Pinterest For Teachers Essay

Edutopia.com - Pinterest for teachers. More specifically, Pinterest for teachers interested in growing with the future of education. Let 's face it. Education is changing and Edutopia’s mission is to help students by helping teachers: “Edutopia is dedicated to transforming the learning process by helping educators implement the strategies below. These strategies -- and the educators who implement them -- are empowering students to think critically, access and analyze information, creatively problem solve, work collaboratively, and communicate with clarity and impact” (Edutopia, 2014). Edutopia hopes to transform K-12 education by inspiring teachers. The website is full of articles, videos, and other examples of what is “working in education.”

I recently returned to teaching after taking a four year "mom-sabbatical." I had the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) for the first four years of my children 's lives. In those four years, education has flipped and turned and spun around so many times that I am surprised to even recognize what it is anymore. In the last 10+ years education has gone through No Child Left Behind to Common Core and now to Every Students Succeeds. While these acts and implementations were meant to improve student learning, they did little more than stress teacher 's out and put the focus on the wrong

What are we looking for when we look at education for the future? The comparison between the traditional "Factory Model" and the more contemporary "Human Potential Model" was very beneficial. Looking at Kidder County, I would venture to say that 90 - 95% of classrooms are using the factory model. This is not the teachers ' fault. The Factory Model is the expectation of most school districts. It is exactly how a teacher is expected to run their classroom. I 've heard board members, administration and teachers in my district refer to our text books as the curriculum. The Factory Model specifically sees curriculum as "predetermined" and "fixed," whereas the Human Potential model sees it as a variety of topics determined by the interest of the students and community. In my British Literature class today, I asked my juniors and seniors what they would like to focus on for the month of February. They literally stopped what they were doing, and stared at me like I was crazy. This went on for about thirty seconds. Then one student cautiously asked, "You mean we could pick...?" (Like I was going to trick them into something.) I responded with, "Sure! As long as we can relate it back to British Lit and English somehow, we can do anything you want." Perhaps I shouldn 't have given them that range, but I 'm still not sure how open Kidder County is to some of these contemporary ideals. It was very intriguing to see the