Curating Resources

     My school district went 1:1 this year with IPADS.  As well as the IPAD, teachers were given a MAC book to use.  Luckily, we also still have access to our "old" desktop computers that have been used for years of work.  Knowing that students would have digital access this year, I began "curating" digital resources over a year ago, but I didn't know it was called "curating."  I was "collecting" digital resources for both student use and for myself.  (It feels a little bit more prestigious to be "curating" rather than "collecting!")  At first I thought that I needed to find digital resources for everything.  But, I am finding that a mix of curated and original material seems to be a good combination.  
     When developing a curriculum map for my Algebra 1 classes with our newest state standards, I created a spreadsheet of many columns--lesson topic, video created or found, notes, student practice, online tools, and standard.  In Connie Malamed's blog "the eLearning Coach," I was reminded to chunk information for better learning.  I will be updating my curriculum map to better chunk some lessons or topics to improve student learning.
     Debbie Morrison's blog which included "How [not] to Design an Online Course" suggests listing a purpose statement for assignments.  This would be used to "highlight the benefit of the assignment to students and further critical and deep learning, and bring him/her closer to the course objectives."  I agree that such a purpose statement would benefit students and I feel increase student engagement.  So, while updating my lessons I will try to add a purpose statement--sounds better than objective--to help students.
     When I find digital resources that I'd like to use or further explore, I save their links to a topic file that I can access them later.  It's hard to remember everything I encounter, and hopefully in the future not need to use so much time searching for resources.  The use of Symblaoo has also been very helpful in keeping a lot of useful and potential websites in one location for quick access.