Third week of November edition!

Have you ever come across a tweet that you really wanted to discuss and share with others? Here are the ones that grabbed my attention this week. Check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet? to discover some valuable resources and links! Go to the original mindmap!

Kids Videos to Help the Environment

Getting children involved in solving world problems is always a fantastic idea! Therefore, I really enjoyed these infomercials by first graders who list ways to help the environment. I discovered these videos through Stacy Bodin, a wonderful sharer of resources. Below is one video, but I recommend you watch the rest of the videos by visiting @grade1′s website.

10 Ways to be an Inspirational Teacher

In this brilliant post, Terry Freedman, delineates 10 ways to be inspirational. These are what Terry suggests, please read his post for an explanation of each!

1. Throw out the syllabus, at least one lesson a week
2. If throwing out the syllabus for a day is too risky, then throw it out for 10 minutes
3. Use the pupils
4. Use a photo
5. Turn the tables
6. Work with other teachers
7. Invest time in reading
8. Definitely visit other schools to see what they’re up to
9. Go to conferences
10. Join a club

Spoken Word Podcasts

Giselda dos Santos shared this link to Spoken Word podcasts. I am a proponent of podcast resources for learning, because a majority of students have Ipods. This makes this technology very accessible to a majority of our learners. Moreover, there are several free podcast resources available for education. Spoken Word is one of these databases that has a variety of podcasts, vodcasts (videos), and slidecasts available on various topics. I urge you to explore this website!

Video Games & Learning

Carl Dowse tweeted this slide show presentation, Video Games The Learning Revolution Tesol France, by Paul Maglione. One of the reasons I enjoyed this tweet so much was because I wasn’t able to make the presentation. I think gaming is growing as an accepted tool for learning. I have read various stances on the issue and think debate is warranted on the topic. Do you believe video games are useful learning tools? Look at Paul’s slide show and see if you feel any differently!

Stephen Fry’s Take on Social Media

Sue Lyon-Jones tweeted this post on Stephen Fry’s take on social media. Although Stephen Fry is an actor, I think he has a lot of insight on the new generation of students who will grow up with social media. Read the rest of the article to find out more and watch part two of the interview!

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using this mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

stacybodin, terryfreedman, carldowse, paulmaglione, giseldasantos, esolcourses, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe for free to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• Monthly Tweets by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Share the list of 10 ways to be inspirational with fellow teachers or have your students create their own infomercials to improve the environment!

Do you believe video games are useful educational tools? Leave a comment below!

Second week of November edition!

Here are the tweets that grabbed my attention this week. Check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet? to discover some valuable resources and links!

Videos to Bring Languages Alive

Ken Royal runs an incredible website which is updated daily with several interesting articles by various educators. In this piece, Isabelle Jones, shares advice on how to effectively use videos to motivate students to learn languages. Isabelle also lists many video search engines and video tools. Below is the video wall from one site mentioned, Blinkx, which is a highly visual search engine that allows students to view what world events are taking place in real time.

Skype an Author

Patrick Larkin is one of the most progressive principals I have met on Twitter. One way to motivate students to read is by allowing them to interview and speak with their favorite authors. This activity is possible if you follow Patrick’s link with instructions and a database to help you Skype an author in the classroom. Below is a video from the website that shows you a class’ interview with author, Mike Artell.

Online Safety Video for Students

During our #edchat discussion about teaching students how to make a positive digital footprint, Kyle Pace shared this video. In the video, a girl realizes that posting her picture on the Internet has consequences. This commercial could be used to spark a discussion with students on the implications of several online behaviors. This discussion should be a part of all schools!

The Iphone App that Makes a Difference

My Iphone is definitely helping me to stay on track of projects with the various apps that help me coordinate, organize, and collaborate. Now, my Iphone can help me make a difference. Neal Chambers shared this tweet about the Do Good app for the IPhone. Daily your Iphone will provide you with activities that several people are doing to make a difference for the day. One example has people using less water throughout the day.

Cooperative Learning VoiceThread

Paulo Simões and José Carlos, who are from Portugal, have created this collaborative Voicethread for anyone to join and leave comments! The topic they are exploring is “How can a microblog promote cooperative learning communities?” Please add a comment to the VoiceThread.

