Organization is a skill that I am working on. In some ways I feel overwhelmed about all the different websites that one can use to help stay organized. Today I tried to write down as much information as I could so that when I go back to look at these different sites. Todays sites were all about bookmarking. Two sites caught my attention: Diigo and Symbaloo.
1. Diigo - What I liked about Diigo was that you have the choice of having tags or lists private or public. As a teacher I want to keep my private life and school separate. The privacy option allows me to have everything on one page but those who follow me are only able to see my public posts. My favourite feature is that I can highlight information on websites and/or include sticky notes. When that URL is saved when I bring it up from my Diigo page to show my class the sections I highlighted are still there. This is a great way to teach my class how to pick out important information. This can be a lead into a lesson on students picking out the information they think is important. My dream is to be able to teach Grade 8 students and I believe that this is an essential skill for students to learn. In being able to highlight information right on the internet and share that page with others students will learn not only from the teacher but from their peers as well. This also allows the teacher to see how and what their students believe is important information and plan their lessons around what the students need more focus on. This type of strategy teaches the students not only how to pick out important information but also what is good information and what is not.
2. Symbaloo - What is appealing about Symbaloo is that there is two versions; Education or Public. I have not yet figured out the difference but that is something I am looking into. What I didn't realize is that you can incorporate your Symbaloo site into your classroom site. You can create a tab that students can access on your page that will take them to the Symbaloo sites that are specific to their courses. As a teacher you can find the sites that students can use for their assignments. You can also have everything organized into courses and then into categories so that when you teach more than one course your students can access those specific to their course. This site allows you to post apps that allow you direct access to websites such as google translate, google books, Youtube, blogs, and weather apps. These apps can be colour coded and organized as you desire.
As overwhelmed as I feel about all this new information, I know that all I need to do is take the time to look closer at these sites and decide if they are beneficial for me and my future class.
~ Miss Laing
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