Teachers: Get An Online Community!

Teachers can interact online in a powerful international educational community with current information and support. But where to start?

Check for grade level and subject matter educational communities like Edutopia http://www.edutopia.org/  which is the grandest website of all for this activity. You can join groups for discussions and questions and answers--great PD and at your convenience. There are excellent blogs, and you can comment, frequently with the author responding to your comment. Great interaction. Edutopia has it going on. This website makes you feel like a VIP visitor.

Online you can research topics at your choice of topic and depth with the benefit of privacy. Too many questions about ed tech at an open staff meeting and you might find yourself with a new job. Richard Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers not only gives updates daily on free ed tech, but provides several guides for how to use it. http://www.freetech4teachers.com/p/free-downloads.html#.V1Xlyr7LAWQ     Edudemic http://www.edudemic.com/guides/ provides teacher guides that are truly generic and even a novice can understand.

If you have questions about Special Education, Understood is the most elegant, clearest website I've ever seen that explains very, very complicated learning complexities in amazing clarity for teachers and parents. You may just have a simple question about a student and wonder if maybe it is a learning disability--you can begin with Understood.org and have enough information to ask your special education resource person. This website also hosts webinars where you can participate asking experts questions https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/whats-happening-now

Common Core got you down? The Teaching Channel has very specific videos on Common Core lessons. So helpful. There is also Tch Video Lounge https://www.teachingchannel.org/video-lounge where you and colleagues can interact with other teachers. How cool is that?

In case you are needing some education philosophy or intense discussion of current topics--let's say you are getting another credential or degree--there is nothing better than Mind/Shift KQED http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/ . The writing is excellent from their staff and the guest authors are the best in the business. The topics are current and meaningful. It would be a great idea to get an RSS feed from Mind/Shift for your homepage or email and read the current post every day. It is that good--and encouraging with reasonable solutions to some serious problems facing students, teachers and communities.



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