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using this mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

kenroyal, icpjones, bhsprincipal, kylepace, nealchambers, pgsimoes, jctf, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe for free to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• Monthly Tweets by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Leave a comment on the VoiceThread!

Which of these tweets really inspired you? Leave a comment below!

First week of November edition!

Have you ever come across a tweet that you really wanted to discuss and share with others? Here are the ones that grabbed my attention this week. Check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet? to discover some valuable resources and links!

Technology VoiceThread for Schools

Monika Hardy shared this valuable professional development tool for effective technology integration. This VoiceThread discusses how to effectively integrate various technologies into any school and covers Internet safety. Video, thought-provoking images, and more are included. This Voicethread would be great to share with parents, administrators, students, and teachers.

Twitter Lists

In this brilliant post, Karenne Sylvester explains why Twitter’s new list feature is a great idea. Moreover, she offers fantastic advice on how to use Twitter lists!

Controlling Environment vs. Behavior

With the various technology tools being developed at the speed of light, we should learn to relax and limit our time on the computer. Finding a balance is a goal I am still struggling with. For this reason, I really enjoyed this article, Controlling Environment versus Behavior, tweeted by Myscha Theriault. The article provides practical tips, such as limiting the amount of distractions in your workspace to minimize your time on the computer.

Google Wave Tutorials

Ana Maria Menezes shared a list of various Google Wave video tutorials that she created. Google Wave is still relatively new and these tutorials provide an easy way to start navigating through it with topics, such as creating folders, saving a search, or sending an invite!

Educational Resources Galore!

Often we search for a list of resources on any given topic to include in lessons or a presentation. Searching through the Internet takes too long, which is why I thoroughly enjoy Jerry Blumengarten‘s website, Cybraryman’s Educational Websites. Jerry, the Cybraryman, provides various links to numerous resources in nearly every subject area. He updates his resources often to keep up with the latest educational topics including Google Wave. The website is really easy to navigate and has sections for parent, educators, and students!

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using this mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

monk51295, myschatheriault, anamariacult, cybraryman1, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• Monthly Tweets by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Leave a comment on one of these blogs or on the VoiceThread!

Which tweet really inspired you? Leave a comment below!

Last week of October edition!

Have you ever come across a tweet that you really wanted to discuss and share with others? Here are the ones that grabbed my attention this week. Check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?

Cool Claymation Tips

The educator in me loves student projects, which is why this is my favorite tweet of a claymation video by four students. The music is amazing, the story plot resembles Romeo and Juliet, and the creativity is off the charts. How could this tweet get any better? Maryna Badenhorst‘s tweet also provides a link to a list of claymation resources and tips to get your students started in creating their own claymation videos! I really enjoyed browsing through the rest of the website which offers very cool educational technology tips! I am sure this will become a favorite part of my daily read!

Good Tech/ Bad Tech Debate

In this brilliant post, Jamie Keddie explores the parallels in describing the relationship between technology and the classroom. He uses the medical field as an example and illustrates with images how two pediatricians use technology to save lives in Sierra Leone. Read this thought-provoking post!

Hip-hop and Shakespeare

I attend several webinars and in nearly every one of them run into my webinar buddy, Mary Beth Hertz. During one of the webinars I sought some advice in teaching English language learners Shakespeare. Mary Beth later tweeted me a link to this amazing article about the rapper, Akala, hosting workshops for teenagers that relate Shakespeare to hip-hop. These types of projects are incredible for closing the achievement gap. Watch the inspirational video below about the project.

Creative Use of Pocket Change

Ashley Allain shared this wonderful post about a very creative lesson using pocket change. Dan Meyer walks the reader through this math lesson in using a jar of change to motivate students to critical think. The post is illustrated with amazing infographics and explains the process in more detail.

Wiki Full of Tech Tools

Janet Bianchini tweeted this wiki full of various educational technology tools. In the wiki, you will find extensive tips and resources on:

• Blogging
• Podcasting
• Voicethread
• Videoconferencing
• Wikis
• Social Bookmarking and Annotating
• Information Management
• Microloans
• Research and Reading
• Hearing Voices
• Presentations

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using this mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

marynabadenhors, cheimi10, mbteach, aaallain, janetbianchini, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• The Blogosphere, the Twitterverse by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Add a new blog to your reader or bookmark one of these websites!

