We are proud that teachers are adopting our tool to create lessons, share resources and collaborate with their peers and students. If you’re using Pearltrees with associates, friends or colleagues, we’d love to hear from you. Send us an email to contact@pearltrees.net and let us know.

Today, we are excited to introduce one of our most enthusiastic brand ambassadors, Kelly Christopherson!

Tell us about yourself and your teaching style?

I am currently working on a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Teacher Personal Development (PD) and their interaction with Social Media. Before I went back to school, I was an educator for 23 years – 10 years as a classroom teacher mostly teaching middle years and 13 years as an administrator. During the 13 years I worked in 8 different types of schools ~ twice as an administrator of two school campuses at one time. In my last assignment, I closed two schools and combined them into one in a brand new K – 12 facility.

How do you interact with your students?

As a teacher, I was constructivist in my orientation using a variety of methods and strategies to engage students. I was an early adopter of technology and have used wikis, blogs and other tools. I felt it was important to develop a relationship with students and I have tried to transfer this to my work as an administrator, by focusing on developing cultures of caring and “Do what is best for students” within the schools.

How and why do you use technology to support your teaching efforts and how does it improves your ability to educate your students?

For me, technology is a tool that is used to allow students to explore and enhance their own learning and to share ideas. Technology allows me to get out of the way. I can provide students with all kinds of different options from accessing information to sharing information to assessment and reflection possibilities. I believe that technology enhances learning and communication but isn’t the only tool we should be using. Educators need to provide different options for students to demonstrate learning and access information.

How do your students react when you introduce tech into the classroom?

Because I present tech in an integrated way, it is often just “part of the class”. When technology is part of “what you do”, it isn’t a “WOW” but just another way to access information and demonstrate learning. I try to have students show me new apps or tools that they can continue to explore. At one point, I used a number of WebQuests in my Social Studies that students found very interesting and we played a game based on Roman Civilization to learn about that society.

“When technology is part of “what you do”, it isn’t a “WOW” but just another way to access information and demonstrate learning.”

What challenges does the use of technology present to you and your colleagues?

Accessibility, equity and infrastructure are three of the biggest issues that I see related to technology in education.

What three resources would you recommend to your colleagues?

 

• Evernote for organization and planning.
• Notability for taking notes and reading, especially articles and PDF’s since I can annotate right on them within the app.
• Pearltrees for curation and sharing.

 

Why is Pearltrees helpful to you?

I collect articles and links to share and to help me with my studying and my online work. I’m really hoping to use it as I organize some of the work I will be doing for a presentation I will be giving on using portfolios. I am organizing a collection now that I hope to be able to share with participants filled with information and examples.

What kind of response do you get from other educators when you share a collection in Pearltrees with them?

They really like all the things that are in the collections. I know a few of them have signed up for Pearltrees, I think after I shared with them. They like how easy it is to move around the collection and to browse the contents that are there.

Is there a collection in Pearltrees you’d recommend to others?

I usually recommend different collections depending on what they are looking for. I just shared my digital citizenship collection and the Genius Hour collection that I have.

Finally, what is your top tip for people that are just getting started with Pearltrees?

When setting  up  the collections, think in terms of concepts not specific subjects and then organize within the concepts, otherwise the first layer of organization gets too large and hard to manage. It might also be helpful for people to see my own thinking on Pearltrees.  Here’s a post I wrote geared towards educators that might be interested in getting started.

Filed under: Community, education by oliver on October 9th, 2014