Blog Post 6

https://www.pinterest.com/pattsyvaladez/

Pinterest Uses

I am in love with Pinterest! I discovered Pinterest my first year of teaching. Along with teachers pay teachers, Pinterest has become a key component in my teaching career.

When I first started Pinterest, I only followed about 2 boards and they were mainly kindergarten. As a first year teacher, this became my ally and my best friend. I especially used it to give me ideas to implement in my literacy and math centers. Once I started following the first two boards, I started adding and adding…now I follow about 20 boards! I check it at least once a day and fall in love with it each day. I have obtained many of my teaching ideas from there, from classroom decorating, incentives, to lesson plans.

As an educator I would use Pinterest for:

-       To research grade level activities. Each Friday, I look at the lesson plans for the following week and immediately use pinterest to search for activities. It has been very helpful in providing creative, hands on lesson plans. Along with the lesson plans it also provides great anchor charts to use in the classroom.

-       I would like to use these boards to provide activities for my parents to use at home. I could create a board labeled “at home activities”. In it I could pin websites, programs, and any hands on materials students can use at home.  Parents could download any of these at the tip of their hands.

-       I could create a board where I post the weekly newsletters and homework assignments. I could “pin” the images of these on a weekly basis. They will all be saved so I can have a record of all the information. I like this idea because it will also serve as documentation in case I ever encounter any parental issues. By having all this available for parents, their involvement will increase along with student homework.

-       I would use pinterest for the upper grades. Each student would create their own board. They will use their board to track sources to complete a social studies research project. They will be able to pin any images, websites, or videos to help them in completing a successful project. At the end I will create one board labeled “Research Project” in which each student will be required to pin their finished product. Everyone will have access to each other’s report.  

I believe Pinterest is a great resource to use. It is easy and very accessible to everyone.

Week 4: Uses for Evernote

This has been by far the most difficult thing to do for me. It took me hours to be able to get it done since I was clueless. I literally had to watch the video at least 6 times to be able to know what to do. I am not technology savvy at all, but I’m sure my students would have no problem using it, since they were born into this new era of technology.

After I finally knew how to use it I realized what an amazing tool it is! I believe students in middle school and high school would benefit the most from it, since they are older.

If I could use it in my classroom, (2^nd grade classroom ).  I would use it to go digital with all the textbooks. One of my biggest pet peeves is the amount of space these take up in my classroom. I would have all of these in digital format so they could access it from their computer.

Another object that takes up a lot of space is the composition books we use. Instead of using the paper and pencil I would have student make their own notebooks online. They would create one notebook per subject area: social studies, science, language arts, reading, and math. I could make my mini lesson and have them use evernote to store their notes.

I loved the feature of the recorder. I wish someone would have told me about this app/website when I started college. I would have saved a lot of time! An idea that I would try to implement in the classroom would have our students be the “teacher” of the subject. I would have them each make audio presentations. We would have a notebook for this project as a class where they could just drop the audio. Everyone would have access to each other’s recording. I know my class would love to be “teacher” for one day.

As a teacher, evernote would be very useful. I would it to store all my lesson plans. Every Friday we have to upload the lesson plans to a shared drive at our campus. At the end of the year part of the checkout is having all lesson plans online. Unfortunately, something always goes wrong and lesson plans are miraculesly lost. This took up a long time to clarify. Having evernote would facilitate as a Plan B  in case this ever happens.

Despite the difficulties I had when I started this assignment I realized how amazing and convenient this is. It saves a lot of time and you have everything at your fingertips. I loved it, since I am prone to lose everything. I know my students would be amazed at being able to do it. I have found a lot of great ideas, but unfortunately my school lacks the technology to implement it.

Evernote Link

After several hours of trying, this is the link to my notebook:

https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=affe71fc-3639-438c-b6dc-101452272a5a&b=4294f4b0-407e-4262-b940-29f9081de11c&ses=4&sh=1&sds=5&

I love doing centers in my classroom, so I decided to make notes and research centers. I found the advantages of having centers and some pictures on it. I am trying to persuade my fellow colleagues to implement centers so I will use some of these points to convince them.

As an aspiring principal, I added the 21st Century Principal blog to my feedly account. I loved the articles it had. There was one in particular that I felt passionate about. The first article was called “How Federal Education Policy That Says 'If They Breathe Test'em' Has Deformed Kindergarten”. We currently live in a world where there is a test for everything and everyone. Unfortunately , his all starts in kindergarten. The article was about how detrimental kindergarten has become to kids playing time. Instead of kids having fun in kindergarten, they are being bombarded with tests and things to do.

My first three of teaching were in kindergarten, and it was amazing at all the concepts and testing we had to apply. Parents were amazed at how much kindergarten had changed in the past years. When students came in, parents still had the concept of the kindergarten in the years before, where the day revolved around dramatic play, nap time, and snack time. Unfortunately, that did not happen. We had high expectations for our students. Before they left kindergarten, they must have learned how to fluently read and write. This did cause stress and tension between parents and teachers. Parents who were unwilling to help since they were in kindergarten. The harsh reality came when they entered 1^st grade and realized how far behind they were.

Though we did have to teach a great amount of objectives, I always tried to incorporate “play” during the day. We always sang, danced, and have educational centers. Students thought they were playing, but in reality they were learning! What I learned from this article is that we need to let kids have fun! They are kids, not robots.

Another blog that I followed is called Kleinspiration. I found this blog interesting due to the articles it has. There was one in particular that caught my attention called “ Genious Hour for Elementary Classrooms”. The name itself intrigued me.

I am not a very quiet person and have to be constantly moving. I get bored easily if something does not interest me. I dislike not being able to do groupwork. If I cannot do this, I cannot expect my students to be sitting down for 8 hours straight! When I saw the title I imagined it was about creating something. It sure was. Every week you can have a “genious” hour in which the students create anything they want, in any form they want. Depending on the student’s likes, some could create a 3d model, a picture, a book, or a writing. This hour is all about the kids and them doing whatever they like. It is their time to let the imagination fly.

Unfortunately, with all testing being done, it is very easy to try to “mold” every child in STAAR thinking. With all the accountability, many times teachers forget about each student’s uniqueness. We are caught up in getting them ready for the test, that we forget they are kids.

Though I do hands on centers every day for Reading and Math, I would love to incorporate this into my week. I would do it on Wednesdays. So my students could have something to look forward to.