TT #2: Organizing your self online

I've said it before and I'll say it again organization is one of the fundamental keys to running a smooth operation. Curation is essential to staying on top of things and bringing your "A" game whether its teaching, being a student, coach, player or just taking care of day to day chores. If we teach our students to stay organized the amount of success in a classroom has an extremely high ceiling.

I myself take pride in being organized. I learned to be organized from a young age with the help and kick in the butt from my mother. Who I might add was a teacher for 33 years. It is just easier to stay on top of things and be organized. My room, the places I have lived, my vehicle and my school work are always organized. I never run into problems finding something, losing an item or forgettfulness. It just is not in my DNA.

Staying organized online and in Internet for Education is a challenge but nothing impossible. We are given many outside the box sites and apps to try from Mike. I find myself still relying on basics to keep myself involved in social networking. I consistently use email, twitter, instagram and facebook. Out of all those if I were to get rid of one it would probably be facebook though, it has not adapted the way I'd like to see as compared to newer social sites and apps. I have gotten into some other networking mostly through the ICT courses in BU Education with the help of Mike. I love the power that google has all in one. It makes it so much easier when you sign up for a new networking site and you can just use your google gmail. I bet google really has a money problem, they have so much they don't know what to do with it all. The blog isn't really my thing but I do find a use for it. One of the best things we have been shown is feedly. That site is exactly what curation is all about. It makes organizing your blogs so easy. When Mike set up our google classroom site that is also a huge help. Lastly pintrest, I have an account that I barely use but should get more involved in using it because boy does that make searching for ideas easy, a very unique and useful site.

So now what to do with my own classroom (once I get one of course). It's all dependant where I end up and with whom I work with. A middle years classroom that I see for most my classes would be easier I beleive. You get to know your students so well in this situation. The google classroom circle/site is great for letting students know ideas, links to articles, assignments, homework, etc. I would like to take advantage of that if the division has it set up so we can. Social networking sites other than pintrest may be an issue because of possible cyber bullying and overall may not be apporiate for a class. I just want somewhere so curation so my students can learn the organizational skills I was so lucky to learn. It helps!