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Pinterest in the Classroom

As an already avid Pinterester, I've only recently understood the capacity to which I can utilize it for not just personal interests, but professional ones as well. I happened upon two amazing high school English Language Arts teachers who YouTube, blog, and use Pinterest themselves, then opening up a plethora of new ideas, and thinking about teaching in general, in a new, more interactive way.

Thinking about the My Classroom board, it finally got my gears going about what I wanted, and think the students will need from a work/thinking space. A realization came to me that, especially in Literature studies and growing as a write requires a flexible, cooperative, engaging classroom is going to enhance and engage students to their maximum potential. I realize that there will be constraints to what is allowed and accepted in certain schools, as well as staying withing something budget-friendly, but leaving that behind and just dreaming of what my ideal classroom would be was fun and exciting, and made me brainstorm on ways I can make that possible, even if I have to DIY some things myself, or get the class involved in creating and learning for the sake of their learning space.

Not only does Pinterest have amazing pins to be found in classroom decor, but they have some pretty amazing student activities too. I found an enormous amount of teacher created, tested, and approved activities, worksheets, games, and topic ideas, including fantastic ways to interact more, and give the students a more hands-on approach to their subject matter. Also, Pinterest is where I first began seeing content from TeachersPayTeachers, a place with amazing lessons and activities made by teachers! It's a wonderful resource that can help you, and help other teachers too, as some of the content is sold, but a great deal of it is free.

I plan to continue using Pinterest to help inspire my future classroom, and find it an extremely valuable resource if you just dig a round a little. There may be a few bumps along the way, one being that sometimes the images for pins don't always want to reveal themselves, but aside from that minor, occasional hiccup, Pinterest is a great tool, and an engaging platform.

Khan/Koller Review

Perusing through some of the MOOC (massive open online course) options available in an open access form revealed two shining stars, Khan Academy and Coursera; one I was already familiar with, having taken courses myself, but the other was unfamiliar, only having been heard of, and vaguely. Khan Academy was something I had not anticipated, and was quite surprised at when a visit was made inevitable. The amount of instruction and the lessons available are mind-blowing, and I guarantee you I will be advocating it to anyone who doesn't know about it, and will be starting some lessons myself very soon. The amount of content is reassuring and uplifting; to be able to freely access this kind of information that allows a person to better themselves in ways that may have been completely unattainable, are now readily available. You can even go to your local library and use the computers there to access the site, in case you don't have that kind of access at home. The material is in a format that allows it to be repeated back as many times as needed so every student can work at their own pace, making it easier than ever to grasp any concept one may be struggling with, and without the frustration of holding up the class or an instructor or tutor. I agree immensely with Khan when he envisions the future of credentialing relying more through the use of online courses. The last thing we need is a facility to hold us back from education, it should accessible is every form available to us, because the technology allows for that now, and at a cost much lower than running an entire facility that is holding staff and students. we can reach the furthest corners of the earth this way, and bring out some of the brilliant minds that are cut-off from the rest of the world because of their geographical location, or the lack of facilities in their part of the world.

Comparing Coursera to Khan Academy, however, is difficult, because in reality they can work in tandem of one another. Khan Academy offering the framework instruction, and Coursera offering the environment to utilize it a format that varies depending on your given expertise or area of interest. Coursera has a unique variety of courses that interest me in areas I'd otherwise not known I'd have an attraction to. In the past I took the creative writing course, and it matched up pretty well, and in some areas exceeded the difficulty of the many literature and writing courses I've taken at Columbus State.I I had a difficult time finding out whether Columbus State accepted the transfer credit, but I believe the answer to that is no, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I never received a credit transfer for the course, but I didn't try either. I'm sure there are classes that may be more difficult than some are use to, but I believe it's because Coursera is specifically seeking out the best of the best instructors to prepare the information for the students, and that's fantastic if they are. Imagine being taught by the leading minds of today for free, or next to nothing in terms of what an education costs. I think MOOC's are going to become more prevalent, and I think the most difficult task is how accreditation will be handled compared to that of a brick and mortar university. I like the idea especially because I can browse around and try out different courses I may have been too intimidated to pursue in college, or couldn't afford to pursue on top of the already expensive costs of secondary education. If I want to give coding a try, I can. Philosophy, what's holding me back? This kind of technology is going to grow the mind of anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Exploring Standards-Based Lesson Plans

As a hopeful, future high school English teacher, lesson planning, and building a tailored curriculum for my class and subject has been a fascinating, and honestly, frightening aspect of teaching so far. It was difficult for me to even imagine how I would go about doing so. This particular assignment has helped me confront that fear, and I've come to realize it's not all that intimidating when you understand how to break down a book or idea into components that can be understood; and can also be fun, and engaging for the entire class.

I've chosen to focus on a lesson that would appeal to the fun, creative sides of high school English students, but one that also develops critical skills in interpretations and writing development. The lesson, called "What's in my Pocket?", begins with students receiving a list of items a character has in their pocket or bag, and then are asked to write a short paragraph or more describing the kind of character they imagine would carry these items. This would be especially useful for freshman and sophomores who are building their creative writing skills, and their comprehension of characters and symbolism through objects and actions.

This particular lesson is aligned with Common Core State Standards: W.9-10.3, W.9-10.4, RL.9-10.3. W.9-10.3 is a standard that helps students write narratives and to develop real or imagined experiences using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. Developing characters based on items, and developing items based on characters effectively demonstrates a compelling way to build that technique. W.9-10.4 is implemented to produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. By developing characters with specific items tailored to their description, students are tasked with the appropriateness of their story/character development, creating a character that is defined by such items, and therefore, aligned with their given persona. RL.9-10.3 analyzes how complex characters develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters and advance the plot or theme. When implemented for a specific text, students will progress through their readings and gain an awareness and understanding for the characters and their motives; they will be able to pinpoint particular key details and ideas the character expresses, and the student will then be able to create their own assumptions based off of these educated findings.

"What's in my Pocket?" is a fantastic lesson that can easily be implemented into any classroom as an engaging and enjoyable activity that has the capabilities to allow students to break down characters and understand them more deeply, while also engaging their creative sides once they understand the concept, so they can then utilize it in their own story/character creations, and interpreting character/story elements in other readings. I'd love to do this as a creative writing project with a novel the class would be reading, as the character development is more in-depth. Presenting them with a few objects at the beginning of the class, I would then give them the task of developing their own character who has these objects as a half page journal entry to acquaint them with the process.  Afterwards, each student could then create their own imaginary characters with a few details, and then create their own items for their character. The items they draw or write down are to be placed in an envelope, then passed around the room anonymously, and students are then suppose to write about a character they imagine would be carrying these items. After everyone is finished a comparison can be made between the original student's story, and to the story of those who received the bag of items. It could be made even more fun, but would take more resources, if many small, inexpensive, and cheap, if not free, items could be gathered up, and each student would then be allowed to gather 3 or 4 items each and give them to another random student, who is then to write a creative character involving those items. It could then push their creative capacity by being confronted with multiple, unexpected items to incorporate and think of in terms of character traits.

I'm not going to lie, I'm saving this lesson until I get the opportunity to implement it myself, see if my expectations for it as a lesson are met, and if the students enjoy it as much as I'd like them to. Learning is empowering and when you make learning fun and enjoyable, it's all the more powerful.

Click here for the website and PowerPoint.