Using Pinterest for Teaching and Learning

 One of my favorites sites and apps is Pinterest. It just a creative way of storing all the ideas, places and things that I want to do, visit and create. I am a visual learner and this site provides an opportunity to find and meet people who share my same interests and ideas. Learning more about Pinterest by reading and watching an online course is incredible.

Pinterest is more than just a site to see images, it is a place to connect and learn from other teachers. There tons of ideas on how to use Pinterest for teaching and learning.

Idea #1 Sharing with colleagues

Pinterest allows users to share with others images, videos, ideas, etc. As educators, we can learn from each other by sharing what we know. In this case, a school can create a Pinterest account where all teachers follow and invited to create content area boards. They can become collaborators and share their lessons, strategies, articles and ideas on helping students.

This Pinterest account can also be a helpful resource for any first-year teacher in the school. They can benefit from this school sharing of ideas, teaching strategies and readings. They can feel motivate to continue working hard and inspire to strive to give their best. 

One of my favorites sites and apps is Pinterest. It just a creative way of storing all the ideas, places and things that I want to do, visit and create. I am a visual learner and this site provides an opportunity to find and meet people who share my same interests and ideas. Learning more about Pinterest by reading and watching an online course is incredible.

Pinterest is more than just a site to see images, it is a place to connect and learn from other teachers. There tons of ideas on how to use Pinterest for teaching and learning.

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Idea #2 Lesson plan

 Grade level: High School & Grades 4^th to 8^th

Subject area: Journalism research/ Reading classes

The teacher creates a Pinterest boards for students to follow. The teacher can share the Pinterest boards for each class period on the class website, blog or Facebook group page. All students are encouraged to use Pinterest, they can be added as collaborators depending on the topic board. For example, groups can work together by using a group class board to add ideas and sources for the project. One assignment can be researching children or young adult author. For this project, students need to include biographical information, a list of books that the author has to publish, awards, and a summary of at least 3 books from the author. Students must do a class presentation where they can show a short clip of the author (interview, book trailer) to the class. They also need to create and design a brochure or booklet for their classmates about the author.

Pinterest is a site for students to organize and share their research information, interview videos, book covers, and design their class presentation.

For journalism class, students can keep track of ideas, pin images and future articles for the school newspaper. Students can also pin school events or important issues in the school newspaper board for the school community to read. These ideas are promoting the use of web 2.0 tools and students’ use of technology.

Idea#3 Organizing school events such a parent night

Pinterest is my favorite tool when planning events because I keep track of the ideas, decorations, topics, data  for sharing with parents on that day. The idea is to allow teachers to plan this event because the goal for the parent night is to meet students’ families and connect with the school community. 

Blog post 5: Pinterest board

I share my Pinterest board with you, and it is about technology and classroom decor.

Pinterest board

An online bulletin board for finding ideas 

A tool for connecting and learning from other teachers 

Using Evernote for Teaching

Evernote Ideas for School

Grade Level: Middle School (6^th-8^th)& High School grades

Content: Geography-Reading

This week I learned about Evernote, a note sharing tool, where I can store my notes, record audio content, save documents and store pictures. I really enjoyed learning about this new tool that I can easily integrate it in my daily tasks. I was amazed on the multiple uses that this online note taking app provides to users. After I learned about it and even created a notebook for my online class to share with my classmates. It is a free app and it can be accessed from any device. I will definitely continue to use it.

Evernote is an amazing tool to use for interactive notebooks for the classes. There are three ways to integrate this app for students.

• 1.     Class notes and reviews for tests- It is such a versatile app where the teacher can share the class notes with all students. It is beneficial for students who are absent or they have questions about a topic to check the class notes. These notes also include the class calendar for the student to be informed about any quizzes, exams, etc. Teachers can upload the class PowerPoint, handouts and PDF use for class reviews. Students can find all the class content in one location to study and earn a good grade.
• 2.     Group project- Students can share their notebooks with one another. They can revise their work and give edit permissions add/change things. In that way, they are working on their own sections but they are also collaborating for their final presentation. One example can be a Geography end of the year project. Students need to create a cruise itinerary where they must research eight places in three countries. Students must include cultural activities, environment, and maps for travels to use. Evernote app provides the opportunity for students to keep track of their online research notes, pictures, maps and ideas for the project. The teacher has access to check on the students’ progress and answer any question prior to the deadlines.
• 3.     Literature circles- It is a great way for students to participate in a structured circle. Each group member is assigned a role (summarizer, word detective, visualizer, etc.) and they must complete their role duties prior to group discussions. Students write on their handout and they all share what they learn from the reading. Literature circles allow students to share their thoughts, improve their reading skill and public speaking skills. Each group is responsible for keeping track of their group notebook where they can add a picture of the complete handout, record on of their discussions, add videos related to the theme of the book. They also must add reading journal and reflections about the book. 

