5 Fun Ways to Use Facebook in Your Lesson Plans and Teaching

Collaboratively written with guest author Heather Green, a mom, freelance writer, pet lover and

the resident blogger for OnlineNursingDegrees.org.

The most popular site on the Internet can be leveraged in the classroom in engaging and useful ways. Facebook has become such a ubiquitous part of our lives that it has evolved to be much more than a way to find out what happened to that guy you had Bio with back in high school or to share pictures of your baby. Many people use Facebook to communicate and network with both friends and professional colleagues, and to learn about products, services, organizations and events.

Facebook is also a handy tool for teachers. Since so many students in High School and college are now Facebook natives, it makes sense to use the social network to connect with students and offer them a new way to learn and access learning content. If you are a teacher with a personal Facebook account, it is advised that you create a professional Facebook account (you’ll need a separate email address in order to do this), to keep your teaching related uses of tool entirely separate from your personal account. Students should consider doing the same (they could use their school email for the new account and associate their personal account with a personal email address).

Study Tips for Different Learning Styles

Source: American River College

Directions: Use the study tips outlined for your first learning preference and then reinforce what you
are learning with tips from your second preference.
1. Write down anything that you want to remember, such as a list of things to do, facts to learn facts for a test, etc.
2. Try to write down information in your own words. If you don't have to think about the material and
restate it in your own words, you won't really learn it.
3. Underline or highlight important words you need to learn as you read.
4. When learning a new vocabulary word, visualize the word.
5. When you have a list of things to remember, keep the list in a place where you will be sure to see it
several times a day. Suggestions: bulletin board by your desk at home, in your notebook, on the mirror in the bathroom, etc.
6. Try drawing a picture of any information you want to learn. Try making a diagram, a chart, or
actually drawing people, things, etc.
7. Always read any material in the textbook before going to class so you have a chance to visually
connect with the information before hearing it. 

4 Free Tools For Sharing Files with Students

         

          There's a better way to share files with students. Well actually, there are several better ways to share files with students. The following online storage tools use the power of the cloud to give you free storage and simple file sharing. As an added benefit, these tools translate well into real-world experience for students. It is safe to bet that at least several of your students will be exposed to these tools (or similar tools) when they enter the workforce. The following file sharing tools are free to use up to a certain limit. Each tool offers a couple gigs of free storage space that you can use to post things online and to receive documents from students. If you work primarily with text documents, presentations and spreadsheets, a few free gigs will last a long time. Without further delay, let's get to the good stuff:

Creating Countdown Timer in Powerpoint

A. How to Set The Transition Time

1. Click on the Home ribbon, Slides group, click New slide and select blank

2. Click on the Insert ribbon, Text group, click text box and click on the slide to place the text box.
3. Type number 1 on the text box, then change the font size into 200.
4. Next, on the Drawing tools, Format ribbon, Arrange group, click Align and select Align center to place the text box on the middle of slide.