The Garden of Education

sábado, 19 de marzo de 2011

Weekly Plan

Posted on November 17, 2006 by dailyplanit

Create a Weekly Plan during the Weekly Review to see how your week will look in a week view. For each day of the week, what’s on your calendar? What repeating tasks for work and for home need to be accomplished? What meals do you plan to have? Schedule action steps for your goals and projects, and include time for personal development and maintaining relationships. Include some things to do for fun.
Weekly planning gives you a look at the big picture. You can see how busy your week is, and see quiet times where you can schedule action steps and additional tasks from your master list. It takes time and thought, which can be difficult to manage once in the middle of a hectic week. It’s important to choose a time for planning that works well for you.
Tools: Weekly Planner from Vertex42 | Weekly Planner from Productivity Flourishing | Weekly Plan from Organize IT, also new and improved version | Weekly Schedule from Studentlinc.

http://dailyplanit.wordpress.com/2006/11/17/weekly-plan/

viernes, 18 de marzo de 2011

VISUAL AIDS

Various Types of Visual Aids

There are various types of visual aids you can choose from in your presentation. But factors like availability and usefulness should be taken into consideration. To help you in your choice of visual material, let us understand the advantages and limitations of the different visual aids.

A presentation for a small group will do well with the aid of flip charts. This type of visual aid is quick and ready to use, and the materials are readily available as well. It helps the presenter go through with the content smoothly and demonstrate the speaker’s thoughts. However, this may require good graphic talent from the speakers. Visibility may be an issue with flip charts, especially to presenters who have small and unclear handwriting.

Two other types of visual for a small audience size are posters and handouts. Posters may be in different forms of media materials such as diagrams, photographs, and word messages. They are permanent and handy. Moreover, they are simple or they can also be elaborate. With elaborate posters though, the tendency is it can be too wordy and may contain too much detail. Handouts help in outlining the key points for your presentation. But good quality paper should be used. Also, it should have headings, subheadings, and short paragraphs to explain the content. Make sure though that there are sufficient handouts to be distributed to the audience.

For a larger group of audience, the use of slides, overhead transparencies or projectors, and PowerPoint presentations is more efficient. Since these visuals cater to a big audience size, they should be clear, informative, visually stimulating, and simple. The overhead projector used to be a common visual aid in business presentations but is gradually replaced by computer or laptop presentations. The latter has a more modern and professional approach especially that the presenter can incorporate sound and video recording. The use of slides allows a smooth and creative transition. However, these visual aids should be carefully checked for any malfunctions or technical issues.

Visuals Are Aids, Not Distractions

Making the most out of your presentation with the help of visuals should be balanced between your verbal and audio-visual delivery. If majority of the presentation is spent on watching a video footage or passing show-tell articles and objects, you do not just waste time but make an ineffective presentation as well. Let visuals work to reinforce or highlight key points, not manipulate the entire content. Do your share of explaining and elaborating, too.

Techniques for Using Visual Aids

How do you effectively use visual aids? For one, they should be simple and clear. In the first place, they serve to make a complex subject easy to understand. Visuals should not be cluttered with words and too many details. Outline the main points and do the rest of the elaboration. Since visuals require the audience’s sense of sight to work, they should be conspicuous even to the last person at the back.

When explaining with a visual, speak to the audience and not to the material. Say, you use a PowerPoint presentation, do not stand in front of the slide because it will obstruct the content. Or, if you are writing on a flipchart or a whiteboard, refrain from turning your back from the audience. Tilt the body toward them. For overhead transparencies and laptop presentations, use a font size that is large enough to be read and use easy-to-read font types such as Times New Roman or Arial.

Sponsored Links

In the visual aid preparation, designing is very essential to come up with a successful and effective presentation. Allocate ample time to prepare your visuals and do not forget to rehearse your presentation using your chosen visual aid. That way, you will have a smooth and efficient delivery of your content.

1. Step 1

Determine what type of visual aid is most suitable for your audience. For example, for a presentation in front of a classroom, a standard PowerPoint presentation without any especially enhanced graphics may be appropriate. In a classroom setting, a number of posters may not convey the same amount of content to your audience that 20 easily made PowerPoint slides could. Your reasoning in determining the preferred type of visual aid should include whether the aid is capable of reaching an entire audience, is appropriate for the setting and conveys all of the information that you need to get across.

