This axiom, borrowed from Perkei Avot, a Jewish theological text, has helped to form the basis of my design philosophy. I encourage students to seek inspiration from the texts that surround them, using traditional and non-traditional texts and applications together to create an interactive experience. I practice what I preach, seeking wisdom from a diverse array of sources, especially those who have been driven to innovate by the adverse circumstances they have been presented with.
http://teachforus.org/
This is the blog for the Teach for America project, a controversial organization that helps burgeoning teachers find their first positions in underserved or impoverished areas. These teachers have been forced to either adapt or die (or leave the profession), testing the belief that necessity is the mother of invention. These are the types of teachers that I strive to emulate when I design learning experiences; these are the true innovators.
http://www.learningismessy.com/blog/
This is a blog for the integration of technology into everyday classroom experiences. By pushing the text literacy in day-to-day operations, Brian Cosby gives his students an authentic audience, even if it is just each other; one of his classes even used technology to include a classmate stricken with leukemia via Skype!
http://blog.cathyjonelson.com/
This is a blog that shows innovative uses of the library and media services, through the eyes of a media technician. As an English teacher, I make frequent use of my two schools' technologies. As the low man on the totem pole, I frequently have to be creative with my tech usage because computer labs and chromebook carts are infrequently available. Furthermore, as a member of a team, the changes I make to team lessons are frequently scrutinized, so a blog like this can help me maximize my tech usage.
TWITTER SPOTLIGHT
@AlternativeTo
This is a page dedicated to companies that provide alternative technologies to those typically present in a classroom experience. They take standard products and projects and extrapolate them to new technologies, apps, and ideas.
@rockyourworld70
This is a page that features implementations of project-based learning, which is the PD group I am part of in Clarkston. It is also the subject of a new English class that is being offered at the High School.
@theRSAorg
This is a page featuring discussions about solutions to modern social and geopolitical problems using technology. I am presently looking for a way to add real-world implications to an otherwise droll and arduous month-and-a-half-long research paper I am about to lev upon my 11th graders.
@My_Shakes
This is a page that seeks to bridge the distance between more than five hundred years of time. Shakespeare is usually a tough sell, especially Romeo and Juliet for 9th graders. I would like to see if they have found an adaptation of Henry IV, as that is a bildungsroman (coming-of-age story) that encapsulates my philosophy of Shakespeare as a spawner of archetypes.
@LBQorg
Why ask why? Because that's the only way that learning is done. This page encourages students to learn by discovery, rather than by directly instructing or creating artificial experiences. I learn best this way, as do many of my students.
Unfortunately, thus far this semester I have been a bunch of talk. While I am seeking ways to use the 2.0 technologies, I am behind on my planning. The crazy game of catch-up I played the first semester was complicated by the fact that my classes have had significant turnover, as well as the termination of the only other English teacher at my tutoring location. While it seemed my classes would reduce in size as several students left due to scheduling constraints, more than ten students decided to transfer from other teachers. As a result, my classes are larger than ever, and the parents more vocal than last semester. With the last full measure approaching, each class is preparing for a long, grueling, but ultimately rich experience, which I would love to complement with 2.0 technologies. Additionally, the possibility of a new Newspaper class has me excited about the possibilities. The students crusaded for the inception of a modern Journalistic English elective class, and my experiences as a published author and editor, as well as a former teacher of a class called "Writing for Publication" led me to join the crusade as a possible teacher of the class next year.
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