to organize. Everyone should develop their own style.
• Use tags to help with organizing. When taking notes in places where tags are not available include “tags” in the header information.
• Structure your notes to make things easier to find.
• Use illustrations/drawing to help organize ideas.
• Don’t focus on your mistakes while taking notes. The mistakes can be fixed when you review your notes.
• If you realize you missed something when taking notes use a symbol to indicate where the missing information should be so you can review and fill in later.
• Record notes so you can review later.
• When organizing include others for their thoughts and feedback.
• Go over notes with classmates to help fill in blanks and to help information better get into long-term memory.
• Even if you think you know about what’s being said, keep taking notes. This helps you in knowing what’s important to the teacher.
• After brain injury the same strategies used before the brain injury to take notes or organize might not work.
• Start small and build up.
• Create a plan for how you will approach things instead of just jumping in.
• Make sure you put dates on your notes and handouts.
• Organizing your notebook is important.
• It is important to determine what is relevant to keep versus what can be archived or discarded.
• Cornell note-taking is a good way to take notes.
• You have to develop a habit of taking notes and organizing things because you will need to do organize forever.
• Review notes after each class ends and each morning before classes begin to help establish a internal memory pattern.

Computer Lab

• Organization and note-taking relate to technology in a lot of ways.
• Technology requires organization.
• An Inbox serves the purpose of a temporary storage place for things until they are filed appropriately.
• Consistency is important. It is important to know where things are placed and how they are labeled.
• Technology is a concrete way of practicing techniques that can then be generalized into everyday life.
• Playing games shouldn’t be about winning, but rather about the strategies and the application to daily life.
• Tagging things in Evernote allow users to filter information into more manageable/searchable content.
• We actually can log into MyCCC ;o)
• Word things in a way so that you will understand them later.
• You can share Evernote content with other.
• You can take a picture of a business card in Evernote and have it filed in your contacts automatically.

Psychosocial

• The brainstem contains Pons and Medulla Oblongata.
• The Pons is responsible for facial movement, sensation, swallowing, sleep, etc.
• The Medulla is responsible for autonomic responses such as heart rate, body temperature, breathing, etc.
• The brainstem is the oldest most basic section of the brain (reptilian part of the brain).
• Car accidents can result in a variety of types of injury such as acceleration/deceleration, etc.
• An inter-cranial pressure monitor is used to monitor the swelling pressure of an injury.
  Swelling of the brain can cause herniation of the brain stem which pushes the brain into the spinal column causing instant death.
• If there is too much pressure around the brain then a craniotomy is performed removing part of the skull cap to relieve pressure. The skull cap piece is placed in an abdominal sac to preserve it until it can be replaced.
• Stem cells can be used to help regenerate nerve cells within the brain.