A beautiful mess

The brain is a monstrous, beautiful mess. Its billions of nerve cells - called neurons - lie in a tangled web that displays cognitive powers far exceeding any of the silicon machines we have built to mimic it.

- William F. Allman (from Apprentices of Wonder. Inside the Neural Network Revolution, 1989)

Brain Awareness Week

I found information that Brain Awareness Week is NEXT WEEK (March 12-18, 2012)!  This is information I wish I knew months ago.  I will have to do something interesting in my classes next week for BAW and look to next year for something bigger.


More info at the Neuroscience for Kids website (that's where the cool clipart brain came from too).  There are some lesson plans there as well.


So, looking forward, mark the date - March 11-17 for Brain Awareness Week 2013!

Reflection #2- Explorations in MBT

Reflect on the content presented in Weeks 4-6 and how it relates to your current job responsibilities. What would you highlight or share with your colleagues at this time with regards to your learning in this course?

We are now delving into the Brain Targets (BTs) associated with the Brain Targeted Teaching (BTT) method.  The emotional, physical, and how to best design learning for students are the BTs in focus these past 3 weeks.

I work in the classroom with students so these BTs relate directly to what I do each day with them.  Although my title is Technology Integration Specialist, I am also a teacher.  Grades K-8 come to my Media Lab for computer/technology classes, but I primarily work with grades 6, 7, and 8.  I am beginning to look more carefully at how each of these BTs is currently in practice within my classroom with the thought of being flexible and changing things soon.

My goal, once some free time opens up, is to create some one page “cheat sheets” that highlight what I am learning though this course.  Starting with basic brain structure/function and working through each BT, the sheets would contain images, bullet points, definitions, best practices, etc.  I would like to present these at our weekly staff meetings with a quick 15 minute overview of the sheet and the content.

Although this is not ideal and does not allow for the presentation of the topic in-depth, this method would provide basic information and a conduit for discussion.  With my responsibilities with technology in the school, I can additionally provide resources and links to more information to staff as well.  This is something that I believe the administration and faculty will be very receptive to.