Google + Communities in the classroom
Google+ Communities is another great way for educators to get great informationg from other educators. It closely mimics pinterest, but in this case communities are created that people are able to join and add things too. You as an educator can then follow these specific communities and learn what other people are putting out their for you to learn. After being introduced to Google+, I began to follow many education related communities. In this review I will be discussing two in particular that I felt will be a great resource as I embark on my journey to become an educator:
- One of my favorite is Teachers Helping Teacher. This board is especially helpful to those of us who are to soon become educators, for we can see in action what teachers are expierencing in their own classrooms today. I found a great post that sent me to a blog called Focus 2 Achieve. This blog is one that I feel provides great tools for teachers to take with them to their own classroom. one out of many great articles on The particular article that I read, regarded creativity in the classroom. This article specifically focuses on how schools today are killing the creativity in our students and gives teachers tools on how to create that spark of creativity in their students once again. One of my major take aways after reading this article, was the idea of incorporating Genius Hour and project based learning into your classroom. Often times we focus so much on the standards and we find our kids zoning out. We think about why and how we can make those lessons, still centered around the standards and what we want them to learn, energize them and get them excited to learn. This idea of Genius Hours allows the students to choose what they want to learn every Friday. This gets students working on projects they are actually passionate about. The article states that half the time these projects will align with your cirriculum anyways, so what is there to loose! It talks briefly on the idea of Project Based Learning and gives teachers great resources to show them how to implement this idea into their classrooms tomorrow. Launch, The Inovators Mindset, and Hacking Project Based Learning were just a few.
- Another posts I really enjoyed was one by Edi Brown. He gave us some great ideas on how to teach students with ADHD and keep them engaged. I like this post because not only did it speak to educators but it also spoke to parents and gave them some tips and tricks they may be able to use at home. He talks about how important teaching strategies are. Every teacher develops their own specific teaching strategy but the trick is finding one that works for all of your students. Keeping them engaged and bring them sucess. He gives five great ideas that teachers can use, and I thought this was very helpful.
- Delivering instruction creatively: Talking to your students but also incorporating different modalities. For example, using images or videos in your lesson, or creating tactile activities that will excite your students about a new subject.
- Engaging students throughout the lesson: This means every student even those who are struggling with the new information.
- Provide Feedback for Thinking: You dont just want your students regurgatating yes or no answers. We want are students to be actively engaged and thinking about the material presented to them.
- Laugh until you drop: Humor can be a great way to engage students. Making them laugh about a subject may in fact make them want to keep learning about it.
- Count the 8 mintues that matter the most: Start with something exciting that hooks your students. Make them want to learn more about what your talking about.
Overall, I feel like Google+ is a great resource for teachers. I feel like it is similiar to Pinterest, but allows a more collabortaive space for those individuals who are a member or follow that specific community.