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Monday, 9 July 2012

Day 4- Mon., July 9th, 2012.

Today instead of going to our regular class, our car pool group met to put together a webinar group presentation.

We all watched the webinar at home over the weekend and took notes for our presentation. Today we came together to write a summary of it, as well as highlight one app we each wanted to share with others. Unfortunately we are not permitted to share the link to the webinar due to the fact that it is a course people pay for. However, to read the information we put together on Executive Functions you can visit our Blog.

Through the webinar, I learnt that students with executive dysfunction have a deficit in the frontal lobe of the brain. The frontal lobe can be compared to a CEO of a company or the conductor of the band. When there is difficulty in the frontal lobe it causes the person to have difficulty organising themselves and executing tasks in a timely and organised way. Key components of executive function involve focus, direction, time management, prioritising and regulating behaviour. Time management involves planning, prioritising, working memory, organising your thinking, controlling emotions, sustaining attention., adaptability, reacting to change and the ability to store, retrieve and put things into action. Overall it boils down to regulating the person's ability for "thinking" and "doing".

In a classroom the teacher is often the CEO and is directing the lesson and the class. He or she cues students, mediates, scaffolds and provides students with step by step instruction/direction. It is like they are the surrogate frontal lobe. Students often begin to exhibit difficulty once they are to work independently. Here is where using Apps can to foster independence can set students up for success! Visit our Blog for the top four apps we picked as beneficial to help elementary students.
 
Here is a video for the App iReward that I highlighted. It would be best utalized by someone with ADHD or a behaviour concern. It helps monitor, track and redeem rewards for desired behaviours and goals.
 
 

2 comments:

  1. Thanks Tarah!Loved the comic- that was definitely us working together. We can almost talk for each other now! As a mother of a son who has recently been diagnosed with ADD, his executive functioning issues have helped me modify and adapt the way I see these frontal lobe issues and challenges!
    Bev

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  2. Tarah, I thought this app was fabulous. It would have ben very useful for me this past school year. I had a student who experienced a lot of difficulties staying on task. I was always writing notes in his agenda to communicate with his mom his daily behaviour. This app would have been a great communication tool. It would have save a lot of time and it would have engaged the student as well in the process. He was a student who loved technology and would have been very intrigued by this! Thanks for sharing!

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