Pinterest in the Classroom

There are numerous ways that Pinterest can be used in the classroom. As an educator, you can type in your subject and grade level and it will give you tons of pins to sort through to get ideas, handouts, lesson plans, classroom decoration designs, etc. Pinterest is a great way to get creative ideas to make your lesson plans more fun than the normal, boring lecture lessons. When teaching Math, it is easy to find lesson plans that are dull and don't seem interesting for students. However, with Pinterest I have found fun outgoing lessons for my future math classes I will teach, including foldables and other neat note taking ideas. As a teacher, you could also use Pinterest as a lesson, by making student create a board for your class and start to research some of the different concepts you teach, such as geometry, algebra, calculus, etc. You can use Pinterest for all other subjects including Social Studies. I used several different ideas of American History, World History, and Government all combined together to form a Project Based Learning using technology based off of ideas and lessons for Pinterest.

Below is a link to an assignment I made for my future Social Studies classes. I an activity similar to it on Pinterest and pinned the ideas to my own Pinterest board, and modified the assignment to meet my state's curriculum frameworks. This goes to show you that Pinterest is a valid place to find and create lesson plans. After completing the instructions for the assignment, I also completed the assignment myself.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RyjDbzmS0h1zkEEDkqikf6fysNIPFZwlsyvCsupwNq4/edit

I chose this particular lesson because I love to discuss historical events, and hear other people's opinion about what happened in the past. I also chose this assignment to complete because I wanted to see if I could create an assignment and fulfill it as easily and perfectly as I personally thought I could. It's always a great idea to make sure the lesson is doable for you because if you cannot complete how can you expect your students to.

I learned that I did makes some clear instructions, and used the assignment given to fulfill my curriculum frameworks. I felt that I chose an appropriate framework with a huge amount of resources to use and explained step by step directions appropriately.

As a male educator, I thought Pinterest was for female educators only and was not for male educators. However, after this assignment I am assured that Pinterest is a phenomenal tool for male educator, too! I can only blame Dr. Benton now for my Pinterest addiction.

Here is an overview of how I complete the steps for this assignment:

1. Complete research, note taking and images for the topics of World War I, World War II, the Great Depression, Space Explorations, and Civil Rights during the 20th century. Some notes were typed and others were handwritten. Included you will find screenshots of the information and images possibly contained in my report.

World War I

Here is my research websites that I used.

 Here is my two pages of notes for World War I. 

Here is my image search for World War I. 

World War II 

Above  is my research on World War II.

Including notes from my research is a typed page of notes, and handwritten notes.

Here is a screenshot of my image search for WWII. 

The Great Depression

Above is my research and the notes I choose to use for the Great Depression. 

Below are the images I choose to use in my presentation. 

 Places where people lived during the Depression.

 Children waiting for food during the Depression. 

Space Exploration

Notes about Space Explorations

 Below are my image search results for support on my notes.

Civil Rights

Above is my research on Civil Rights.

Below are my images results and the actually images, I choose to use for my PowerPoint. 

 Dr. Martin Luther King, Civil Right Activist 

 Rosa Parks who rode a Montgomery, Alabama bus and refused to give her seat to a white male.

In Little Rock, Arkansas, 9 black students chose to enter Central High School despite the school being a white dominate school, military forced to not allow them to enter. 

2. After completing my research, I choose to make a PowerPoint using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. Below are screenshots of my PowerPoint directly one after another for my 5-6 minute presentation to the class. 

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Slide #13

3. After completing my presentation, I began practicing my presentation to present a 5 minute presentation to my class.  After completing my presentation I earned a rubric rating of 58/60. 

4. As a effective educator, I must personally reflect on my assignment I was blessed to learn so many new facts I did not know about our country during the Depression and the World Wars. However, as an educator I may need to limit my research results down to a minimum for my students because the two wars cover a multitude of information. 

The Best Professors are at Henderson State!

When most people think of college; they think of parties, sexual relationships, etc. However, I think of what ties the university together. Here at Henderson State, I must say we have the best professors especially in the Teacher's College!

This week has been super stressful for me! First off in two weeks, I have my admission interview into the Teacher's College, and I have been stressed about it. I am fortunately blessed to have a great Educational Technology professor, Dr. Brandie Benton, who encourages me to remain calm because after looking at my career developmental portfolio she said, "You have nothing to worry about." Dr. Benton may not know much about what's going on in my life, but at that moment it made my week! I am so fortunate to have a teacher who not only helps me in her class, but my other education classes! 