Which tweet really inspired you? Leave a comment below!

Have you ever come across a tweet that you really wanted to discuss and share with others? Here are the ones that grabbed my attention this week. I invite you to check out the rest of my favorite tweets in this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?.

Students Making an Impact

In my last post, I shared my desire to raise students who are passionate about making a difference. This video shared by Lika, who often tweets about activism, shows a powerful speech given by a teenager to the UN. The girl does not paint a pretty picture, but reveals her frustration at the continual destruction of the environment by adults. Share this video with your students and witness their reactions. I believe students will be inspired by the video.

Wiki Projects You Should Support

Inspire students to improve their writing and reflect upon it by leaving a comment on one of the several projects listed in the Comments4Kids wiki. This wiki was created by WMChamberlain. If you have a student project you would like people to leave comments on, then you can add your project to the wiki!

Have a presentation you are proud of and want to share it with your PLN? Add your presentation under the several categories listed in Beth Still‘s presentation wiki page. You are welcome to use any of the presentations on the wiki. This project has several presentation formats and would be great to share with students examples before they begin their own projects or to share with other teachers during a training session.

20 Ways to Use Comics in the Classroom

TNschatz shared this slideshare presentation, which demonstrates 20 wonderful ways to use comics for student learning. Comics are great to use in the classroom, because they are visual, fun, and accessible to English Language Learners! The presentation also includes various links to free comic creators.

New Features in TweetDeck

Do you wish you could see your new followers’ bios? Karenne Sylvester has been asking Twitter to bring back the bios. However, this time Matthias Heil came to the rescue by sharing a link to TweetDeck’s version 0.31′s new follower feature. This feature will show you a column of your new followers and show their bios so you can quickly follow, block, or report them to spam! Watch the video below that Matthias shared!

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using Russel Tarr’s mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

808lika, wmchamberlain, bethstill, tnschatz, matthiasheil, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles and websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• September Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• The Blogosphere, the Twitterverse (ELT 08/09) by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Share one of the websites with a fellow teacher or join a wiki project!

Would you like to be a guest host on this series with your favorite tweets? Please contact me!

Have you ever come across a tweet that you really wanted to discuss and share with others? I experience this so often that I have created this weekly series to bookmark these tweets and start a discussion with you about them. I invite you to check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?, if this is your first time.

If the mindmap is not coming out in the RSS reader, you can click on the image to go to the original mindmap.

The Fun Theory

Can we change students’ behaviors by making learning fun? Ed Webb shared this video and started a great discussion on his website about the pedagogy of fun. I would like to continue the discussion here, because I do think that the educational system is programmed to make learning tedious. Exploration, discovery, problem-solving, and collaboration should be fun, but often this part of learning is lacking in curricula. I believe it is the best part of learning, which is why I hope this video inspires you and maybe your staff! This tweet was recommended by Valentina Dodge, Karenne Sylvester, and Larry Ferlazzo.

Preaching to the Choir?

Often I hear we are preaching to the choir on Twitter, but I think people forget that the conversations we have on Twitter are extended to our schools. Bill Montana demonstrates how he enlightens other educators at his school in his post, Starting Conversation. He shares several resources, which any educator could use with their PLN to begin a conversation, therefore, challenging educators to reflect upon their teaching methodologies. Included in this post is this inspirational video by Alan November.

Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November from Brian Mull on Vimeo.

Famous Failures

Nancy Blair introduced the following video, “If you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived.” This video of famous failures would be a great way to spark discussion with students.

Photoshop App for the IPhone

Kyle Pace shared important news about Adobe Photoshop’s app for the IPhone! To find out more about this incredible app visit this post!

95 Websites to Bookmark

Paula Naugle shared this website that describes 95 websites to bookmark! I found some really interesting websites I had not already bookmarked like FlashEarth.com which could be used with students to explore the earth virtually! This tweet was recommended by Amber Teamann.

Would You Please Block?

