Blogs - a ubiquitous term in our society today. However, what continues to baffle me is the fact that so many people don't follow them or write their own. Of course there's the age-old excuse of "no time", and I totally get that. It seems, of late, things have been going at warp speed both personally and professionally, and I know I'm not alone in that feeling. But one of the things I feel passionate about in education is professional development. As teachers, we need to stay up with best practice and crave collaboration with other teachers. In addition, we hate reinventing the wheel, so if we can find something to tweak or build on that will work in our classrooms and is aligned with Common Core, we're on it! That's why we should take some responsibility for our own professional learning; one way to do that is through following blogs. With curation tools/websites like Bloglovin and Sqworl, keeping track of information and reading on your own time is a breeze. Not to mention...wait for it....they're free!
Taking advantage of the incredible amount of information out there is a must. So, where do you start? One easy way is by visiting this Edublogs site. Each year, Edublogs holds a contest to find the "best of the best" in the blogging world and then they share that information with us. The link above is the best of the best in Education. Along the right side of the homepage, users will find a list of topics. Navigate through them and pick something that interests you. Math teachers who follow blogs will tell you that Dan Meyer's is a fantastic one. Heck, I follow him and I have never taught math. Mr. Coward's Teaching the Outsiders blog is fantastic. He has loads of followers - yet not all of them teach English. He is also hysterical...an added bonus. Don't even get me started on blogs I follow for personal use. Let's just say that I know way too much about the Pioneer Woman her Food Network show and her family and leave it at that. :-)
By reading blogs, you immerse yourself in new ideas and and give yourself the gift of collaboration - something every teacher can use. If you have questions about how to get started with reading or even creating blogs, contact me!
