My Pinterest Board

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Blog Post 6- Using Pinterest for Teaching and Learning

            Pinterest is a tool that I already use, for recreation and for professional development. I use Pinterest in many different ways, but for my third grade classroom, I can specifically use Pinterest for lesson plan ideas, for collecting tools that I can use in thematic units and to find resources for my classroom environment and for classroom management.

            The first way I would use Pinterest for my third grade classroom is to use it as a tool to do lesson plans. In the past, I have used Pinterest to supplement my lesson plans with handouts or creative activities. There are so many activities and handouts that are available on Pinterest in almost any subject you cannot imagine. For example, I am currently teaching my third graders about contractions. For Language Arts, we keep an interactive notebook for foldables and notes on any topic we are currently discussing. Because I could not think of a creative foldable to make about contractions for our interactive notebook, I logged into Pinterest to help me find ideas and ways to help my students learn about contractions. I was also able to look up printable worksheets for contractions to reinforce what we learned as homework.

            Another way I will use Pinterest in my third grade classroom is to collect tools for thematic units that take place in my classroom. Since it is currently September, I recently logged into Pinterest to find materials and activities to build my Johnny Appleseed thematic unit. I was able to find math activities, reading passages and craft ideas that all relate to Johnny Appleseed.

            One last way that I can use Pinterest for my third grade classroom is to find classroom environment resources, like poster ideas and ideas for classroom management. I used Pinterest a lot in the summer before school started to look up ideas for posters about different subjects and mostly to find ideas and examples of various anchor charts. I hoped to use anchor charts in each subject and so far this school year has been off to a good start. I also looked up ideas for classroom management and organization. I think it is very important to have an organized classroom and one that runs efficiently, so I was pleased when I found so many good examples and tools that I can use in my classroom.

            Pinterest is a great tool that I already use in my classroom and one that I use recreationally too. I enjoy looking up crafts, home décor and humor, in addition to the variety of educational resources!

Blog Post 4- Evernote

Based on the readings this week and my experience on Evernote, I would like to use the program in three basic ways in my third grade classroom. I would use it to organize class notes into a notebook, which would be used as an interactive notebook, I would have students write and draw on PDF documents as both assignments and in their interactive notebooks and I would organize student life and school events on one page to provide students and parents easy access to information they need to know. 

I would like my third grade students to create an online interactive notebook, where they can add pictures, audio and drawings to notes in the subjects of math, social studies and science. I think that if they were able to create and record those pictures, audio and drawings and be able to refer back to them would be great and they would be very enthusiastic about that! If I were to implement Evernote, I would first want to start in the subject of science. In third grade at my school, we are learning about astronomy, the planets, the elements, geography and plants. I think there would be a lot of different options and ways for students to get creative on their interactive notebooks through Evernote.

I would also like to use Evernote to have students write and draw on PDF documents in class and at home. The PDFs could be used to insert into their online interactive notebooks and could also be posted to their blogs or emailed to me to be graded. This could promote the use of technology and also save paper! This option could also be good in the event of a student being absent. They would be able to see their assignments and maybe even listen to audio recordings of the lecture.

To organize student life and school events, I would add voice notes and take pictures of important events and flyers to post on Evernote and share with my entire class. It could also be beneficial to post school newsletters, fundraising forms, forms that need to be signed by a parent and returned and other housekeeping items that need to be taken care of by the student.

Evernote is an online social tool that I would really love to use in my classroom. It would give my students a wonderful opportunity to use technology and have a digital record of what they have accomplished this school year. 

My Evernote Notebook

My first Evernote note is based on a video reflection of a documentary that was about a creative writing program based out of a women's prison.

Please follow this link... https://www.evernote.com/shard/s578/sh/66f90ecd-82d6-46da-93d5-69010760c477/5ddc5b132fa96dfbfc40bebc2a55903f

Thank you!

Jessica

Week 3 Blog

September 9, 2016

There are so many ways to use a blog in a classroom! A class blog can help students learn how to safely post material online and can be monitored closely by the teacher to make sure that the students are posting only what is needed and important to the assignment. A class blog can provide students a meaningful writing experience and can teach them to write in a particular tone and for a particular audience. A blog can teach students in the way the learn best: through technology!

I am a third grade teacher and I plan to use my blog in the areas of distribution, discussion, and demonstration of information for my students and their parents. 

The first area in which I will use my blog in my classroom is for the distribution of information. I am a big believer that parental involvement is key in the success of a child's education. I encourage parents to be aware of what is happening in our classroom and provide many opportunities for the parents to know what is happening in the classroom. My blog will be a starting point for parents to find information. On the blog I will post learning objectives, as well as events happening in our school, like picture day, field trips and special holiday plans. I will post notices and flyers and any other important information that parents need to know about. 

For discussion purposes, I will use my blog for my third grade students to post their ideas about certain projects and require them to respond to at least one other student in the class blog. I would also like students to have projects throughout the school year to be completed using a technology program of their choice, for example PowerPoint, have the students post them on their blog and students can view their presentation online, while forming their own response to the project presented. 

Over the course of the school year all of the students projects, posts, responses and the appearance of their blog will become their digital portfolio. In regards to demonstration, the students will be able to showcase their blogs to demonstrate what they have learned and accomplished this year and can show it off to the technological world!

My third grade class would benefit from having a class blog and will learn real life application and digital citizenship from their participation.