Paula White recommended a thought-provoking post in which an instructional technologist shares his response to those who request he block distracting websites. You really should visit this blog and read the letter! I loved it!

**Add the people in this post to your PLN by using Russel Tarr’s mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!**

edwebb, bmontana, blairteach, kylepace, plnaugle, 8Amber8, paulawhite, larryferlazzo, vale24, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• September Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• My Week in Tweets by Valentina Dodge.
• The Blogosphere, the Twitterverse (ELT 08/09) by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Share one of these videos with at least one teacher at your school or with your students!

Would you like to recommend a favorite tweet for next week? Please contact me to share your favorite Tweet! Please mark the tweet as a favorite so that I can find the tweet!

Is this your first visit, then I invite you to check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?, in which I post some of my favorite educational tweets.

If the mindmap is not coming out in the RSS reader, you can click on the image to go to the original mindmap.

Power of Twitter

Marisa Pavan shared a magical post this week about the power of Twitter. In the post, you will read about Marlooz, a filmmaker and reporter, who had her laptop taken at a conference. Her Twitter PLN came to the rescue and started a collection to buy her a new laptop! My own PLN has been fantastic about making me feel better when bad things in life occur. Stories like these show that Twitter is not a waste of time or all about self promotion as some believe. Instead, Twitter is a way to gain support, knowledge and inspiration from amazing people.

Edtech in Schools

Teachers can use educational technology to inspire their very young students! Ozge Karaoglu demonstrates how to use various tools with kindergarten students in her class wiki. Her tweet shows another example of how her young English language learners in Turkey use technology to learn English. Check out the video!

Little Elephant from ozge karaoglu on Vimeo.

For an idea on how to set-up your wiki page for your classroom, check out Jason Fournier’s Algebra wiki. Wiki’s are better as class websites than stagnate pages. You have various ways to embed and set-up the tools you will be using throughout the school year. Moreover, you can get parents and students involved through various tools. Jason has a parent and student survey set-up as well as Edmodo, Engrade, Google, Delicious, Weseed, and Audio Pal.

Eric Sheninger, a principal at New Milford High School, has shared his Delicious links with students. What an innovative idea! One student let him know he used the bookmarks for his Calculus homework!

Lesson Idea

I love tweets that inspire lesson ideas! Crista Anderson shares a wonderful website. Time magazine lists cover stories back to 1995. English language learners can reflect on where they were when certain news occurred. These cover stories could also be used in various content classes. The teacher can have students make a timeline of cover stories on a specific topic, create their own cover stories of an event, or write an article to go with the cover story. Each cover story comes with a lesson plan and is available in Spanish.

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using Russel Tarr’s mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

mtranslator, ozge, s1mpl1fy, NMHS_principal, cristama, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• August Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• The Blogosphere, the Twitterverse (ELT 08/09) by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Create a Delicious bookmark for your classes or a class wiki!

Would you like to recommend a favorite tweet for next week? Please contact me to share your favorite Tweet! Please mark the tweet as a favorite so that I can find the tweet!

Happy Labor Day!

I have noticed the mindmap is not coming out in the RSS reader so I have included the image as well. If this is your first visit, then I invite you to check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?, in which I post some of my favorite educational tweets. On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!

Games Children Play

Chad Calease shared a beautiful video about the game of tag. In the video, people from all over the world share their personal anecdotes and feelings about the game of tag! This tweet came as a response to a tweet about Marisa Constantinides’ post about the power of play for education. In this post, Marisa lists several games that children play and explains the learning involved in each type of game.

New Teacher Survival Guide

Giselle Santos shared a link to the Discovery Educator’s New Teacher Survival Central! Many of us have started a new school year and know someone who might benefit from this site. In several schools, new teachers are left to learn the ropes for themselves. Teaching is a tough job and for many new teachers they find out that teaching is a lot more work. Moreover, they find out that their students are not what they expected. If you have not been able to get these teachers on board with Twitter, then try sharing a website that you found through Twitter!

ESL Links

Larry Ferlazzo shared the exciting news that BrainPop ESL has just launched and is free! Larry also provides useful information and an honest evaluation of the BrainPop website in this blog post. BrainPop is an excellent website to use with students in every subject. The website is appealing due to the almost comic like characters and multimedia presentations. However, the website only offers free access to some of its content.

