Tuesday Brain Conference

April 17, 2007 in Prac, Reflection, Three Week Block

Brain Conference- Day 1.

Donna and I were really nervous about doing this brain conference just because we aren’t really experts on the brain. Chris assured us that it didn’t need to be in depth, they were only 4 and 5 year olds, after all. We took this on board when we planned.

Here is the lesson plan.

Reflection:

Jenny was is really knowledgeable on the brain and so she shared a few times about different parts of the brain and their functions etc. She didn’t ‘dumb it down’ really, but she did seem to have ways of saying things that meant that it was easy for the kids to understand. It would be great to have as much knowledge and passion about the brain as she does because it would be easier to teach and also easier to incorporate into every day teaching.

The knowledge that we presented to the children was factual, and at a good level for them. It wasn’t information overload, and it was good to be able to do the KWL with them to see what they wanted to learn and what their interests were (in relation to the brain).

Using the smart board was great because we could write on that easily and switch easily between different slides and documents.

What we could have done better:

We could have been more animated and more exciting. This was hard to do as it was the first day back as we were not 100% confident. I guess that part of teaching is masking that though and getting on with it despite any insecurities or confidence issues.

We could have also worked on maybe having a little bit more to show the kids. We could have given them a few different pictures etc.