Engage Students (or Peers) in a Blog Study!

Have you ever engaged in a book study where you were unhappy about paying for a book that you may or may not have loved reading?  Now that you have experience with Blogs and subscribing to RSS Feeds, why not invite your colleagues or students to partake in a Blog Study!

Consider posing a question and encourage all members of the group to go out and find blogs (or use ones you provide) to read about current thoughts wrapped around the discussion topic.  Use Today's Meet or a Twitter Hashtag as a one-stop shop for discussing what was learned through reading.

Encourage others to pose additional questions building upon the topic of discussion.  As you expand and have more participants reading a wider variety of blogs, articles, infographics, etc you may just find growth in thinking... 140 characters at a time (talk about a lesson in synthesis!)

Post your "Blog Study" thoughts on #lpsconnects!

Reading the Right Stuff: Finding Great Blogs to Follow

Once you select an RSS reader, the fun begins.  Reading educator blogs is a fantastic way to learn new ideas, keep up with research, and stay afloat in a sea of ever-changing educational trends.  Finding great blogs can be like finding the needle in a haystack, so today I'd like to share a few of my favorite blogs.  I hope this will help you add to your own collection or get started using your RSS reader.

Without further ado, here are my favorites:

Fluency 21 - Committed Sardine Blog:  The Committed Sardine blog has thousands of posts, and I love the combination of information on digital natives, brain research, and technology tools and tips.  This is a must-have blog for the 21st-century teacher.

A Principal's Reflections: Principal Eric Sheninger's award-winning blog offers big ideas on school change, great tips for capitalizing on the power of technology in school, and reflections on continual learning and growth.  Sheninger's ideas really inspire!

Catlin Tucker: Blended Learning and Technology in the Classroom: Catlin Tucker is a high school ELA teacher using blended learning approaches, but she posts so many great technology ideas that could help teachers K-12 in any subject area.  She offers practical tutorials and ideas to harness the power of technology.

Dy/Dan: Don't tell my husband, but I love Dan Meyer!  Meyer is a former math teacher. He has an amazing talent for provoking wonder and curiosity, along with infusing technology in the learning process.  Dan Meyer will make you believe in the power of inquiry.  Check out his 3-act math ideas for a whole new way to think about possibly flipping your classroom.

Langwitches: Sylvia Rosenthal, a 21st century learning specialist, provides a hub of amazing resources at the Langwitches blog.  She writes on educational technology and offers a host of tips for success.  She also offers great ideas to get students blogging.

So where can you find other blogs?  Many educators that blog include the blog link as part of their Twitter bio.  That's always a great place to start.  Click HERE for an #edchat collection of bloggers.

Consider doing a blog study as a staff instead of a book study, or find blogs centered around your next unit of study that students might explore.

Please share your favorite blogs, blog posts, or something you learned from a blog article on our Twitter hashtag #lpsconnects!

Making a Connection....

Yes, once you make the connection, each time you hit "favorite" on a Tweet - it will be added to diigo! So say I'm on TweetDeck and I want to save this great tweet as an idea to use for the start of school:

I click on the star to favorite in Twitter and it will remain in favorites.  BUT I can also see it in my diigo bookmarks under the tags:  lpsconnects (because it has a hashtag in the Tweet) AND as tweet (because I set that tag up when making the connection):

Don't expect the save to happen immediately.  I have found what I favorite today, always shows up in my diigo account by tomorrow.

Are you ready to try it out?

If you prefer Written Instructions, you can the link from diigo Tools.  If you prefer Video Instructions, I have screencasted instructions on how to make the connection.

Is there a downside to connecting?  Not that I have found, but keep in mind, if you have a FREE account, you can only save about 20 tweets a day ... but then again, who favorites over 20 a day?  Sometimes you just have to let a few things go.

Twitter Chats - Try one!

Here is your chance...this is day four or five depending on how often you have been online and it is time to branch out with your new found Twitter skills!

Find a conversation that is going on that is of interest to you.  There are many chats out there, ie this popular education hashtag listing.  To see when some of the conversations are scheduled, you can check this Twitter Hashtag Schedule.

Spend some time either in a live chat where you can add your thoughts or lurking aka "reading" through some ideas looking for new people to follow.  Don't forget to also post to #lpsconnects so everyone can view what you are learning!

A very popular education chat is EdChat.  This chat is every Tuesday at 11 am and 6 pm.  This is one chat we highly recommend you check out.  Thousands of educators across the country are having a conversation around a theme each week.  It is very interesting to watch and even more fun to participate!

New to Twitter chats?  Here are some tips for being successful in a live EdChat.

Missouri also has an EdChat available - see the information below:

The Twitter Chat for Missouri Educators!

#moedchat is taking a vacation! 

The next chat will be July 25. We will be discussing Teach Like a Pirate. 

https://sites.google.com/site/moedchat/

One Last Thought...

Check your follower number today.  Has it increased this week?  Share your findings on our Google + community or leave a comment here!

Everyone Learns as Connected Educators

Happy Independence Day to all of you!  We hope that this time finds you relaxing with family and friends!  Tara and I were collaborating today about what types of learning opportunities we wanted to provide over the next three weeks.  We have asked you to step out of your comfort zone and connect with others in different ways.  We have also asked you to take a leap of faith and tell everyone a goal you wanted to achieve.  That got me thinking... What do I want to learn as a result of this class?