2. Step 2

Determine the attention, time and money you plan to provide to create your visual aid. This is important because you do not want to begin working on a visual aid only to find out that you do not have the money, patience or time to complete it properly. For example, if you would like to draw a pie-chart by hand for your business presentation, but find that you do not have the time to provide the gloss and sheen to make it look professional, then it may be your advantage to create the presentation on PowerPoint exclusively. The latter method is simply faster.

3. Step 3

Ensure that your message is conveyed in the most efficient and most interesting way possible. This principle is tough to balance on occasion because something that is efficient and something that is interesting may, in fact, be opposed to each other. For example, for a presentation in a government setting, a video or documentary may help convey to other officials the nature of a particular problem; however, a video would take too long to show, and the audience might prefer a few bullet-points that convey the crux of what you seek to explain. Alternatively, when making a presentation about and involving art, a complex and fascinating visual aid, with little accompanying narration, may be just what you are looking for.

4. Step 4

Ensure that the aid only adds to and never detracts from the amount of focus people will have on your ideas. This is perhaps the most important issue because visual aids can occasionally be distracting, thus counterproductive.For example, many of the visuals used in a high school health class may be too distracting, limiting the amount of important ideas about safe sex practices and/or abstinence that the high school student is likely to remember.

5. Step 5

Plan the visual aid out before you create it. Drawing out on a piece of paper what you hope to create can be useful because it will give you an end state of the presentation to visualize while you are in the process of creating it. It is always easier to work with a goal in mind.

6. Step 6

Practice your presentation. When finished creating the visual aid, give your presentation to someone with a similar background to your audience and ask for constructive feedback on your presentation. Edit your visual aid as is appropriate.

7. Step 7

Seek feedback from your audience. Most importantly--in relation to use of visual aids--ask your audience whether your aid helped make your ideas more clear and understandable to them.

miércoles, 16 de marzo de 2011

TECH & LEARNING

http://www.techlearning.com/article/35696

by George Engel, Rob Griffith, Scott Newcomb, Lisa Nielsen, Jason Suter, and Willyn Webb

Innovative educators George Engel, Rob Griffith, Scott Newcomb, Lisa Nielsen, Jason Suter, and Willyn Webb know that when it comes to preparing students for success in the 21st century, you not only have to think outside the ban, but also may have to dive in head first and break it. The following is a collection of ideas each teacher implemented to successfully break and/or work within the ban where they teach in an effort to empower students with the freedom to use their cell phones as personal learning devices.
The Ten Building Blocks for Learning with Cell Phones

The Cell phones are important device of technology, and the students and teachers con use for learn and teach, but sometimes is very difficult control the use in the class for the students, this document show a valious information for control a cell phone and his apropiat use

At school, a push for more play time

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/education/12kindergarten.html

"Some kindergarten parents at Public School 101, a graceful brick castle in Forest Hills, Queens, wanted more free play time for their children; so they decided to do something about it.

Gone were the play kitchens, sand and water tables, and dress-up areas; half-days were now full days. Instead, there were whiteboards, and the kindergartners, in classes of up to 27, practiced reading and math on work sheets on desks at P.S. 101, also known as the School in the Gardens...

The game is the preffer activity for kids, they learn, exercise, teach to others, because in the school the mayority activity is better whe include a games, In the public school 101, want more play activities, in the Salvador is similar, in public school the children dont have more activities, resourcess and anything for ludic learning.

How Technology Has Changed Education

The education of a nation’s youth to a full height of academic rigor and standing is a complex process that nearly always spans more than a decade, requires tens of thousands of dollars, dozens of teachers, and of course, technology. Not always the most recent technology, mind you, but even the oldest Pentium One computer was once new.

Technology inside of education is a somewhat problematic premise, an idea that generates controversy from the earliest of primary school grades right through to the top of the academic pyramid, graduate school. As you well know, technology can be a powerful tool for learning, and it can be the same for cheating. It can be used to inform, and to distort. It can boldly open new doors, while flinging open some that were perhaps best left closed; not every topic is appropriate for all age groups.

While some elements in the world of education still want to stress cursive penmanship and hand-editing, it is hard not to admit that technology, specifically and mostly the internet and personal computing, have transformed the modern world. These are things that modern students were raised with, so completely that to not give them their due would be to cheapen the impact of what might otherwise be a strong education.

