Primary Pad as a Vehicle for Collaborative Brainstorming: Part One

When mentoring our pre-service and in-service teachers we need to describe and model both research-based and clinically tested best practices, and demonstrate how these best practices can be applied in the real (i.e. physical) and virtual (online) classroom for both teaching and teacher training. Accordingly in this section of the blog we will describe how the internet can serve as a supplemental resource for instruction and the mentoring of pre-service and in-service Jewish educators. This is the first part of a two-part post demonstrating how the teacher/mentor can engage his/her or class students/mentees in collaborative brainstorming by using the web 2.0 tool Primary Pad.


Here is a tutorial on using Primary Pad: http://vimeo.com/8454210


Assumption: The teacher or mentor teacher has an interactive white board (i.e. SMART Board, Promethean, etc.), a Tablet PC (also called a Slate or Blade), a computer presenter or computer with internet access attached to an LCD projector in the classroom. It would be ideal if students or mentees had access to their own laptop computers as well.

Note: Although this lesson plan idea is designed for the Judaic Studies classroom, it can be also be used for training pre-service and in-service Jewish educators for professional or staff development. For example, the Primary Pad can be used to co-create a lesson plan, a unit, a professional development or staff development plan, or a curriculum project. It is our hope that Jewish educators around the globe will form an online community of practice, a CoP, a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession, to enhance the delivery of instruction and training of Jewish educators.

Note: We will use the word teacher and student in this lesson plan idea. For purposes of staff development training replace the word (a) teacher with mentor teacher, staff developer, teacher trainer or college professor, (b) and student with mentee, client, pre-service or in-service teacher, undergraduate or graduate student.


Let’s first define the terms brainstorming and group brainstorming.


Brainstorming is both and individual and group procedure for the generation of ideas.


Here are the rules for engagement for group brainstorming

· You may say anything that comes to mind during the allotted time limit.
· You may repeat or modify the ideas previously presented.
· You may not discuss, praise, criticize, or reject the ideas presented.
· Select someone to record the ideas suggested.
· Evaluate ideas after brainstorming is completed.

In the next post we wish share the second part of this two-part post on how to train your students or mentees to use the web 2.0 collaborative writing tool, Primary Pad for individual and group brainstorming.