Pinterest into the Classroom

Pinterest. Such a fun website to be on. Many people use it to plan out their weddings or design their dream homes. However, I found a way to make Pinterest a fun website to use in the classroom (for teachers). The way Pinterest works is you get on there and find a ton of things that have been pinned by people, and then you can save them to your boards. You're able to get on there and find tons of ideas for anything, which is where classroom activities come into play. You can follow different boards and find different, fun activities that you can do with your students in just about every subject.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CwIfQhBXKS7iFBZyFa33wnEE9HXAy40D0tuqCYXha1g/edit?usp=sharing

All the students had to do was use Google Slides and an app called "50 State Information" to learn about their 3-5 favorite states and tell about that state such as what all their symbols are and what their motto, slogan, etc. is. Simple project, but they are able to learn a lot and share with the other students, so every state gets talked about. My step by step example is below: Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas are my favorites!

I made this simple project using ideas from Pinterest for my fourth grade classroom. I got the idea of a presentation of three states that tell the motto, symbols, etc. like in the common core standard for 3rd grade.
I made this because I felt like it would be easy to do with 3rd graders and it would be a fun learning activity for them. I remember as a kid when I learned about a state how neat it was and I always loved learning about Oklahoma because my dad lived there and Florida, just because I knew the beach was there. I feel like kids today have their own reasons just like I did for wanting to learn about those few states.

Ten Tools for a Classroom

http://www.haikulearning.com/

This type of learning tool would be great for any classroom K-12. On this website, you can create your own teaching videos for the students to watch and there is a grade book on the page so you are able to grade the students on the computer. This would be something interesting to do for extra credit; make students watch a video and then quiz them over what they watched for either extra credit or homework. 

http://enterthegroup.com/

Enter the group is an interesting tool that I found that would be a great communication tool. On this web page, you are able to set up meetings between teachers and teachers or students and teachers to discuss different topics. There is a calendar on the page where teachers can go in and put down dates of important things such as field trips or tests or anything else that might be important to the student. This would be helpful because it gives students and teachers a chance to communicate and keep up with each other for school purposes outside of the classroom.

http://chogger.com/create

Chogger would be a fun thing to do in your classroom. Chogger allows students to go in and create their own comic strip from scratch. This would be a fun writing activity for the students because they do get bored easily and it would be interesting to see all the exciting comic strips they come up with. This activity allows student to be creative in their writing and have fun doing it.

http://www.aypwip.org/webnote/

Web note is a great thing to be on for upper middle school and high school students who have to take a lot of notes. This website allows you to go in and take notes for a class and then you are able to share it with other people. It makes it easy to take notes, and it would be really good if someone missed class that day, they could just go in and find the notes that someone shared. 

www.timetoast.com

Time Toast allows you to create a timeline and upload photos and share it with others. I think this would be helpful in a history class when you are trying to remember what happened at what time. You could get your students to create a timeline of some event that happened as a homework grade. This would also be a great "study" tool for them remembering dates for tests.

http://kubbu.com/

Kubbu is a study tool. On this website you are able to create games such as crossword puzzles to help study for tests or quizzes. You as a teacher could make the crossword puzzle and have the students fill it out and submit it for a grade, or just keep it and use that to study. You could also make little quizzes everyday for your students, have them long on and take them, then that's what they could use to study.

slideshare.net

Slide Share allows you to make slide show presentations and share them with other people. This would be useful in a classroom because it would allow students to make a power point and before they present it, they could share it with the class so the class could follow along with them. It tends to get a little boring just staring at someone giving a presentation, but if they had something to look it, right in front of them, in their own hands, it might make it a little more interesting. 

storybird.com

For another creative writing tool, use story bird. This is a neat way for children to go online and let them write a story about anything they want to. Your whole classroom could log onto this and create your own classroom library, how neat! Every student could enter their story at any time, and then everyone could read each others stories. 

