Of the many things I do as a serial entrepreneur, one of my faves is putting my education credentials and skills to work as a preparer of teachers and trainer of trainers. During professional development and classroom/program consulting, I have the pleasure of engaging current and prospective educators and administrators in learning effective strategies for implementing technology into daily workplace/classroom experiences. I’ve presented keynotes and sessions at conferences on the topic and would like to share a few highlights to support everyone’s efforts who are depending on virtual tools during this COVID-19 pandemic, including parents.
Ideal Early Learning, LLC maintains Hot Hits for Early Learning to support early educators and parents in obtaining resources. This is a downloadable document organized by topic, which is periodically updated. As you are exploring the World Wide Web, it’s important to collect your favorites and save them all in one place. While bookmarking is one way to save and easily access favorites, your bookmarks and toolbar can become cluttered as you discover new and exciting websites, especially as children become disinterested and prefer to engage with new technologies.
My go-to tool for collecting web faves is Listly, where I can save and categorize my favorite websites, as well as follow and save others’ faves. Listly is so cool and convenient. Since children and teens are so captivated by technology, I highly recommend you involving them in finding cool web tools they like by helping you to create collections—teamwork. Your child(ren) and/or student(s) can recommend different categories to organize the lists and find other lists of interests to follow and save. This undertaking will keep them happily engaged for at least a couple of hours! And, if there’s no policy against it, they could even create their own lists.
As you get started, check out my Listly, Dr. Bisa’s Faves, which I created when I was a high school Career and Technical Education (CTE) Instructor and an Early Childhood Care and Education District Pathway Lead. Be sure to favorite and follow my Listly to receive any updates! Once you’ve created your Listly, please post a link to your page in the comments below.
With all these lists, educators and parents will be better equipped to support education at home! Happy listing!