Since I am just starting out as a home school teacher, I have a great deal of planing to do. There is the switching of rooms in the house to make room for the classroom. Researching curriculum, gathering furniture, supplies, materials and information on resources just to mention a few. It seems as if everywhere I turn there are new ideas floating my way and I needed a way to keep them all together in a cohesive form and because I am a visually oriented thinker, be able to see it in a graphical way. I have tried to use lists and outlines but their two dimensional style just didn’t work for me. I used a note taking method called mind mapping when I was in college and decided it was again the best method for the way I think and work. I found a FREE mind mapping program called … wait for it … FreeMind. I have included two images exported from the program. The image above has many of the branches collapsed so you can see the basic form more clearly. The second image below, has all of the branches expanded so you can see the scope of the program. You can’t see much detail in the second image but I was mainly interested in illustrating the graphical nature of the program for those who may not be familiar with mind mapping software. It looks complicated but it is very easy to use and understand.
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It is basically a tree structure and you can see the names of the main branches in the first image. You can add branches to branches and branches to those branches until you have a clear graphical representation of your plan. The program allows you to add links to websites, data or programs on your computer and even images. You can change the formatting of branches to make them stand out and even attach notes to any part off the structure. It is a very well though out and easy to use program. It only takes about 5 minutes to learn enough to make effective use of it.
This program could also be used for report or research paper planning or mapping out a science project. I have already started to use it to plan and list the things we want when we build our new house. I think it is one of the best pieces of software I have on my computer!
Go forth and PLAN!
Larry
Surely you can’t keep this a secret any longer.
How super cool is that?! I wished and wished and wished for software like that when I was in college!!!