It's back! Connected Educator Month is here again.

Connected Educator Month 2015

Connected Educator Month (http://connectededucators.org/) is here again... and there are many opportunities to learn and to connect with other educators.

How can you participate? Why should you participate?

• Check out the Connected Educator Month calendar (http://connectededucators.org/calendar/) to discover the upcoming activities that you want to join.
• Help spread the word (http://connectededucators.org/supporter-toolkit/).
• Join the Book Club (http://connectededucators.org/book-club/).
• Use edConnectr (http://edconnectr.connectededucators.org/#), the new service to connect with other educators.
• Examine videos, links, and other resources (http://connectededucators.org/briefs/) to help you and your district connect all year long.
• Learn about other connected educators through their profiles (http://connectededucators.org/innovations/connected-educator-profiles/).
• Read the blog (http://connectededucators.org/innovations/).
• Listen to Connected Educators Radio (http://www.bamradionetwork.com/connected-educators/) on BAM Radio (http://www.bamradionetwork.com/).
• Get involved at the Connected Educators website (http://connectededucators.org/).
• Follow Connected Educator Month discussions on Twitter (https://twitter.com/) at #ce15

Educators around the world participate in professional development opportunities as part of Connected Educator Month. Developed by the U.S. Department of Education (http://www.ed.gov/) and its partners, this initiative offers activities to educators at all levels. The expanded partnerships and enhanced programming in 2015 should reach even more educators.

Highlights of Connected Educator Month in 2014 included:

• hosted 800 events during the month,
• mentioned on 6 million web pages,
• reached educators in 139 countries and
• every two days counted 15 million tweets.

For more information on Connected Educator Month check out...

• welcome videos from Office of Educational Technology Director Richard Culatta and Digital Engagement Strategist Sara Trettin for 2014 (http://connectededucators.org/welcome-to-connected-educator-month-from-the-office-of-educational-technology/) and 

• the post (http://smartblogs.com/education/2012/12/07/building-connected-educator-month/) and video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOE2kWyhqMo) by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (http://smartblogs.com/tag/Arne-Duncan) (who hosted his first Twitter (https://twitter.com/) chat as part of the 2013 celebration).

See previous posts I have written about Connected Educator Month:

• Lots of Good Information for Educators This Month (http://teachinginadigitalworld.blogspot.com/search/label/%23ce14)
• Connected Educators Benefit From and Inspire Others (http://teachinginadigitalworld.blogspot.com/2014/10/old-school-room-catherine-snodgrass-cc.html)
• Connected Educator Month. All month. All free. All around the world. (http://teachinginadigitalworld.blogspot.com/2014/08/connected-educator-month-all-month-all.html)
• Good Opportunities for Learning Online (http://teachinginadigitalworld.blogspot.com/2013/09/good-opportunities-for-learning-online.html)

Lots of Good Information for Educators This Month

It's fun to stop at a Starbucks and discover that folks in the car ahead of you (who you don't know) have paid for your coffee! Random acts of kindness.  :)  Connected educators, however, help each other in a bit more organized manner. I know that I can find many--even more than usual--articles and tweets online this month about being connected. Many teachers and other educators share good news about new tools and other teaching resources via blogs and tweets. And the K12 Online Conference 2014 this month is free and asynchronous. What a bargain that is!

Be Connected! / Phil and Jo Schiffbauer / CC BY 2.0

Connected Educator Month:
Are you finding articles to help you work with your students and with other educators in addition to helping you boost your own professional development? If you are a new teacher or if you mentor new teachers you will find some good ideas at Teaching with Soul. Especially check Five Tips for New Teachers to Become Connected Educators.

New Tools:
Are you looking for a good way to share resources with students? Read BlendSpace: Awesome Review Idea! at Teaching with Technology. See how Bethany Petty created a review activity for her students' Constitution tests. In addition, she shares other ideas for using Blendspace with your students.

Mathematics, Technology, and Women:

In the early years of my career it seemed that only male mathematicians showed up in textbooks and elsewhere. I was delighted when I later began teaching technology education to find references to Lady Ada Lovelace and Dr. Grace Murray Hopper and their work in the field. Today I enjoy reading Roots of Unity, the mathematics blog of Evelyn Lamb in Scientific American. In Beyond Emmy and Sophie: Resources for Learning about Women in Math Lamb shares resources for several female mathematicians. She also provides access to her Twitter list of Mathy Ladies (students, teachers, other women) who tweet about mathematics.

K12 Online Conference 2014:

Last week we viewed presentations for two strands (Stories for Learning and Games and Gamification) of this year's conference. Beginning tomorrow (Monday, October 27) we will view presentations for the Passion-Driven Learning and STEAM strands plus the keynotes for those two strands. Check the schedule for the presentations.

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Have you connected with other educators this month to share your good ideas and experiences?

Connected Educators Benefit From and Inspire Others

Old School Room / Catherine Snodgrass / CC BY 2.0

A leftover photo of a student. A few papers. More than 30 desks nailed to the floor in neat rows. Empty shelves. This was the classroom I walked into the summer before my first year of teaching. The textbooks were the curriculum. No professional development was offered for new teachers. I met a few experienced teachers and a kind principal. They were my support for my first year of teaching. That was the extent of my being connected when I began teaching. Of course, this was before technology played a role in education.

Today new teachers have so many more options for connecting with other educators and finding support as they begin their teaching careers. My responsibilities and opportunities have changed throughout my career. And so have the ways that I connect with other educators.