A Public Notebook

 Halloween Celebration

I create an Evernote notebook to share with you. This notebook is about one of my favorites holidays in October and that means Halloween. In the notebook, I include Halloween costumes, festive treats, and home decorations. I hope that you find some ideas that can inspire you. 

Halloween Evernote notebook

Blog #2 Self Directed Learning Feedly

For this week, I read two posts from the educational blogs Edutopia.org and gettingsmart.com. 
The first post is On Becoming More than Preparing: 10 Tips on Developing Humans by Tom Vander and Mary Ryerse from Edutopia.com blog. This post is about the importance of social emotional learning (SEL), it means knowing how to do teamwork, be critical thinkers, taking the right decisions. As teachers, we must recognize that students need to learn these skills and abilities. One way for teachers to teach SEL is to provide supportive relationships that make learning an engaging experience for students. The authors suggest to teachers that they can help students increase their social emotional learning by focusing on trends such as smart, action-oriented and mobile. Although it is good to advise students about the skills that they need to master to be successful adults, it is better yet to let students practice and gain these future new skills now.  For example, creating more group work activities where they can be exposed to these real world skills. The article  points out that just knowing is not enough, students need real time doing. Therefore, teachers should take to get know their students and provide more personalized instruction on subjects when students are struggling. Overall the blog post shows a different approach on how teachers can help students become better learns. Teachers must recognize that students’ social-emotional skills also contribute on how students learn. 
The next blog post is Public Speaking: Oracy Skills for the Real World from Edutopia blog.  I learn that it is  important for students to be exposed to public speaking since an early age. School 21 is located in London and it is a public school. Students learn to develop their oracy skills since their primary grades. According to the post, oracy is the ability to speak well and a teachable skill. School 21 has successfully implemented public speaking into their curriculum. It is important to understand how speaking is crucial in students’ lives in their school to their future careers. How can students be motivated to develop their oracy skills? First, students must understand that their voices do matter. Then teachers help and guide students to find their voice and express their ideas in political debates. Students spend time on research, writing, and practicing with classmates their speeches for the final debate. These political debates include classmates and experts from the fields to judge the students’ speeches. In the end, students are learning an invaluable lesson, feeling confident about raising their voices and express their thinking by framing their speeches depending on the audience. Public speaking is a necessary and convenient skill for the real world. In the post, readers can find out more about the public speaking framework and steps on how to integrate oracy skills in school.


The following are the links to the blog posts if you are interesting in reading more about these topics: 

 http://gettingsmart.com/2016/09/on-becoming-more-than-preparing-10-tips-on-developing-humans/

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/oracy-literacy-of-spoken-word-oli-de-botton

Classroom Blogs

·       Grade Level: 8th/ Middle grades students/ high school students    

·       Subject area: English-Reading

·       What will students do:

I will have a blog for my English Language Arts and Reading courses. The main purpose of this blog is to create a place for students to express their reading and writing vocabulary. A class blog provides students an opportunity to share their reading thoughts, react to what they are reading and write about what they learn from it.

Distribution: The main blog will provide students with different categories and resources. I write reminders, notes, share videos that introduce the lessons. The blog also provides information to parents about the classroom objectives, policies & procedures, assignments and contact information regarding parent-teacher conference, etc.

Discussion: Students are expected to visit the blog to know any update in the course. Students are expected to go to the class blog and participate in their group blogs. They will write reflections about their daily reading and contribute to the class discussions through the semester. Students will be part of literature circles and students must post their response journal in the class prior to the day the literature circles meet. Students will  need to respond to questions such as – what connections are you making? What challenges you as you are reading the book? Questions? - they also need to share what reading strategies they are using to comprehend the book and what they learn in their class readings, lessons and discussions.

Demonstration: Students are expected to post into their personal blogs ( students blog addresses will share in the group blog) journal-logs about books that they are reading in the semester. Students will write a plot summary, personal responses, and use three adjectives to describe their opinion about the book.

My example:
I read the book The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, by Peter Sis. The author shares to readers what was like to grow up during a time period where society was repressed from a government system and ideology, yet there was hope for a better future and change. The theme for this book portrays Peter Sis realistic and unique autobiographical story of growing up a country where government influence and control system over people. I liked autobiography books because they offer a realistic and original perspective from what they lived and learn throughout their life. One of my favorites is Anne Frank and Sonia Sotomayor’s My Beloved World memoir. I liked these books because I enjoyed history and these books provided a testimony from a generation living in this time period. I remembered watching a documentary named How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, it gave some background knowledge about what Peter Sis lived as a teenager.