Working Memory and Cognitive Overload

Working Memory: The Secret Superpower That’s Always Running Out of Battery It was fifth period

— the kind of afternoon where even the walls look tired — and a student sighed this deep,

world-weary sigh. “Miss, I know I learned this yesterday. But it’s just—gone.”

I laughed (softly, the sympathetic kind) because honestly, I’ve been there too.

You know those moments — you walk into a room and forget why you’re there. You rehearse the

perfect sentence in your head, and by the time it’s your turn to speak?

Blank. Gone. Evaporated. That? That’s working memory.

The brain’s tiny whiteboard, erased way too easily. And whether you’re teaching,