Lesson 7

 
 See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

Above is the link to my latest playing around. PicLit is definitely fun to play with. I can see students enjoying it as well!

I often have a huge list of bookmarked links, but I hate that when I switch computers I lose them. Try out these websites to help with that. I love them! :

http://www.delicious.com/ 
http://www.diigo.com/


Brain research was another interesting facet of this week’s study. We visited http://www.dana.org  to read articles about the brain. I chose an article based on sleep and your ability to remember things. Apparently REM sleep is no longer considered the most important stage of sleep. Slow Wave Sleep (SWS) is actually when most of the memory consolidation happens. They said sleep was more important that staying up and cramming for that test. Now I have research to back what I tell my students. I think it will strike up some interesting conversation. I also enjoyed how dana.org provides a Brain Kids area. Students can participate in their own activities and lab experiments! http://www.dana.org/resources/brainykids/ Check it out!

 Onward ho to the assigned topic I go.... (My children and students get a kick when I say that.) 

This week we were to choose a Web 2.0 tool to use in my classroom. School starts Thursday for me, so I did not have the opportunity to use it with my students. However, I have had experience using Blogs as part of our BookFest Club. The instructional objective was for students to analyze what they have read and discuss with their classmates what scenes were the most important to the story.  This club was conducted mainly through the blog and we only met in person once a quarter, with the exception of the last quarter when we went to a University for their annual BookFest program. Students were able to complete the blog at their own pace and had a minimum requirement in order to participate in the field trip. One problem we ran into was a lack of technology in the home. We have several students whose parents are reluctant to use a computer and thus don't see the value in having one or having one connected to the internet.  These students had to complete the blogs at school and often had forgotten their login information. The blog I used made it difficult to track students and their posts, which added to the difficulty. A new school year has rolled around and I have moved to using a different blog than previous. I assign the names and passwords, have a teacher console where I can easily track students, and I am building in time for those students with lack of computer and internet access.

Websites:


http://www.delicious.com/ 
http://www.diigo.com/
 http://www.dana.org
http://www.dana.org/resources/brainykids/