Preschool Educators

I've absolutely been berserk with work loads leading up to an educational conference for 500 preschool educators at the Reitz Union, last Saturday, March 14th. I had been trying to read about learning theories before the event in order to complete our PowerPoint assignment, but found it impossible. Today, with that huge stressor out of the way (and the conference highly acclaimed!) I was able to process our readings for this week. That led me to checking out the impact of stress based on brain based learning and my own preferential learning style of reflective processing(I have coined the phrase "gestational thinking" to describe the birth of ideation for me!).
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080311182434.htm

University of California - Irvine (2008, March 13). Short-term Stress Can Affect Learning And Memory. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 15, 2009.

I was aware of the high level of cortisol measured in infants who are under stress, but not the, " acute stress activated selective molecules called corticotropin releasing hormones, which disrupted the process by which the brain collects and stores memories." That was definitely happening to me last week. Which leads me to more awareness of what a child under stress must be going through in a school situation. I believe many maladies of our brain chemistry will be discovered and cures found in the near future!
Pam