Local, state, and national organizations and their conferences have provided many opportunities for me to meet others and learn from outstanding educators. I have had the chance to grow as I have shared my experiences with others. And technology tools such as blogs and Twitter have added more ways we can connect and grow today.

http://bit.ly/connectededucatormonth

How are you connected with other educators? Are you benefiting from being involved with a PLN (personal learning network)? Have you searched for #ce14 on Twitter to find what today's educators are sharing during Connected Educator Month? Have you shared how you are connected? My PLN is such a rich source of ideas and experiences from educators who strive to teach and learn and help both students and other educators. I am so very thankful for them. No teacher today--new or experienced--needs to teach without the extensive support of other educators who are passionate about their mission and willing to share!

Connected Educator Month. All month. All free. All around the world.

http://bit.ly/connectededucatormonth

Two online events are must do's for educators (teachers--including librarians--and administrators) and teacher education students. Both occur in October each year. One is Connected Educator Month and the other is the K12 Online Conference. Both events are free. Both offer professional development and networking opportunities that, in my opinion, are invaluable.

In today's post I am sharing information about Connected Educator Month from the event's planners. Next week I will share information about the K12 Online Conference.
 


Connected Educator Month: Those who do, teach. Own it, worldwide. October 2014.
A celebration of community, with educators at all levels, from all disciplines, moving towards a fully connected and collaborative profession. Convened by the connected education community, with the full support of the U.S. Department of Education, building on the success of previous years with hundreds of new events and activities from dozens of organizations and communities. We’ll be working together, in October and beyond, with all stakeholders, leaving no device unturned, no country or learning environment unexplored. Get involved at connectededucators.org.

http://bit.ly/connectededucatormonth

About Connected Educator Month

Millions of educators and others around the world have participated in hundreds of professional development opportunities as part of Connected Educator Month (CEM) the past two years. Originally developed by the U.S. Department of Education and its partners as part of the Connected Educators initiative, CEM offers highly distributed, diverse, and engaging activities to educators at all levels. Based on its success in 2012 and 2013, the initiative is poised to reach even more educators in 2014, through expanded partnerships and enhanced programming.

Highlights of CEM 2013 included:

• More than 300 major education organizations, companies, or communities officially participating, including, for the first time, entire states and districts
• More than 600 national events and activities conducted officially (on the CEM calendar), many more conducted independently
• More than 1 million web pages and other online locations referencing, promoting, or discussing the event (a 300% increase over CEM 2012)
• More than 14 million educators and others reached around the world via Twitter alone (more than triple the reach of 2012)
• Recognition as one of the top educational technology news stories of both 2012 and 2013
  

For more information about the first two years of CEM, see our reports on the 2012 and 2013 events, and/or this post and video by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (who hosted his first Twitter chat as part of the 2013 celebration). Connected Educator Month in 2012 and 2013 was convened by the American Institutes for Research and its partners in the ConnectedEducators project (2010-2014), on behalf of the Office of Educational Technology of the United States Department of Education.

http://bit.ly/connectededucatormonth

CEM 2014

As successful as CEM 2013 was, there are still educators who are not connected, and many more who are not yet taking full advantage of the opportunities connected education affords. More broadly, the field of connected education itself is still in need of further stimulation and development. Based on participant feedback, we hope to:

• Make the event more fully global, to better incorporate learnings from around the world, supporting multiple countries in the development of full event slates as part of the celebration
• Make the celebration more fully mobile and blended, in reflection of trends in educational practice and educator use
• Provide a greater emphasis on collaboration in our planning, tools, and activities, as the logical next step beyond connection, and address participants’ desire for a more action-oriented approach (2x+ as many events were collaborative in 2013)
• Launch a series of ongoing connected education initiatives during the month (our own and others) to keep momentum building throughout the year, as well as develop more year-round resources (like 2013’s district toolkit)
• Include more events/activities that pull in other education stakeholders—parents, students, whole school communities, policymakers—to magnify the event’s creative impact We also expect to enhance CEM’s editorial programming and infrastructure to keep the event fully accessible as it continues to grow, as well as engage in more extensive capacity-building to empower the broader community to take more ownership of the celebration.

Connected Educator Month 2014 is being convened by a group of core partners in collaboration with a wide range of participating organizations and funders.

Good Opportunities for Learning Online

Is your personal (or professional) learning network (PLN) is an important component in how you learn and share? It is for me. Because of that I am looking forward to two special events this month: Connected Educator Month and the 2013 K-12 Online Conference.

Ponder by F Delventhal (krossbow) / CC BY 2.0

Connected Educator Month begins October 1. Topics include collaboration, Common Core State Standards, community-building, connected learning, networking, open educational resources, professional development, how to use technology, new and emerging technology, 21st-century skills and NETS, and many more in a variety of event types such as blogs, MOOCs, podcasts, Twitter and online chats, more than 100 webinars, and more.

• Read about Connected Educator Month at http://connectededucators.org/
• Peruse the scheduled events at http://connectededucators.org/events/
• Read about the kickoff event at http://connectededucators.org/kickoff-event-cem-opening-celebrationgala/
• Learn more about this special month from one of the folks responsible for making it happen at http://www.stevehargadon.com/2013/09/connected-educator-month-kickoff.html

The 2013 K-12 Online Conference begins October 21. The strands this year are Open Learning, Outside Learning, Leading Learning, and Building Learning. Shannon Miller, Steve Hargadon, Audrey Watters, Kathy Cassidy, Larry Ferlazzo, Sylvia Martinez, and Gary Stager are speaking. And they are just the keynoters! Many other educators who are doing interesting and exciting activities with their students as they learn are also sharing their experiences and their ideas.

• Read about the 2013 K-12 Online Conference at http://k12onlineconference.org/
• Find out who's presenting... and about what... at http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=1273
• Watch presenter Kelly Dumont share his concerns about creativity in an age of standards at http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=1398
• See (and hear) about Fugleflicks from presenter and art teacher Tricia Fuglestad at http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=1392

Hope I see you at the conferences!