I realized, just a little bit ago, that I spent about 10 hours in meetings today:)  It was a great day, but my cognitive desk space is so full and overflowing with piles…

Cognitive desk space has to do with memory, and I think it would everyone a little good to learn a bit about this for a minute.  I think every pastor, small group leader, teacher and friend should know a little bit about this, because it helps some things to make sense.  People zone out after awhile, not just because they’re tired, or you’re boring:) (or I’m boring), but also because there’s just too much "new stuff" to process at one time.  The desk space is used up!

You’ve got your short-term memory.
You’ve got your long-term memory.
Then you’ve got your working memory (your cognitive desk space).
-This is important for people to have, in order to develop concepts
-It’s limited!  Think about your office desk.  You can only put so many things on your desk to work efficiently.  (Outrageously stacked piles don’t count…except that’s how I feel right now.)
-It combines incoming information from short-term memory, and stored information from long-term memory (which is why helping someone build background knowledge is huge when speaking to a group of people).
-Problem solving isn’t likely to occur, straight off the desk space, so to speak.  It’s got to be connected to something from long-term memory for deep problem solving to occur.

Okay, for real, I’m becoming a literacy junkie.  I just googled "cognitive desk space" and got this.  Which lead me to looking through a few Power Point Presentations for trainings on the topic of literacy to underachieving students.  My brain hurts so much, thinking about brains!:)

I would like to add, on a side note, that I’m going to be kept accountable to keeping my classroom extremely neat and tidy.  Brian and Susan were telling us this today and then they saw the exploding expression on my face…wide eyes, slowly raising eyebrows, forehead crunching together.  This was when Susan said, "Okay, Kim, I’m trying to read your face, but I can’t…what are you thinking?"  Being comforted by the fact that we were closing in on a good 24 hours spent with these two folks, I was more than comfortable sharing the fact that I struggle with that (and every friend I have, laughs and replies, "Amen!"…even if they, too, struggle with that).  It bothers me that I have a hard time organizing my classroom (and bedroom, for that matter!) and keeping it neat and tidy.  Growing in this area would be will be huge for me!  I’m going to expect great things from God in this area.  I made a connection tonight, when my friend, Gwen, said that I must have piles on my desk space, after today.  I thought, "Yep!  And I’m not going to feel like going through those piles for a couple of days here.  To be honest, I may leave some of them for a few weeks, until our literacy team meets up again!"  What a connection between what goes on in my head to what goes on in the rooms I live in, day in and day out!

Let me take it a step further and apply this spiritually.  There may not be any application here, but please allow this to be my "journal", in which I would process through the thoughts…  What if we had a "spiritual desk space", very similar to "cognitive desk space"?  We’ve got the long-term, foundational things that God has done in us, and creatively helped us to "get".  Then we’ve got the things that He’s popping into our lives/hearts that were new recently, so they’re like short-term for a little bit (which is hopefully on an on-going basis).  And then there’s the whole other aspect of our "sds", on which He is just beginning to teach us/change in us…but He’s not going to try to do it all at once!  He’ll connect a concept or a change to a testimony of something else that He’s done in us, or that He’s been doing in us (long-term stuff) to something new!

Wow!  How’s that for processing?

Does this make sense to you at all?  It is definitely 12:35am (Hey, does this count for two days of journaling, since my first 10 minutes of this post was on Thursday, and the last 35 minutes of the post was on Friday?)…

Best.
(every time I write about the literacy project, i will sign off as Brian ends his emails. Best. to me, it’s kind of a stamp that signifies where the post stems from…i know, i’m strange…just let me be:)