Ask yourself this: would you rather a pupil taught how to quickly write in cursive, a full-page of their thoughts, or rather to learn how to adroitly employ any computing station put before their little hands? If you want the pupil to be competitive, you had best pick the second option. Now, the question then becomes just this: what are the identifiable effects of our modern technology on education? Let’s try and get our arms around the topic.

Educational technology

The educatinal technology is not new,because its all advance or application for the man in the ambient he lives.
The educational technology are more simply and confortable the work in the classroom for the teachers and students,always the teacher converse a simply element in other more complete or apply one material in different form, the teacher use and teach technology.
The Educational technology, based in psicology theories:

Behavorisim: While still veru useful this philosophy of learning has lost favor with many educators.
Skinner Contributions: Skinner wrote "The Technology of learning",conteins a teaching based for the teacher apply a technology in the classroom.
Constructivism:The role the teacher becomes that of a facilitator.
Connectivism : is a learning theory for digital age,based in theory of George Siemens and Stephen.

Some benefits is easy-acces coure material, student motivation wide participation,improved student writing,subject made easier to learn.
The technology can use in the classroom, for example: Computer, websites, wirless clasrooms, microphone, mobile devices, samrt boards, online media, this application are more intersting, for the students, but the teacher cfan choice how is more for the type, age, ocuuppation, and other information abaut the students.

literature for kids

http://www.literature4kids.com/

miércoles, 9 de marzo de 2011

How Do ADD Brains Differ from Average Brains?

Although there is as yet no definitive answer to this question. As a group, ADDers MAY have less activity in certain parts of their brain while they are asked to perform tedious math problems or other dull exercises. (I've yet to see any researcher examine what ADD brains look like while engaged in something they find interesting.) I say MAY because the quality of research has been generally poor and misleading. For example, in one highly publicized study that showed less brain activity in ADD children, all of the children on the study had abruptly been removed from Ritalin 24 hours before the test. It is possible that their brains had adjusted physically to the Ritalin and were in a state of withdrawal during the test. I find it interesting that when a different study showed brain differences in people who use methamphetamine (speed), the researchers concluded that the speed had damaged their brains. Yet when Ritalin users brains were examined, the researchers assumed that the brain differences were due to ADD.

When reading studies that purport to explain ADD brain difference, bear in mind that:

1) In most studies, the ADDers studied are SEVERELY dysfunctional and are therefore NOT representative of the typical child who is routinely diagnosed with ADD.

2) Most of the people studied for ADD also have depression and/or anxiety. Both of these conditions significantly impact how the brain performs, so the results may indicate more about depression and anxiety than about ADD.

3) Many children studied also have learning disorders, so the brain differences found may be due to their learning disorders, and not to ADD. Again, the data is confused.

4) Successful ADDers are excluded from study, because no one is really interested in them.

5) The medication that the children had been taking for ADD may have caused brain differences.

6) Some brain differences may be temporary and subject to environmental influences. Glucose activity is impacted by diet and metabolism. Dopamine activity is also impacted by diet. Even thoughts have a powerful impact on the brain: Brain scans of obsessive-compulsive folks before and after psychoanalysis showed that training people to think differently actually changed their brain scan. Brains may also change temporarily when someone is having an allergic reaction. Doris Rapp, M.D. documented alterations in EEG tests while children were challenged with allergens. The EEG results corresponded with dramatic behavior changes in the children, including hyperactivity. (Source: Is this Your Child? Discovering and Treating Unrecognized Allergies in Children and Adults by Doris Rapp).

7) The brain is very poorly understood and there is no good data pool for normally functioning people. In other words, scientists have no idea at what point normal brain diversity ends and abnormalities start because they haven't studied very many normal brains. Instead, they typically study a very small control group. The control group only demonstrate what is average, not what is perhaps unusual but otherwise normal. Einstein had some very unusual brain differences which could have been interpreted as either defects or differences depending on the bias of the researcher (his overall brain size was average).

