Blog One: Cool Cat Teach Blog
The author of this blog is, Vicki Davis. Vicki is a full-time teacher and mother of three from Georgia. Vicki was first in business setting, then became a stay at home mom in the 1990's. Then her children's school called for her to come teach, which made her the teacher she is today.
Vicki became a blogging guru in 2005 when she first heard about blogging at a conference. Now, as a full-time teacher she also is a speaker at many educational conferences by Google and other well known companies such as, Discovery. She also "...created the nonprofit that runs the Flat Teacher Conference where students and educators get together in a flattened environment" (Cool Cat Teacher Blog, 1).
Vicki is, "...passionate advocate for inspiring and informing teachers, parents, and professionals about how to reach this generation of learners" (Cool Cat Teacher, 1). Many of her followers believe she is enthusiastic and can really further the educational process using technology into the classroom. To read more comments left by her mentors and followers, please click here.
Honestly, after reading Vicki Davis' blog, it really made me open my eyes to see that their are endless possibilities in education. As a teacher, you can be a teacher for your students, or you can advocate for yourself, other educators, parents and your students by furthering your professional development, opening your eyes to new possibilities, and become a "Vicki Davis." Others should read this blog because it some may not know what I did not know, about the possibilities and the Flat Classroom. Bringing students and teachers from all over the world to become more aware of technology, leadership and presentation skills, and understanding of diverse culture and collaborations.
I would add this blog to my google read to follow for the future as professional development because Vicki is an ongoing, interesting and enthusiastic teacher who helps students, parents and teachers understand the importance of bringing technology into the classroom and how to stay "fresh" as an educator.
I thought the last blog post she wrote was interesting. She was talking about being in a classroom, and how some people/students/teachers do not live everyday to the fullest. Everyday you live should be taken to its fullest potential. You are never going to be given this day back. Just live everyday in the classroom, these days will pass you by. Make everyday worth while. Soon it will be the last day of school and your students will not be your students anymore. This is so true, to not only the classroom and your students but to life.
Blog Two: Learning Is Messy
Brian Crosby is the author of Learning is Messy. He has been an educator of 30 years with students in higher elementary grades, with a background of educational technology and outside education. He is an advocate for "at risk" students, "Brian fuses his “at risk” students use of technology with field trips, art, hands-on activities and a problem-based approach, to build their schema of the world while at once connecting them to it" (About me, 1).
Brian tends to write about his everyday life (personal and education). The audience of this blog is students and educators with "at risk" students (so every teacher..). I noticed that he had many questions about how to integrate technology with students. What I thought was great, is that he gave out his email and responded to many many comments and gave many links that he thought would help.
I enjoyed reading this blog. He showed his students work, his class blog. He really brought his educational expertise to us. Showed us as educators a simple way to engage and interact with students. At first, I thought this was a very basic blog, but after really searching as seeing this teachers reliability and consistency, I changed my way of thinking. I would add this blog to my google read to follow for the future as professional development. He is very hands on with his students and stays on top of giving readers hands on, fun projects to do with your student.
The blog that "caught my eye" was, What Happened To My Pedagogy. This post was about bringing his students together as a group to be more active learners. This specific lesson was on Skype and Google Docs to write non-fiction pieces with a class from across the country. The students "...excitement, focus and requests to work extra outside of school on their research reminded me what we had been onto previously. We didn’t have this new pedagogy down to perfection, but we were well on our way, and with some support we would be even closer to being there now (not that you would ever get to perfection mind you)" (What Happened to My Pedagogy, 1).
Blog Three: The Curriculum Corner
The blog, The Curriculum Corner had two authors, Jill McEldowney and Cathy Henry both second grade teachers in the same large, diverse school district (also neighbors!). Jill and Cathy's dream is, "...to create a site where busy teachers can go to find current, relevant, meaningful and ready to go lessons and activities that fit their classroom structure and meet these common core standards. This site is intended to always be a work in progress as new trends or ideas in instruction develop. The focus for this site is the primary grades with an emphasis on first and second grade..." (About Us, 1).
Their blog is more like a website full of resources within classroom management (behavioral, organization and common core), as well as reading, writing, math, social studies, and science assessments and units. This site was so refreshing to see. As educators we are always looking for more ways to better our classroom. Because this site is so new I did not find many comments, but the comments I did find were encouraging and compliments towards Jill and Cathy. They also post a lot of their recently added pieces to Pinterest, which is a great way to document the work you have done and gives the blog more viewers.
This blog was worth viewing anything and everything on the blog. I really enjoyed seeing different units I could use in my (future) classroom as well as different classroom management strategies, writing workshop methods and worksheets to keep myself and my students well organized during the school year. I will add this to my google reader to follow for future educational references because their are so many tools. These educators really want to help educators and students around the country (or world!). They are also adding onto their website/blog in Summer 2013! I will definitely be waiting for that!
I honestly loved everything about this website/blog. It was set up more like a website than a blog but had so many different resources for teachers to use in their classrooms. If I was to enjoy one part of the website more than others I would have to say the behavioral tab. I am a Educational Assistant working with students with special needs and always looking for different ways to help them succeed. With this tab, their are many different links to look into to fit your students needs. Such as: Babushka’s Doll, How I Feel Emotions Journal, and Lifelong Guidelines.
I really enjoyed reviewing all of these blogs!
-Marissa
No comments:
Post a Comment