Pin..Interest..PINTEREST!

Well, well, well...We no longer live in the middle ages, and technology is not what it use to be. Shall I say we have it made today? Okay, okay, we have it made. Life is pretty easy, if you don't know the answer to something you no longer need to go on a long quest, or drag out all the encyclopedias. No, now, all the answers you need are found with a few strokes on the keyboard, and the click of a button on the word search. Then you have it...all your answers... found where, PINTEREST, of course!! With the invention of pinterest millions upon millions of people are finding out ways to do anything and everything. From how to boil water, to how to build a hobbit hole playhouse for your kid. Yes, pinterest has it all. In my opinion everyone should have an account, but really, truly, every TEACHER should have an account! Pinterest makes teaching easy, through this social media site you can find anything your heart desires about teacher, lesson plans, classroom management ideas, room decorating tips :) yea...it's all there within a click of a button! So someday when I become the best teacher imaginable to man or women, I'll give a big thanks to pinterest, and all the people who pin my interests. However, for now, I'll just be the best students imaginable to man or women...as long as they understand procrastination that is. This semester I am enrolled in a course called Educational Technology and one assignment is to use pinterest (horrid I know,) to create my own lesson plan and that's what I did. By using the social media site, pinterest, I created a lesson plan called "Parts of a Plant." This is a life science lesson for kindergartners which enables them to describe plant development and growth. Listed below are some pictures of how I pulled this together by using my niece as a guinea pig. 

Step 1: TEACH them the lesson, I started by explaining the 5 major parts of a plant; seed, roots, stem, leaves, flower. 

Step 2: We learned a song to help remember each part and how it helps the plant to grow big and strong. 

Step 3: Next using a diagram of a flower, I had my niece come up and label where each part went on the plant. This was to make sure she was following along and understanding everything. 

Step 4: She then was given various pictures and was asked to place the right pictures under the word "NEEDS" The pictures included everything a plant needed to grow big such as, water, sunshine, air, and soil.

     

We also looked at a fun app called "Green Up" which discusses plant parts and lets kids plant and grow their own crops! There is also a free version called "Green Up Lite."After  I was certain she understood everything we had discussed it was up to her to make a diagram of a plant. 

Step 5: Next she traced her hand to make up the petals and leaves and cut out a stem and circle for the middle. She then labeled each part of the plant. 

After doing all this I realized something....being a teacher is a lot of work! So much goes into each lesson and if I took anything at all from this assignment, it's that it is okay to take shortcuts like pinterest, not everything has to be on your own. I'm sure with some hard work and dedication this could have been accomplished without pinterest...but why take that chance! If information is out there use it! Click here PBL  for my project based learning link which is a detailed version of my lesson and here for my pinterest account which has some awesome pins that helped me to come up with this lesson!

Thanks, and enjoy!
P.S.Be Yourself!

Functional Futures

My Technology Teacher wanted me to find ten Web 2.0 tools and sort of critic them, and explain how maybe I could use these tools in my classroom someday so this is what I came up with.

 A cool presentation tool to use is Prezentit
 Being able to present well is a key skill to grasp since you will likely be presenting a lot of different things in your lifetime. Prezentit makes presentations easy peasy! Prezentit is not that far from your typical PowerPoint only it is, you can set your presentation to public or private view and even share it without ever connecting to the internet! In the classroom this is an excellent way to demonstrate the power of teamwork through presentation! With Prezentit you are able to work with a team member and you both have access to the presentation! This also eliminates the question of "did one team member do more work than the other?" Because with Prezentit you can monitor the work uploads! Prezentit really does change the way a person can shine through a presentation!

Step aside you-tube the future is coming through, presenting PrimaryschoolITV. By using PrimaryschoolITV this introduces primary students into the world of video technology while using a filtered safe search! Young students are becoming more technologically advanced with the times, as they should be; however, not everything online is safe for little eyes, but with PrimaryschoolITV you may use video to show students the world while ensuring the graphics and content are age appropriate. This may be integrated when teaching a lesson over world cultures and will ensure that you can provide grade A footage of other worlds and know the content is clean. If you are an Early Childhood or Elementary education teacher this sit is for you!

Kids today are surrounded by animation and in your face games, apps, and television shows, but do not let them loose sight of the beauty of the written word. Bring this beauty to them with Tikatok. By using Tikatok students can create a story and have pictures uploaded of items close to their heart, and even have their stories turned into hard copies that you can buy! With Tikatok students can really see their imaginations come to life! As a teacher you could feature their stories on your weekly newsletter, with the cool e-mail aspect! This would be a great way to incorporate writing into any lesson plan or even literacy week!

Who knew that art could go so far beyond paper and paint! With Sketchfu students may create drawings and use those drawings to make their own movie playback! This tool would be awesome to use as an instructional assignment sine it really breaks down how a drawing is created! Bring art into any subject and into the future of technology by using sketchfu!

Claymation never gets old and students LOVE to create their very own claymation! This would be great to use as a assignment to show emotions, you could have each student be given an emotion and by using Clay Animator have them create their very own claymation portraying that emotion! Have created their own work of art in a fun way students will jump at the chance to show the class what they have learned!

Come sit a spell.

Once upon a time, in a land deep, deep, in the boondocks a princess was born, named Alora Dannon. That princess just so happens to be me. Now that introductions have been made I must clarify the title of my blog, "Not like the Yogurt." It goes like this; I happen to go by my middle name, Dannon and no, not like the yogurt. There you have it, my title, it's that simple.

My formal name is Alora Dannon Standridge, a fitting name for a princess, and it should be considering my parents came up with this gem of a name from a character in the movie “Willow” and yes, she was a princess. I hail from a land deep within the boondocks of Arkansas, a town so small if you blink while passing through, you’ll miss it. This land is called Bismarck. I am the youngest of three extremely opinionated girls, and my family is my whole universe. I attend Henderson State University and plan to become the very best Elementary Education Teacher imaginable. I am twenty-one years old and in my eye’s I have the whole world at my feet, and I plan on taking it.

When I’m not ruling the kingdom or rather when the kingdom is not ruling me, I find myself in a variety of ways, in which I intend on sharing with you all. From recipes of southern cooking, perfection in beauty and health, my road-trips through travels, and with my nose in a book, all the way to searching lands high and low for treasures and trinkets that become my finder’s keepers.

With my blog I hope to inspire people to become 100% true to themselves while looking through the lens of my life. Underneath my crown I am simply a young women craving to take in all that life has to offer me by actually living every part of my life to it’s fullest potential. This is my life in a blog.

And they all lived happily ever after..

P.S. Be Yourself.