Common Misconceptions About ADD

1. Many people assume ADDers cannot pay attention. This is completely false. In fact, ADDers are known to "hyperfocus" on anything which captures their attention, to the point where it is difficult to get their attention. It is true, however, that a higher degree of interest is necessary before the ADDer can pay attention. ADDers do not tune-out or daydream on purpose or to be rude. Some people have likened it to having an on-off switch in the brain. Interest is needed to activate or "turn on" the brain, after which the ADDer can pay attention. If there is no interest, then the brain is "off" and the ADDer is likely to do something to try and get it back on. This can include sensation seeking, daydreaming, or becoming immersed in something the ADDer finds very interesting. It can also include disruptive behavior. This might be nature's way of making sure that some people are always on the lookout for something new and interesting - these are our explorers and discoverers. Ritalin and other stimulants appear to work by artificially stimulating the brain, allowing the ADDer to tolerate a duller setting than they could otherwise function well in (e.g. schools).

2. Someone can be ADD and not be hyperactive. Some ADDers, especially girls, are quiet daydreamers.

3. Oppositional behavior is often confused with ADD. ADD in itself does NOT directly cause oppositional behavior. It can, however, indirectly result in anger and oppositional behavior if the ADDer is chronically mistreated, for example, by parents and teachers who continually blame the child for not "performing" like other children. Such children may give up trying to please their parents and instead misbehave out of frustration and anger. Otherwise, ADD kids are often described as enthusiastic and affectionate by understanding parents. In addition, some people reacting to foods may become hostile as well as hyperactive while they are reacting to the food.

4. You cannot tell if someone is ADD by their response to stimulants. Most people perform better and feel better when given stimulants, including those who are not ADD. That's why so many people drink coffee.

Is ADD Real?
Some people have argued that there is no such thing as ADD. Upon reading their arguments I have found that what most of them are actually saying is that ADD is not a singular "disease", but rather a collection of behaviors or "symptoms" caused by a wide range of problems. So, to some extent, it's really a matter of semantics. They compare a diagnosis of ADD to that of a diagnosis of "fever." Imagine going to the doctor with a temperature and being told you have been diagnosed with a disease called "Fever," and that all you can do is take aspirin to lower it. You might question the wisdom of such a simplistic approach and wonder why the doctor doesn't look for the CAUSE of the fever. Doctors rarely look for the cause of ADD behaviors. Instead, they assume such behaviors are due to some mysterious brain defect that for some odd reason a huge number of people seem to have.
Opponents of this simplistic approach argue that the concept of ADD as a singular and discreet disease is a complete fabrication. They do NOT argue that ADD behaviors are simply caused by lack of discipline or are figments of people's imagination. They believe people should be seen as individuals, and their specific problems treated as symptoms. The actual "condition" causing the behavior could range from brain damage to giftedness to allergies, and "treatment" would similarly range from stimulant medication to alternative education to allergy shots, depending on the root of problem.
How is ADD Diagnosed?
ADD should be diagnosed by a psychologist or psychiatrist who is knowledgeable about ADD as well as giftedness and creativity. Avoid diagnosis by a pediatrician, since pediatricians as a group are far more likely to simply prescribe medications without properly assessing the child. Psychiatrists and neurologists are far more likely to prescribe medications before acquiring a total picture of the patient.
Adults, especially those with the non-hyperactive form of ADD, may have trouble finding a practitioner knowledgeable in ADD, since until recently ADD was considered a childhood condition. Women with ADD are often told they suffer from depression and are prescribed antidepressants which do not work.
Ask the practitioner what his or her ADD assessment entails. A good assessment typically runs several hours and will include tests for IQ and creativity. Avoid anyone who simply asks a few question and then prescribes medication to "see what happens." Most people do better and feel better on stimulants, even those without ADD, so this is a very bad approach for a professional to follow. For additional information and a checklist for children see my page called Children: Diagnosis, "Treatment" and Alternatives.

