Teaching Twitter, Connecting with Families During the Summer, and Learning from Student Evaluations... in Education Today

If you are interested in these topics--teaching Twitter, connecting to families, and/or learning from student evaluations of your teaching--then you will find useful ideas in these blog posts.

The Art of Twitter / mkhmarketing / CC BY 2.0

Online Teaching and Twitter: Beyond the Basics
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/online-teaching-and-twitter-beyond-the-basics/

Melissa A. Venable, PhD
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/about/

Venable shares great ideas for introducing Twitter to educators. These strategies can be modified for other students, also.

Connect / http://www.gotcredit.com/ / CC BY 2.0

8 Digital Resources To Stay Connected to Families This Summer
http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2015/05/8-digital-resources-to-stay-connected.html

Lisa Nielsen
http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html

Nielsen recommends using social media tools to stay connected with families this summer. She provides many good examples. Which tool will work best for you?

Amazing Teachers / Bunches and Bits (Karina) / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Here Are Forms Students Will Be Using To Evaluate The Class & Me
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2015/05/16/here-are-forms-students-will-be-using-to-evaluate-the-class-me/

Larry Ferlazzo
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/about/

I have always learned so much from the evaluation forms I ask my students to complete at the end of a course. It is interesting--and instructive--to read Ferlazzo's reactions to his students' evaluations and to see an example of an evaluation form he designed and used.

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!