Professional Learning Network
Twitter Ed Chat
I participated in the #titetalk ed chat since I co-teach in middle school language arts classes. I thought it would be beneficial because I might be able to learn about new and noteworthy books that are out that my students would be interested in. I wanted to participate in the #spedplc chat but I didn’t see a lot of recent posts, so I opted for #titletalk. The topic for #titletalk was “Best Books of 2014.” The ed chat was kind of intimidating, there was so many people participating and tweets flying in it was really hard to keep up. The moderator of the chat posted a variety of different questions about books, and the participants were able to respond with their answers. One topic that I appreciated, was “best graphic novels of 2014.” Working with students with learning disabilities, my students love to read graphic novels because they are less intimidating than chapter books, and they don’t feel like little kid books. Being familiar with a variety of popular graphic novels will allow me to make recommendations and be more helpful for my students when they are trying to find books that will interest them. Being a first year teacher, I am not as familiar with middle school aged books as veteran language arts teachers are, so this chat is actually very beneficial for me! The whole chat mostly consisted of other teachers recommending their favorite books. The chat started out with books geared towards elementary school students but the second half of the books recommended were middle school aged and young adult, so I got a lot of it. I now have a list of probably 30 books that I want to read and share with my students. Overall, I loved the Twitter ed chat. It was scary at first with so many tweets coming in all at once, but I got a lot of information out of it once I got comfortable.
Final Twitter Reflection
Prior to this course I had only used Twitter socially, and even then never really used it. I had never thought to use it as a tool for learning. Luckily, my views of Twitter have changed dramatically and I think it’s a really great way to stay up to date on educational topics. I stumbled upon an article called, “7th Grader Shares What School Should Be Like.” I was interested in this article because I teach 7th grade students and sometimes it can be a bit challenging. The article was intriguing and then I realized the website featured a variety of articles from a student’s perspective. These were all very interesting and I think it’s important for teachers to think of how students might feel about their learning and their classroom environment. Edutopia is a great resource that I have been enjoying. I recently found an article that gives tips on how to avoid a Q & A style of teaching. One tip that particularly stood out to me was “watch the clock.” Teachers should watch the clock to avoid talking for more than 15 minutes. The author made a good point stating that if you don’t think you’ve made the material clear, talking longer won’t make things any more clear, so it’s best to allow the students an opportunity to practice. Overall, I think Twitter is a great source available for teachers as it connects you to an endless amount of individuals and companies that are dedicated to sharing information about teaching and education. I will definitely continue to use Twitter as a place to stay up to date on professional information.
RSS
After enjoying Twitter as a professional resource, I have to say that I did not enjoy Feedly nearly as much. I felt like it was harder to find information I was looking for, most likely because the site pulls articles from other sites, rather than from individual posters who share their own resources and finds. I did enjoy following Education Week because it felt very news based and reporting current events that were happening in education. This is useful to know what other states are doing in their education systems, court mandates, etc. I first found Get Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day… on Twitter, but found this site again via Feedly and really enjoyed it. Larry Ferlazzo posts a lot about ELLs, which is beneficial for me because I work in a school where there is a large amount of students who receive ESOL services. I co-teach in an ESOL Language Arts class, and I know I could be more knowledgeable about teaching ELL students. I found another useful article, through MindShift, that discussed personalized learning and it provided good graphics (chart) to demonstrate how to personalize learning for students. This is definitely a resource that I will print out and use frequently to help me individualize learning for students, especially since I teach students with disabilities. Overall, Feedly is a neat resource because it puts all sorts of websites and articles in one easy place for you to find, however I do not like it was much as Twitter as it is less interactive and more news oriented. I will continue to check in with my RSS Feed periodically whenever I need to catch up on educational news.
Classroom Web 2.0
I browsed both Classroom Web 2.0 and Educator’s PLN and thought that both sites were useful as a resource for teachers. One thing that I liked about Classroom Web 2.0 was that you could watch videos to learn information, rather than having read articles or websites. It’s refreshing to sit back and listen once in a while. I also liked that in addition to providing a video or audio for the Webcast, the site also featured a list of sites and resources that were discussed during the webcast, but also a list of resources that were mentioned by other individuals who participated in the Webcast to share their own information. I watched a Webcast that was called “Open Mic: Digital Story Telling.” I thought this would be a useful video to watch because I work in language arts classes and felt that I could learn fun, new ways for students to present information they’ve learned or alternatives to traditional book reports. As it turns out, there are a ton of resources out there for digital literature projects! My school definitely has a lot of access to computers, so I’m excited to learn more about these tools and use them in my classroom. There was also another Webcast about using Google Drive as a tool for students to use during research projects. This seemed like a great tool that would be really helpful when students are working on research projects. Overall, I liked Classroom Web 2.0! I liked how they referred to the Webcasts as Professional Development that you can do at home, so true! I will definitely use Classroom Web 2.0 in the future when I’m bored and need to find something to do, and at least it will be a productive use of my time! :)