Henderson State is also very blessed to have another superb professor of education Dr. Charlotte Wright, who teaches Introduction to Education. As the semester is beginning to wrap up, assignments add up, and research papers are pilling up; Dr. Wright decides that after our current lecture which is Chapter 12: Professionalism in Relationships, Reality, and Reform that we will no longer do chapter quizzes. Instead, our job is to complete all quizzes in ANGEL, complete our observation hours, and write our reflection paper about our observation hours. Last night, I completed the quiz, and the score popped up that I made a 5 out of a possible 20 (25%). I immediately emailed Dr. Wright. Stating that some of the questions were directly from the text and said exactly what I had chosen for my answer. I asked her if she would please look over the key a second time to ensure the answers were in fact correct. She generously replied back and is currently looking over the key because about five students have asked her too look over it including myself.

She did not have to look over the key. However, she choose to ensure that students are getting the appropriate grade, and because she cares! 

Henderson State University's Teachers College has two great professors who I believe are the best in the education field Dr. Brandie Benton and Dr. Charlotte Wright! 

Web 2.0 Tools for My Classroom

Corey Jackson

EDU 2043: Educational Technology

October 28, 2014

     For an assignment in my Educational Technology class with Dr. Benton, I was challenged to find ten Web 2.0 Tools that I can use in my future classroom. I have accepted Dr. Benton's challenged and have posted a brief synopsis of the tool with a link to that tools website and the reason that I would use the tool in my classroom. Perhaps you may want to use them in your classroom fellow and future teachers. 

     Quizlet is a tool that will make flashcards and quizzes for my students in any subject. Quizlet will make a quiz or flashcards in minutes, and will allow me to customize and upload unique features for the quiz or flashcards. This tool will allow me to add images, videos, custom response, timed questions, custom ending, and much more. I will use this tool in my classroom to have students prepare for test and quizzes. Quizlet is a wonderful resource for my students to study for tests and review materials if they were absent or struggling with the material. 

     PhotoStory 3 is a slideshow tool. This allows students to download, crop and organize pictures to make a story. Students can also add in their own voices to the presentation as a narrator. I would use this in the classroom for oral presentations that have to be presented to the class. I think that this would allow the student to be more receptive to the presenter’s project and even interest the students into the project more.

     Quibblo is a quizzing tool. This would be a great way for students to study for tests. They can put in the information needed for the test and quiz themselves. They could also find other quizzes that others have made to help them study. Students can also share these with other students. I wouldn’t make my students use this tool for testing purpose, instead I would suggest it to the students who aren’t doing too good on tests. I think that practicing for the test will prepare them to know and understand the information needed.

     Webspiration is a web tool used to help with organization. This tool will help organize ideas, information and documents. This would be ideal to keep students organized. I would use this in the classroom to help my students stay organized. This will keep them on task for all research assignments. I would probably use this myself as a teacher to keep myself organized.

     Invention at Play is a tool for students to invent and play educational games. With this tool students can sketch out their ideas out, and do problem solving puzzles. This tool has students explore and play with objects to explore different ways to reach their goal. I would use this tool in my classroom for my students to invent and think through playing games and puzzles. I believe with this tool, students would have interest in learning because they are allowed to create a game and puzzle and learn through this invention.

          SimpleVLE is collaborative tool by teachers and students. Teachers can post quizzes and assignments for their students to work on. Teachers create the class online and all students have access to the work. I would use this in the classroom after watching a historical movie or video. This would be a great way to test students to see if they learned anything from the movie or video.

     Create A Graph is a web tool that is designed to help teachers and students easily make graphs to display information. This seems like a very basic tool, but it is important in being able to display information using a diagram, chart, or graph, to distribute information effectively. It also provides a tutorial on how to use this tool to create an accurate graph or chart. This tool will be used in my classroom when students are doing an assignment because they can use this tool to be able to show what they have learned more creatively and effectively. I feel students would be more interested in a graphing lesson with a cool web tool like this instead of pencil, paper, and a graphing technique.

     MapSkip is a tool where students can make a world map and post stories and photos on it. Students can research a place and then write a story and post graphics; and put it onto MapSkip. This a great tool for my students to do research and post information about their genealogy. I will also have my students record their voices and add it onto their map as well. This is not only a great tool for an oral report, but also a exciting way to complete a history report.

     ChartTool is a great tool for students to communicate information visually through charts. On Chart Tool, students can design and share their charts online free. My students will make bar, pie, line, bubble charts, and radar plots. This is a great resource to organize data. In my classroom we will use Chart Tool to organize math data.

     InfoPlease is a search tool full of content from multiple research area. It provide a vast amount of places to pull from such as biographies and encyclopedias. This allows for straightforward access to what I want my students to learn whether it be in depth or a brief highlight of a subject. In my classroom, I would use this tool for my students to research the history of mathematicians and their contribution to mathematics. I personally like that you can search multiple sources in order to get facts from numerous stories that my students can research in a much responsible time frame. 

