Hope+Glennon

Monday Partially due to the last minute of my opportunity to attend the ISTE Conference, I did not pre-register for the workshops. Therefore, the workshops that I thought would have been beneficial to our very specific student population, were closed. So, the end result was that I ended up spending all of my time conversing with the booth and exhibit presenters as well as educating myself as with as much as I could retain and carry!  Tuesday My main objective was to locate any technology that related to brain research. I found Eureka In learning software to be fasinating. Vineet Koka was very clear, professional and inspiring. I taught a unit on ‘The Teenage Brain’ that I used as one of my portfolio artifacts for my Special Education Teaching License last May. As a result of Eureka, the next time I teach that unit I will be able to incorporate: ‘3-D animated topics, Physics, Chemistry, and (more) Biology!  Wednesday While visiting the exhibits and the array of different technologies that could be in the classroom, I focused on the Mimo, document camera and overhead projector. My colleagues and I were so excited about these items we requested that we get them for our school. Since then, I have used the overheard projector and have found my students more engaged in my lessons.   Keynote and other Special Sessions Tel.A.Vision founder George Johnson's The Power of Creating Vision Videos with Students. This was so cutting edge and applicable for my school because it was about brain plasticity. The Gilliam School is embarking on a new computer program that is called FastForward and this program also has basis of the research done on brain plasticity.

Implications for your Classroom <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Centaur','serif'; font-size: 15pt;">As mentioned above I now have found Eureka (is that redundant?) as a cutting edge source to enhance a lesson plan I created that I am most proud of. Also ‘The Annealing Project’ wherein wherein high school students analyzed DNA from Holocaust survivors and ultimately bridged diverse student groups together inspired me deeply. I had just returned from Cambodia before ISTE and had photographs from ‘The Killing Fields’ Genocide Museum that I was able to show with an Epson overhead projector, for the first time in my life, bigger than life images of the remains etc. of those that didn’t have the DNA to be analyzed. But the spiritual and emotional effect it had on my students was palpable. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I’m looking forward to 2011!