http://kidblog.org/home/

Kid blog would be a creative writing activity also. Since you as a teacher have complete control over this web page you can go in, give your students a topic, then have them write about that topic. An easy homework grade! Some days you don't even have to give them a topic, just go in and tell them to free write. Free writing makes the best writers in my opinion and allows them to be creative and use their writing skills.

http://www.chartle.net/

Chartle is a good tool to use for your math class. You are allowed to create all kinds of maps and charts that you use everyday in your lower level math classes. You are able to create your own charts and diagrams which you can print off and have a math lesson with your students. And if you don't want to print it off, then you can always just show it on the computer. 

 

Social Networking

This first blog will be about Social Networking and what other people have said about it effecting the people of today and my response to their posts.

http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/academic/article/485925/The-Effects-of-Social-Networking-upon-Society/

On this website, it is talking about teens and social networking. As a teenager myself, I love social networking just like the majority of people, but it does have some disadvantages. Like the article says, it is replacing friendships, bullying occurs, and it gives us a lack of communication. All of this is so true. Social media can be such a mean place. People get made fun of too much on things like Facebook and Instagram. People, mainly young girls get upset and feel like they are worthless if they do not get a certain amount of "likes". I use to be one of those girls, but the thing is, you don't need to worry about any of that. You have friends and family and a God who loves you no matter what, so why worry what others think about you? Lack of Communication. This is a negative thing going on with Social Networking. I feel like everywhere I go I see people together, but instead of talking to one another they are looking down at their phones. People do not know how to communicate anymore. You can go on a date, and never find anything out about the person because the two of you just sit there because you do not know how to carry on a conversation without a phone screen and keypad. It really is sad that this is what life has come to.

Although those were negative effects of social media, there are positive effects:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/positive-impact-social-networking-sites-society-opinion/

On social media, you do have friends, and you are able to talk to your friends through social media and share photos of you and your friends with everyone else. Social media also helps you meet new people and communicate with them, giving you a chance to have even more friends. Like the website says, empathy is a thing that is on social media. This can be both a good/bad thing. But, from the good stand point about it, you are able to tell people issues going on in your life and ask for prayers or anything else you may need. This is good, unless you are friends with that one person who has something wrong with them every second of every day.... Speedy communication! That is another thing about social media; word travels in the speed of lightning so you are able to send messages back and forth extremely fast, which is a really good thing when you need to know something as soon as possible. Social Networking has positive and negative effects on the world and more and more people are using it daily. Let's keep the drama off and positive things on! Happy Posting! :)

Allison's Information

My name is Allison Lumley and I am from a small town in south Arkansas: Hampton. I live on a farm, so my hobbies include gardening with my family, taking care of the animals, and doing anything that involves the outdoors! I love to hunt, fish, and mud-ride during the summer, but I also like to shop and have Starbucks every now and then! My friends and family play a huge part in my life. I have some of the best friends and family members a girl could ask for. My church family also plays a big role in my life. My great grandpa is a preacher, so Ihave a little brother and sister who I love to death even though that can be annoying at times. I am currently studying at Henderson State University where I am getting a degree in Elementary Education. I hope to teach somewhere between Kindergarten-3rd grade. I was a teachers aide my senior year of high school for a Kindergarten class and I fell in love with that job! Seeing little 5 year old's in a classroom learning and getting so excited when they can just add two simple numbers together is priceless. I felt so amazing being able to help them learn something and I'm glad I had a part in teaching them something, and I want to have my own class to do that one day have been in church all my life. It's a small church, so everyone there is like my family; they act like it too. My mom is my best friend; I go to her about everything and tell her anything and everything that goes on in my life. I . My blog is going to be about me and my hobbies. I will be writing blogs about gardening, hunting, and I may even talk about the girly side of me too, and give any advice to people I can give about things I have been through. I feel like my blog will be able to relate to a lot of people just because the topics I will be blogging about are so broad. I hope everyone enjoys it!