Man...I guess I do a lot of this...

While reading Dr. Dennen's Excerpt from Social Media for Active Learning on Knowledge Activities (an amazing read BTW), I started thinking about all the ways in which I already do so much of what she was describing. I didn't really realize this until she broke it all down. I also read discussion board posts from classmates and blog postings and I found myself agreeing and saying "I do that too". While we may all do many of these things in a different way or for different reasons, we are all often part of this. 

Many of my classmates have talked about Networked Knowledge activities through things like Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, and YouTube. I participate in networked knowledge activities in all of these too. I also saw someone mention Amazon. I hadn't thought of it, but I also create, curate, share, broker, and so much more through Amazon lists. 

When I tried to think of somethings recent that I had been working on that may be different than my classmates, I realized that I have often and of recent been working on collecting and curating curriculum materials for my subject areas. I do this is a few different ways. Through out the school year, I often use a few different sources to curate and collect materials for units I teach. I specifically use Nearpod, Youtube, and Actively Learn to search and collect supplemental material each unit by the unit and section. I collect the materials, organize by unit or section, modify and share with the students, collect the data and then also share with co-teachers (and determine if the material was useful or not). I am someone who plans backwards and always modifies my materials based on my current student population. I never teach what I have always taught just because I always taught it. I evolve with my students and their learning and needs. 

I also help collect and curate books and literature for my grade level and discipline. I read and preview the material and determine where and if it will be useful for particular units. I also help identify themes and supplemental material and how each piece of literature can connect to broader themes and other pieces of literature within other units. I share, broker and negotiate this information with others as we build our curriculum. We are lucky at our school as the teachers are the ones who get to build, create, and advocate for the curriculum.