How common is ADD?
The figure for ADD is typically given as 3-5 percent of the population. The real figure is unknown and estimates vary between 1 and 20 percent or even more. This is largely because the diagnostic criteria are so subjective: What is considered "clinically significant impairment" to one person might seem more like normal childhood behavior to someone else. For example, in one English survey, only 0.09 percent of the children were found to be ADD. But in an Israeli study, 28 percent of children were rated hyperactive by their teachers. And in one U.S. study, teachers rated 50 percent of boys as restless, 43 percent of boys as having "short attention spans" and 43 percent of boys as "inattentive to what others say." ²
^{Diagnoses and medication rates can vary greatly within the U.S. Gretchen Lefever, a pediatric psychologist who became concerned when she was suddenly inundated with ADD referrals, studied 30,000 grade-school students in two Virginia school districts. Her findings, which were published in "The American Journal of Public Health", showed that 17% of white boys in the region were given medication for ADD while at school. Other rates were 9% for African-American boys, 7% for white girls, and 3% for African-American girls.}

Background and History: ADD was first identified and studied in the early 1900's, although it wasn't called ADD back then. After World War I, researchers noted that children who had contracted encephalitis displayed a high incidence of hyperactivity, impulsivity, and conduct disorders. And in the 1940's, some soldiers who had experienced brain injuries were found to have behavioral disorders.¹ It seemed clear that brain damage could cause hyperactivity. Other forms of brain insult have since been identified as causes of hyperactivity, including exposure to lead and other environmental toxins, as well as fetal exposure to drugs and alcohol.

Once brain damage was identified as a cause of hyperactivity in certain patients, researchers assumed that all hyperactivity was caused by brain damage, even when no brain damage could be identified. That's why ADD was once called "minimal brain dysfunction." This is an important point to understand. It is because of this early association of brain injury and hyperactivity that ADD traits are still assumed by many to reflect a brain disorder. Researchers made a giant leap in logic: Because brain injury can lead to hyperactivity, they believed that all hyperactivity was caused by brain injury. We now know this is not true. In fact, hyperactivity is also associated with giftedness, but obviously we cannot say that all hyperactive children are gifted any more than we can say all hyperactive children have suffered brain injury.

More recent studies have shown that ADD is largely genetic. That is, it runs in families. This has lead some ADD researchers, notably Russell Barkley, to assume that our population is experiencing large scale random genetic mutations, a rather ridiculous notion for anyone familiar with population genetics. Anytime more than one percent of the population carries a gene, geneticists rule out random mutations under the belief that the gene has been actively selected for. For example, the gene-based disease sickle cell anemia has been found to help a population by providing resistance to malaria.

In the 1990's a growing number of ADD experts began to view ADD not so much as a disorder, but instead a natural condition which leaves ADDers at a disadvantage in some common modern settings, and many positive attributes became associated with ADD, such as creativity, enthusiasm and entrepreneurial tendencies. This is probably due in part to the ever expanding world of ADDers. A few decades ago only the most dysfunctional hyperactive kids were identified as "disordered" and these kids were more likely to suffer from actual brain injury. Today, the diagnostic criteria are so broad that millions of children in the U.S. are getting the label. Any underachiever who doesn't seem to pay attention in school or who has trouble handing in finished homework is fair game for a diagnosis. I spoke to one teenager who was diagnosed ADD even though her grade point average had never been below a 3.85 (taking Ritalin allowed her to achieve a 4.0). I also spoke to a psychiatrist who routinely prescribed Ritalin to "C" students in an effort to improve their grade point average.

What is ADD?

Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD/ADHD, is a psychological term currently applied to anyone who meets the DSM IV diagnostic criteria for impulsivity, hyperactivity and/or inattention. The diagnostic criteria are subjective and include behavior which might be caused by a wide variety of factors, ranging from brain defects to allergies to giftedness. ADD, as currently defined, is a highly subjective description, not a specific disease.

Confusion and controversy is caused by the tendency of some mental health professionals to assume that everyone diagnosed with ADD has some mysterious, irreversible brain defect. This assumption has its roots in the very first group of severely ADD people ever studied, who suffered from encephalitis, or a swelling of the brain. We also have learned that birth defects and brain injury from toxic chemicals such as lead often cause ADD. However, over the last several decades the ADD diagnostic criteria have been so broadened as to include many people with no brain defects at all. Experts in the fields of temperament and creativity have objected that perfectly healthy people are being classified as disordered. Huge numbers of these new types of people being added to the diagnostic pot have changed the way ADD is viewed in some circles, including people like Thom Hartmann, who popularized the idea of ADDers being "Hunters in a Farmer's World". On the other hand, many argue that such people aren't ADD in the first place. Both may be correct. This website was started with the first viewpoint in mind (hence the title), but as time passes I find myself more likely to just say that many so-called ADD people are simply not ADD in the classic sense.