Teachers, get on the professional bus

I'm really not a fan of the phrase "get on the bus" nor its variants "are you on the bus?", "she's not on the bus", "we kicked him off the bus," and "they got run over by the bus." However, there comes a time when these phrases must be used.

Recently, I suggested that teachers move into the 21st century by learning about social networking and creating their own accounts.  The post I referenced from JEA Digital Media has some great ideas.

This time, I'm suggesting that teachers "get on the bus" and join professional organizations and/or subscribe to professional journals. A discussion thread for new teachers on Edutopia got me all fired up about this topic. Since classroom teachers spend much of their day closed off in a room with one or more groups of students, we don't have the time for professional interaction that might benefit us. Professional organizations and journals can help us.

Find an organization or journal in your subject area. Sign up. You could even follow a few blogs as suggested in this recent post. Any step you make in this direction will only help you become a better educator. You will be exposed to new idea and the latest information in your field. Don't delay, sign up today!

But How Will I Upload My Video?

My principal forwarded me a great link to a student-produced video contest at CharacterCounts. I like the way this looks and the character traits the students will have to explore in order to complete the assignment. It should give students food for thought. The only downside is that two of the resources suggested, YouTube and JumpCut, are blocked at my school. TeacherTube is still available, so I am encouraged. I am still concerned, however, that these reasonable, free tools are unavailable to our students.

Tonight I ran across an article in Edutopia, "Stumbling Blocks: Playing It Too Safe Will Make You Sorry." While there are valid reasons for blocking inappropriate sites, the article asks us again if blocking these sites to 'protect' our students is more important than teaching them to be good Digital Citizens. As the section of the article on Digital Citizenship points out, students really see the blocks as a challenge; in my own classes more than one student has offered to 'help' me get around district filters.

As educators we need to start having these difficult conversations around filtering certain kinds of sites. Many educators don't use web resources in their classrooms, so part of the job is starting the conversation about the wealth of great material that is out there. Perhaps once all teachers know of the great stuff that is just waiting for them, we can get more teachers behind the idea of teaching good Digital Citizens.

Cell Phones: Powerful Student Learning Tools

A few weeks back I wrote about using cell phones in the classroom. This month, Edutopia published "Learn2luvcell: A Powerful Multipurpose Mechanism for Learning." In this brief article, author Burr Snider discusses using cell phones effectively in the classroom. It seems that the time has come for those of us in education to consider using these powerful tools to help our students learn.

Still More on 21st Century Skills

This Linda Darling-Hammond interview from Edutopia gives much food for thought. Check it out.

It Really Does Take A Village

Edutopia frequently has great food for thought. Today, they posted an article about the Greeneville City School's (TN) efforts to bridge the Digital Divide and get computer and internet access to all of their students. "At Home with HomeLink: Free Internet Access Connects Families and Schools" describes how a small town managed to get every kid connected and even provides some tips for other schools and districts who want to do the same. What's interesting is that the Greeneville schools are able to offer all of the bells and whistles at very low cost to the school system. They use free services like Gaggle and Moodle and get donations from the community for computers and internet services. It seems that where there's a will, there's a way.

I wonder what happens to so many other districts in our country that have wonderful ideas like these, but they fail to bring the plan to fruition. Why does that happen?