Week 7

This is your brain your brain…

This is your brain after reading about the brain for 3 hours…

The human brain is an amazing organ and I really do enjoy learning about it. However, I kind of felt like I overloaded this week with all of the brain info that I consumed. There was a ton of really interesting articles on the Dana Foundation website and I spent an un-proportionately large amount of my available study time this week browsing the website, reading, and watching webcasts. I particularly liked the webcast featuring Martha Denckla, M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Jerome Kagan, Ph.D., Emeritus professor, Harvard University discussion childhood brain disorders. There was a lot of interesting topics raised during the discussion. Perhaps one of the most interesting subjects was about pharmaceutical treatments vs. other non-pharmaceutical treatments for ADHD.

After a week free of technology explorations it felt good to be back online learning about useful tech resources that I will be able to use in my classroom. I was aware of delicious.com and can see it being useful as I integrate more and more technology into my classroom. I was not aware of historypin.com. I thought it was a neat concept and would make for some interesting classroom assignments. However, when I explored the map on the website I soon realized that there was no photos posted from the area in which I live. I guess if I decided to use it in my classroom I would be a pioneer of sorts. As for the rest of the tech explorations,  they were as informative as ever. I will definitely use the talking calculators and the piclits.com site in my classroom. The writing for math wiki was interesting and I like the concept of using a wiki to increase learning and awareness of writing in mathematics.

The assignment for choosing a web 2.0 tool or educational software was a difficult one for me. I am not teaching yet but have discovered several technology resources during this semester that I plan on using in my classroom. One that came to mind was the virtual manipulatives website that we explored during one of our tech explorations this year. I plan on teaching elementary special education when I  begin my teaching career and manipulatives are very helpful when working with students with learning disabilities. This website will definitely be part of my teaching tool box when I start teaching.