Effects of Social Networking

Social Networking can be very effective if used the correct ways according to bloggers Christine Laird and Angela Barnes. In their blog article, The Effects of Social Media on Children, they believe their are five aspects of the use of social media. 

Five aspects of the use of social media:

• Not many restrictions on creatively expressing oneself.

• Easy way to share information.

• Informal support of other’s work.

• General understanding and respect of other people’s forms of expression.

• An alternative way of socializing.

I personally agree to most of these effects, but one I disagree with. I agree with effect number one, two, three, and five. I personally have my parents on my social media and we have a great connection outside of social media because we had a close-relationship before social media and I hope we will continue even after social media. Personally I love my social media and myself, so I agree with number two. Effect number three, I disagree with because I use several forms of social media multiple times of day such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter; and I do not struggle with low grades, depression, or psychological disorders. If you want to tell me that students who use social media all have bad grades; I will inform you that I have a 3.22 cumulative GPA and currently this semester I have a 3.40 GPA, so get your facts right! Number five can is true because many parents do not monitor their child's social media and many children add people just because they liked their photo, know their friend, etc. As a parent it is your job to monitor your child's accounts because they could be adding someone with criminal intentions. 

According to Angela and Christine's blog, the teen years can be a challenging time, and social networks can be places for teens to turn to for support and advice when going through challenging experiences. Adolescents who use Facebook have been shown to demonstrate more “virtual empathy.  Social networking can be a positive and somewhat easier way for adolescents to get to know and become accepting of others from “diverse backgrounds”.  As well as providing social support, social media sites can also provide medical support.  Adolescents can easily and anonymously seek medical advice.

I personally believe they are correct because social media is not just an way for socializing; kids and teens can be creative, interact, and learn in a positive way. Social networking provides an alternative way for students to become interested in learning, and provides a great tool for "homework and group-work." Even though social media is not only used for social interaction, it is an important aspect of adolescents’ lives.  Social media provides an avenue for them to stay connected with peers they have met through school, sports teams, church, etc. Social networking can also help shy adolescents have a more non-threatening way to interact with peers because they are not interacting face-to-face. 

On Singyin Lee's blog, Five Effects Social Networks Have on You, he states that their are five effects social networking has on teens. One being that teens who connect with their parents in social media networks like Facebook and Twitter have a better connection with offline. The second one is if you love yourself then you love your social networking. The third effect is the harmful side of Facebook according to Larry Dosen, Ph.D., teens who are on Facebook are more prone to depression, lower grades, psychological disorders, and future health problems if they are on Facebook too much. A fourth effect is that a quick five-minute check of Facebook profiles can significantly boost the self-esteem of others. The final effect is social networking could get you mixed up with individuals with criminal intent.

Social networking phenomenon has impacted my life because I am able to connect with friends and family who live out of the state. I am able to ask on social media for prayers and within moments I know a certain number of prayers are lifted. I am able to connect with former classmates who have moved away, and in fact just this week I added 3 friends who I went to school with who I lost contact with on social media. Social media is a great resource tool, but you must watch how it effects you, your children, or your family. 

All About Me

If you asked my closest friends one way to describe me they would say, "Preacher's Kid." Born to a deacon and now youth pastor, I have been literally been raised in church all my life (even before I was born). Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, and Wednesday nights you will find me at church. Why? Because I'm the youth pastor's kid! I have lived in Hot Springs, Arkansas my entire life. My parents have been married for 28 years. I have an older sister, Mandi, who works at Belk in Hot Springs and she also attends Henderson State University. My younger brother, Sean, is a eighth grader at Mountain Pine High School. He enjoys playing sports! 

I love technology and am very advanced in all aspects of it! At my church, I serve as Media Director. During the summer, I am super busy volunteering as a Church Camp Counselor/Assistant Camp Director to our 5th-12th Grade students. I also have been the Vacation Bible School Director for the past two years, and I look forward to year three. I am fortunately blessed to work for a wonderful Christian organization in the summer, Hot Springs Family YMCA. I have worked for Hot Springs Family YMCA for the past two summers. My first summer I worked at the Mountain Pine Summer Day Camp site, and my second summer I worked at the main site as a Camp Counselor. 

I am very passionate about helping children and love working with children! My favorite thing about working with children is the impact you leave on them and the blessings you receive as you mold them into an adult. Here at Henderson State University, I am a student studying Middle School Mathematics and Social Studies Education. I want to be a math teacher because math was once my hardest subject and I want to be a role model to show students you can go from math being your worst subject to your best subject! I believe that ALL students can learn not matter their educational status is. 

I am starting this blog for my Educational Technology class with Dr. Benton at school. As you read this blog, I will tell stories about things that have happened in my life. I have a rather unique life and I would like to share it with anyone who is interested in it. I will do my best to blog at least one per week.