Using Curation Tools

Personally, I will use the curation tools for my hobbies. I enjoy cooking, crafting, and reading. These online tools have allowed me to access several trustworthy and helpful websites. I've even found articles on parenting.

Twitter has been interesting for me. I'd never used it before, although my husband often Tweets as a musician. He also follows several other people and organizations. Sometimes he knows about news stories before it's on TV. It was helpful and fun to learn how I could use Twitter in my personal life. I can see why he's so addicted! Pinterest is another curation tool that I use almost daily. It's part of my "wind-down" routine at night! I'm officially addicted! If anyone needs help, I'm happy to show how I use Pinterest both professionally and personally.

Professionally, the benefits of these curation tools are endless. I'm so excited to have part of the research work taken off my plate. I'm always looking for great literacy blogs, or posts, and they are hard to find. Now, I feel like everything can be in one place and it's much easier to access. I love the "Read Later" feature on Diigo. It takes the pressure off of finding resources online.

On Twitter, I'm now following several YA book sites, editor, author, publisher, and library associations. Woo!! I can picture myself using these tools this year as I expand my knowledge on YA novels. I also gained some information on upcoming novels, cover sneak-peaks, and nominations for awards. It's fun to feel like I have up to date information on these exciting parts of YA literature. I also plan to share the REALLY good stuff with staff and parents in Yarmouth!

Molly Kilpatrick Project Idea

My project idea is a literacy blog that would be available to parents, teachers, and students. I would focus on reading strategies, new books, and popular authors of YA novels. Using Twitter, Feedly, and Diigo, I'll compile resources that could be used in this blog and future posts. For this project, I'll be working alone.

Right now, I'm looking for blogging inspiration since I've never blogged like this before. It's very new and exciting to me!

Ideally, this literacy blog would continue throughout the school year with weekly or biweekly posts. I'd like to keep the HMS community up to date with literacy goals, ideas, and potential novels to read and share.

EdCafe Takeaway

My Takeaway from EdCafe:

As a middle school teacher and a mother of a young son, this video was very meaningful.

Policies and Curriculum:
I agreed with the views on current education policies being based on conformity, and not on diversity. It should be more personalized, and less generic. As humans, we are all diverse, creative, and curious. Curriculum should be well balanced and diverse that meets the needs of different individuals.

Students:
Students should be engaged, and teachers should feel supported. Learning should be personalized and unique. Teaching needs to be authentic and engaging. If it's not true learning isn't happening in the classroom. Is ADD over diagnosis a true portrait of learners, or is is showing us that kids are simply "struggling with childhood?" An excellent question! 

Teachers:
Sir Ken Robinson makes the point clearly that even though teaching is "a creative profession," our current policies tend to "de-professionalize" us. Since school climate is so important, it needs to be nurtured. My strongest take away from this video was when Robinson said, "Education is not a mechanical system. It is a human system."