Track 12: Collaborating, Connecting, Sharing

I am always collaborating with my colleagues and working with them to create and plan lessons and projects that will meet the learning needs of each and every student. I like to meet with them as much as possible and attend things like grade level meetings so that we are on the same page with one another. I also dedicate a lot of my time to going over not only my curriculum, but also each of the grade levels that I teach. This is a great way for both my colleagues and I to be teaching similar topics at the same time so the learning needs of all students are met. Whether it be a sit down meeting with my colleagues, or an impromptu 2 minute meeting in the hallway I always make the effort to communication with my colleagues. Not only do I take the time to meet with my colleagues but I also collaborate with colleagues in my department all the time. They are my best resource and I am always working with them on new lesson plans, and we can always count on one another for small things like book loans and general questions that only someone in out department can answer. We attend professional development together and bounce ideas off one another. I will also be meeting with three of my colleagues this summer to go over and share lesson plans and ideas.

I chose to talk about Pinterest because I am actually in the middle of a lesson that I am working on with my 5^th graders. I have so many boards and enjoy browsing on the website to find fun and new things that I can pin for school, my house and even my dog! You need an ID and log on and that can be an email or you can also sign up through facebook and link it that way. The website does require you have a picture but if some parents are concerned about a child having an account and a picture they could always put a cartoon picture up or something that is not an actual picture of them. Depending on how you have your setting set on the website will determine whether or not you have a public or private profile.  If you are public anyone can see the boards that you have made (unless they are secret boards) and the things that you have pinned. If you are a private account then only people you allow access to can see the boards and the things you have pinned. Pinterest is a website that people of all ages use and they all use it for different things. Some use it when designing a house, others for school related things, and some to get new recipes. Children could for sure use it for a project and it could be customized for their age.  A great thing about Pinterest is that it can be accessed by not only a computer at school or home but anywhere where you can get an internet connection. There is also an app for the website that I personally have on both my iPhone and iPad. I am always sharing my love for Pinterest and telling anyone who will listen why they should sign up!

A Pinterest lesson that I am doing with my 5^th grade students is having them learn about historical and current figures. They are creating a board about an individual that they chose and  have the option to pin anything from articles, images, and quotes. I am having the students follow one another so that they could generate ideas from one another and see what their classmates are all working on. They are able to work on this project from home as well since the only thing they need is Internet access. After doing the research part of it on Pinterest they will take all of that information that they collected to write a report or do a project on that person. When they present the project they will have their Pinterest boards up on the Smartboard to show their classmates. I think that my students will hopefully love this project and will enjoy using a social media website in school for a project.

I also took a look at Skype and had some of my students use it to connect with another classroom. I have a friend who is a teacher not far from here and we decided that we wanted to do something where we could connect our students even if it was something as simple as them making a new friend. We decided to have the students read the same book and then discuss it with one another via Skype. It worked out really well and my students seemed to enjoy it. I think next time I would use it with more students and maybe make it a classroom lesson! Skype was really easy to use and even though I used it with 4^th grade I am sure some of the younger students would have no problem with it!