An important part of learning in the classroom is understanding the functioning of memory within the brain. Memory is a more complicated subject than just looking at something and having it in your brain. There are many layers to how memory works inside the brain. One of the more important aspects is understanding how a concept goes into working memory before going into long-term memory. When a concept is first introduced it goes into the working memory, this means that it has not yet been fully grasped by the brain. If a concept is just talked about once it is likely that it will go into the working memory and be completely forgotten about as it never had a chance to make its way into the long-term memory. A way of thinking about working memory is thinking about it as someone thinking and being aware of something at that moment. It’s very easy to recall something that somebody just told you as it currently sitting in your working memory. The challenge that teachers face is getting these ideas from the working memory into the long term so that they can then be recalled later. One of the best ways to do this is to have repetition in the classroom. Once a topic has been introduced it’s important to bring it up time and time again. The more that a memory can keep being brought up into the working memory the better chance that it will end up in the long-term memory and can be recalled. Another aspect of memory is being able to call upon a student’s prior knowledge to help introduce new concepts. This is a concept called transferring prior knowledge. If a student can connect prior knowledge to something new that is benign introduced it is much easier for them to understand a new topic. I like to think of it like building a house, you can’t build a house without first working up from the foundation that was put there first. If a foundation can be laid by the student’s background knowledge then teaching new concepts becomes a task of continuing to build rather than starting from scratch. Keeping these things in mind while teaching can help a teacher to be successful in teaching students.