Pinning in the Classroom!

If you aren't currently addicted to Pinterest, you must be hiding under a rock with no internet connection! Pinterest is an incredible social media site where you are allowed to create Boards and then "Pin" images to the boards. Some of mine include ideas for my future dream kitchen, places I want to travel to, and, of course, many of those scrumptious recipes I might never have time to create, but gosh are they yummy to look at!

I also love playing with funky titles for my boards thanks to a previous college professor who always told me "titles are the most important part of the book. Even more important than what is between the covers!" I always thought that might be a little extreme (and this was one extreme little man), but the love for titles still stuck with me.

So Pinterest has been the glut of my time (I master the art of time suckage) for quite some time now. Need to procrastinate? PINTEREST!! But I kept wondering, how could this be used in my classroom? (Check out the toilet one where one student who will remain nameless for his own protection compares it to my mind! Rascals!) 

I had heard a few other teachers using it now that our school had bought iPads for every student, but I wasn't sure how it would turn out. So, while reading Slaughterhouse-Five with my seniors, I decided to implement a weekly Pinterest assignment for all students: 10 pins that relate to our book due every Friday. 

I have to say it has been really cool to see the images my students find that connect them to the book. For instance, one student chose this beautiful profile of a model with bright violet make-up and hair to represent the color violet Billy Pilgrim saw. Another used a beautiful photo of roofs in Santorini to illustrate the "ivory and blue" of Billy's feet throughout the book. 

These pins started to really expand and become creative expressions of the imagery that might be lost to them by the time they finished the book. They might forget that color violet or the car he drive or what they thought Montana Wildhack looked like, but now with their Pinterest Board, they could relive those images all over again with the tap of a screen!

The Dunderheads

Welcome to our guest bloggers, Ms. Loftus' 6th Grade Literature Class, from The Kildonan School.  Read what they have to say about their class' recent read, The Dunderheads, by Paul Fleischman.

The Dunderheads 

If you like a story of a nasty, fiendish teacher named Miss Breakbone, you will find The Dunderheads to be a thrilling tale of adventure and mystery. “Never have I been asked to teach such a scraping together of fiddling, twiddling, time- squandering, mind-wandering, doodling, dozing, don’t knowing dunderheads.” She reminds us of Cruella Deville! We love the creative characters like Nails whose nails become different shapes and sizes, customized to fit and unlock a safe. He’ll always have a file on hand! Hollywood is an obsessive movie watcher. “She’s got every movie that was ever made and has watched them all eleven times.” She’s been in so many movie theaters that she has night vision. She helps the gang by using her night vision to see in the dark and by using her sixth sense to guess what will happen next. Google Eyes read a book about hypnotism and can now put people into a two week trance. Just ask the librarian. We loved how the kids broke into their teacher’s house to take back a confiscated toy. Some of our readers thought the book was a bit over exaggerated and definitely not for very young kids who might be frightened by their teachers. Most of us sixth graders at The Kildonan School loved this book. So read The Dunderheads and look out for the meanest teacher in town!