SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Education technology provider MasteryConnect today announced the launch of Resource Pins, a social pinboard-based platform that empowers K-12 teachers to create, collect and share teaching aids. The new addition to the company's suite of learning software, which includes its popular CommonCore mobile app, aims to equip educators with their peers' best practices for teaching Common Core standards.
The Pinterest-inspired interface, which is free for all teachers, reached more than 10,000 posts (or "pins") within the first few weeks of its limited pilot phase. Today's full rollout brings crowdsourced lesson plans, visual aids and other supplemental materials to all grades and states. Indexed by national and state core requirements, Resource Pins is a boon to busy educators striving to achieve benchmarks without losing their personal touch in the classroom, said Mick Hewitt, MasteryConnect CEO and co-founder.
“Teachers can experiment and find which resources work best and resonate with their students,” Hewitt said. “The more teachers use it, the more powerful it becomes.”
The establishment of common standards across state lines has prompted many teachers to seek out educational resources on professional and social networks. Some post lesson plans and tests to Facebook and Twitter, while others turn to premium sharing platforms like TeachersPayTeachers.com. But none of these platforms enables teachers to tie assessments or resources to specific Common Core standards.
“The ability to share resources for specific standards makes it so much easier to find the lesson materials you’re looking for without sifting through clutter,” Hewitt said. “Finally teachers have a social platform just for them and for their community."
Common Core standard 8.F.1, for example, expects eighth-graders to understand inputs and outputs of functions. On the 8.F.1 Resource Pins page, one teacher recommends likening functions to blenders turning fruit into smoothies, or toasters turning bread into toast (input: bread; output: toast). Another teacher details an elaborate lesson plan based on In-N-Out Burger’s secret menu, plotting the cost of additional beef patties and cheese slices for a Double Double (input: Double Double, output: $2.65; input: 3x3, output $3.55).
“I love how you can narrow your search down, not just by grade and subject but also by state and even down to the individual standard,” said Justin Bell, who teaches English at Northeast Magnet High School in Wichita, Kansas. Bell has posted 143 pins to date with ideas for teaching grammar and vocabulary and sparking discussions about literary works, like Romeo and Juliet and Slaughterhouse 5. “The Pinterest setup is visually appealing. It makes for easy scrolling and quickly finding who and what you’re looking for. Plus, you can follow and re-pin teachers who post good stuff. It’s very conducive to an online community.”
The Resource Pins platform is free and open to all teachers at MasteryConnect.com.
About MasteryConnect
MasteryConnect is a cloud-based software company focused on Mastery Learning in K-12 education. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, MasteryConnect provides sharing platforms for educational resources and assessments tied to the Common Core as well as tools for teachers to track student performance against those standards.
