Wk 6 RR Pinterest Ideas

I have used social media on a consistent basis for about 5 years now. I started as a means to keep in contact and up to date with friends and family while I served in Germany, mainly because it was a 9-hour time difference and phone communication was limited. I came across Pinterest a few years back, as it was introduced to me as a new social media site. However, I took no interest in it and believed that it did not offer anything I was looking for, assuming it was just the posting of recipes and wedding ideas. After watching the Pinterest video this week and exploring for myself for the first time, my perspective has greatly changed with discovering that Pinterest offers links to blogs, lesson plan ideas, and quality educational ideas all in one place.

A common use for Pinterest is focusing on teachers; using Pinterest to plan lessons. Evernote presented a digital notebook that could be used for helping with lesson, what Pinterest brings is a chance to plan a lesson using one central hub and images to help visualize the lesson. Since pins can be traced to original sources, the information presented can be revisited and explored in further detail. The visual aspect is a great source for people like me who really need to see something for themselves before attempting to complete the task.

A lesson that Pinterest can be used for is geared towards middle – high school students with continuous internet access. It can be done across the curriculum and is a high level assignment because it requires students to think critically both when trying to complete the assignment and define the assignment. The assignment would be to provide students access to Pinterest in order to define vocabulary words using pictures. The restriction of words engages students in deep creativity creation.

Another Pinterest usage for the classroom setting is having students search and use Pinterest to contribute to classroom discussions. This is a great addition to build off of a productive discussion that may have been cut short due to the bell ringing. It can be used across the curriculum in grades 6^th-12^th. The teacher can assign the class to search Pinterest and find a blog, article, picture or piece of writing that expresses how they feel about the topic being discussed. The intent is to keep the conversation going without using textbooks and other forceful materials. Instead, students contribute to their own learning by providing something relatable to them during a classroom discussion.  

Pinterest Link

Mike's Pinterest Link

Wk. 5 RR Evernote for Teaching & Learning

Since 2012 I have personally had 3 different laptop computers and 3 different external hard drives for storage. Although each had been organized with my Army work and school work fairly well, there was no connection across devices and drives. Leaving me to lose a large amount of my files and work when my oldest laptop and second hard drive crashed. Evernote presents a modern and relatively simple solution to my cross device problem by creating a hub that allows for my notes and/or work to be centrally stored.

The idea of creating a digital notebook is genius in my opinion. The application of usage in the classroom creates an opportunity for students and even teachers to become organized and in unison with one another. Using Evernote as a creation for an online notes storage can be applied from grades 6 – post-secondary, with it becoming more practical as a student gets older and begins taking additional notes across multiple subjects. This can be key for the average high schooler or college student. Schools have begun to implement laptop or iPad devices into the classrooms on a more regular occasion, Evernote allows students to take advantage of this technology already in place to crate their digital notebook, with tabs for each subject. Teachers can also use Evernote to share a public notebook with their students based on each class period to include material specific to each class. With utilizing a class blog, the teacher can provide a link for each class period directly on the blog.

Evernote is also a great source for group projects from high school to college across every subject. Online courses have become extremely popular due to their practicality and convenience; Evernote can help students on group projects take advantage of those same amenities. With having to collaborate in an online setting, students use different computer platforms, sometimes even across different continents, leaving for F2F and even online meeting conferences to be difficult to manage. With the use of Evernote, groups can create to-do list for each member on the project and use that as effective communication that keeps each student up to date about the progress of their collaborative efforts.

Lastly, an Evernote focus for teachers in every grade level and subject is the organization it provides. Primarily for organizing lessons and content. With Evernote, teachers can create notebooks and tags that focus on students’ prior knowledge of an anticipated lesson, what they learned during the lesson, and a post lesson reflection/assessment. This organization allows for teachers to see the effectiveness of their lesson in one place, providing the opportunities to improve a lesson and conduct it again during a later school year.

Evernote Note

Below is the link to my note that was comprised for the organization of my research notes for another class. The assignment is to create a literature review on the subject of our self inquiry wonderings in the classroom. My literature review focuses on the implementation of social justice in a mathematics classroom, which developed into what are appropriate social justice issues for high school students to problem solve.


TED 5300 Research Note

Wk. 4 Feedly Assignment

Since this is a blog, I think I am going to move away from the traditional, formal aspect of a short essay response we are typically used to using for class assignments and speak more blogly (If that is not a word then I am going to petition the Oxford dictionary to add it with a picture of me cheesing with two thumbs up) with hopes of not getting dinged for it. So this week was very interesting. Although hit with the shock value that I am an old timer and completely behind the curve while reading this week’s readings, I learned about RSS, how it works and how I can use different aggregators and have different blogs and websites come to me instead of the other way around. After using Feedly to subscribe to different Ed Tech blogs, I read and learned a few things from my readings

1)    Apple dominates in every way, shape, and form possible

2)    Somedays, you’re going to fail as a teacher and there’s nothing shameful about it

This week has been big for Apple. On the cliff (They have high expectations for themselves) for its decline in sales and stock value, Apple let their consumers create a drumroll and build a hype about its new iPhone 7 & 7 Plus and Apple Watch through mystery. Consumers took to the internet to pre-order their devices, causing Apple to sell out of its Jet Black color of the iPhone within hours into the its pre-order release. However, to me, that is not the most interesting thing that Apple has done this week. This week, Apple has also (drumroll please) began to offer a FREE Apple Professional Development site for Teachers! The Apple Learning Center offers teachers a chance to become an Apple certified teacher, mastering the usage of different Apple apps that can be used in the classroom on iPad and Mac devices. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! The self-paced learning center also presents an interactive environment that teachers can utilize to view videos and lessons that other teachers around the world have successfully used in their classrooms. The learning center has material for both novice and experienced users as well as a hands on approach to learning so you get to actually complete and use the lessons/materials being taught.

Apple's New Teachers Center

I have listened to more stories than I can count about a teachers failed lesson attempt and in majority of those stories, the teacher was too proud to let the lesson go and accept defeat. In the article Having an Off Day: A Letter to New Teachers, Josh Stock explains how it is not of matter of if, but when your lesson will fail as a teacher and what is important is how you respond to it. The author list a multitude of reasons why a lesson can get derailed and end up in the bottom of a dumpster, reasons including the fact that there was a full moon the night prior. Through the sarcasm, Stock encourages the new teachers to put on their grown up pants and learn from the failure instead of sulking in it. He also advised to have a backup plan so you can abandon the failed lesson and jump ship. The backup plan allows for learning to still be conducted and to avoid the complete feeling of failure. In addition, self-reflect as to why the lesson went sour and create a game plan for the next day. Although I clicked on the title because I thought it was referring to new teachers taking a day off and having the students play Heads Up 7up all day, I still learned a lot from Josh Stock’s article.


Having an Off Day