I was reading through the Twitter conversation when I saw Wendy's post again ... and I agree 100%!  I read interesting tidbits of information each day and keep thinking I will test that out later and then struggle to find a time to get back to it.  Well, later has finally come...and quite frankly I'm having a blast with this class trying out things that have been recommended by my own PLN - which includes each and everyone of you! So thank you for making my summer fun!

With that in mind, I decided to get back into Storify and really play with it and think about the implications it could have for students and teachers alike.  It is an online platform that gives what you do on social media another voice.

Take what we are doing for instance...we are developing as Connected Educators in an online professional development opportunity.  So I started wondering...are we on the right track?  Are the participants enjoying this online format?  I went back through the Twitter conversation and now ask you...what trends are you seeing in this story?  Feel free to post a comment or join our conversation at #lpsconnects!

Read the full story HERE.

NOTE:  I tried to embed, but it was long and interfered with the blog.  I will work with the HTML at a later date.  An image and a link is my quick fix.

Badges - Signup and Get Started!

Badges are an interesting way to show mastery that is very much the rage in the gaming world.  If this is the first time you have heard of badges, check out our Connected Educator diigo site and click on the tag 'badges' or you can click HERE to read a few articles! (Spoiler Alert - you will learn more about diigo next week)

Read something Tweet-worthy about badges?  Make sure to tweet it with #lpsconnects.

Insider Notes

• Like an author's point of view?  Check to see if they are on Twitter!  Increase who you are following while you are learning.
• Read something that isn't on the diigo site that should be shared?  Tweet the link!
• You can 'mention' the author by using the @ sign.  For instance... if you like what I have said in this post, you might tweet something like:
  
  Thanks @lpstechmentors for the information on badges - definitely something I will want to explore for students this year! #lpsconnects  

There are many sites that use badge systems, one interesting social media site for students is Edmodo.  We highly recommend you check out this site as an option for your social web presence with students!  We have used it in a pilot this summer and it worked out great, let me know if you want any additional information about Edmodo as it is beyond the scope of this month's session.

Getting Down to Business

We will be using an online badge system to help organize our records and we have chosen "ClassBadges" http://classbadges.com/ as the site to use.  I have uploaded the class roster and have used your @student.liberty.k12.mo.us as the email so you will appear as students.  If you want to use this site with your own students, you would want to create a teacher account.  If for some reason this interferes with that process, I can delete your student accounts at the end of the month.

Please keep in mind, this is a work in progress so we will be using your session as the trial to ensure this system works well.  With every new adventure comes some challenges...so please bear with us!

To get started:

1. Go to http://classbadges.com/ and use your student gmail to logon.
2. You should have received an email to your student gmail account with the logon information.  The user names are strange, so use your student email as your logon name and the given password.  You should have an option to change your password once you are in the site.
3. Use Class Badges as a way to monitor your progress toward the four badges needed in order to receive credit and payment for completion of this professional development opportunity!

What badges can be earned this week?

You can earn one or two Twitter badges this month - it depends on how much time you want to use exploring and learning with Twitter!  

Become a "Twitter Consumer"

Level 1: Create an account, add your photo, develop your bio, familiarize yourself with Twitter
Level 2: Find people to follow, develop an understanding of Twitter Language (#, @), explore who others are following
Level 3: Tweet, search,  create a Tweetdeck, and join our conversation at #lpsconnects 

Become a "Twitter Producer"

Level 1: Create an account, add your photo, develop your bio, familiarize yourself with Twitter
Level 2: Find people to follow, develop an understanding of Twitter Language (#, @), explore who others are following
Level 3: Tweet, search,  create a Tweetdeck, and join our conversation at #lpsconnects 
Level 4: Create a magazine or collages of your tweets - see the last two rows in our Symbaloo webmix for some ideas you might want to explore.  

Find something new and exciting to share with the group?  Don't keep it to yourself!  Tweet it #lpsconnects and we will add to Symbaloo for future Connected Educator classes!!! 

Our first order of business is the organization of the course. This course will allow participants to work at their own pace.  We have created a page for each of the tools we will use to develop our PLN and will award badges for achievements each week.


Audio recording >>

If the embedded sound does not work, please click this link: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0AxO8Qi1Y3l

This week is all about Twitter.  Please click on the Twitter Page after you read these instructions to view the many resources which will help develop your Twitter presence.  We will have an ongoing hash tag conversation throughout this course at #lpsconnects for participants to continually post their thoughts and additional resources that would be valuable for others to peruse.  The ultimate goal of this class is to provide avenues for everyone to develop comfort in connecting with others online.

Badges- each participant will need to earn at least 4 badges. (to receive credit/pay for completing this course)  Badges have been created to offer choice in your interest and expertise level with the tools we are exploring.  The blog post on day 3 is all about the badge system.  You may have already received an email with logon information, please hold this information until you need it.

Badge focus for this week:

Twitter Consumer  (for those new to Twitter to gain an understanding of the environment)

Twitter Producer (for those who have dabbled in Twitter and now want to try some things they haven't considered or never had time to explore)

If you are already a Twitter consumer with an active account, followers and those you follow, then you will start at the Twitter Producer level (see the circle graphic with the DOK levels 3 and 4 - on the Twitter page for more information).  If you are starting from the beginning with Twitter it will take you some time to get set up so focus on the Twitter Consumer badge (levels one and two) first and then aim for the Twitter Producer badge later in this course.

Sneak Peek at Upcoming Information for Consumers and Producers:

Diigo
Pinterest 

Blogs 

We want this class to be differentiated to fit your needs.  If you want exposure to all of these areas, you can earn as many badges as you would like!  To get started, please go the the Twitter page next. 

Twitter