Burcu Akyol shared a link to a list of wikis to use with English language learners. I love wikis and will usually retweet those others have created. Wikis are extremely user-friendly and provide the educator with a variety of options. Students can easily add content to wikis, which engages them! Parents will usually enjoy a wiki, because they can leave comments and interact on the website as well!

Jason Renshaw offers various curriculum materials for English language learners on his English Raven website. Several educators including Larry Ferlazzo have commented on the usefulness of Jason’s materials. He has spent years creating these materials and is now letting teachers decide what they would like to pay to use these materials. If you do not have enough time to create your own materials for English language learners and want to find materials that will engage them then consider checking out the English Raven website!

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using Russel Tarr’s mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

englishraven, burcuakyol, larryferlazzo, feedtheteacher, marisa_c, shapah, kalinagoenglish

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• August Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• The Blogosphere, the Twitterverse (ELT 08/09) by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Share one of these links with a fellow teacher. Give your Twitter PLN the credit!

Would you like to recommend a favorite tweet for next week? Please contact me to share your favorite Tweet! Please mark the tweet as a favorite so that I can find the tweet!

Do you like the new look?

The What Did They Tweet? series has gotten a new look thanks to Mind42 a tweet by my very dear friend, Ozge! If this is your first visit, then I invite you to check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?, in which I post some of my favorite tweets, which either are thought-provoking or provide useful educational technology links. Click on the mindmapping link and add these individuals to your Personal Learning Network (PLN). On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to their Twitter profiles, blogs or websites, and the useful links they provided! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!

#Edchat Guest: Alfie Kohn

Perhaps, you were fortunate enough to be part of the momentous occasion when #edchat became the top 5 trending topic on Twitter. I call this momentous, because rarely does an educational related hashtag become a trending topic. This occasion would not be possible if Alfie Kohn had not been fantastic enough to agree to be our #edchat guest! These are a four of the thought-provoking tweets that I had to reflect upon later.

Click on the link to find out how you can be part of the #Edchat movement, a collaboration between Tom Whitby, Steven Anderson, and me (ShellTerrell).

Animoto

Animoto, one of my favorite video making tools for students, just got better. As Steven Anderson points out you can now add video to Animoto. Moreover, Animoto is free for educators. Unfortunately, I already paid for the service before realizing this fact. Read Jerry Swiatek‘s blog post to see how he used Animoto with his students for them to introduce themselves.

Thought-provoking

Added to my list of thought-provoking tweets is the TakeApart website, provided by Tom Barrett. The website is a very useful tool for teaching socially and culturally responsive curriculum. Students need to be aware of the issues impacting the world. Too many times, students live in a microcosm. In order for students to begin to collaborate and problem solve global issues, we must make them aware. TakeApart offers multimedia, such as images and audio to move students emotionally.

Stephen Ransom points out his student’s observation about the teachers not knowing how to use Smartboards. Unfortunately, I have seen this topic too often in my Master’s discussion forums. Several school districts still fail to train teachers on how to integrate technology effectively into the curriculum.

I love the quote Teri Wilkins retweeted from one of my favorite bloggers, Webstudio 13. We should motivate our students daily. Motivation is what will ignite our students into action. Passionate teachers often breed passionate and active students. Part of being a passionate teacher is motivating your students to react to issues in the world, have incredible dreams, and to reach their goals.

Have you missed my previous favorite tweets of the week? Just click here for the posts!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• August Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• The Blogosphere, the Twitterverse (ELT 08/09) by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Use Animoto or TakeApart to inspire your students.

Would you like to recommend a favorite tweet for next week? Please contact me to share your favorite Tweet! Please mark the tweet as a favorite so that I can find the tweet!

Every week on Twitter I mark a series of tweets as favorites. These are tweets that have either interesting links, encourage thought-provoking conversations, spark some sentiment within me, or need to be read more thoroughly. My Personal Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter is full of educators who consistently engage me in conversation. These individuals ignite within me a need to continually strive to be a better educator and reflect upon my instructional practices. Due to various time zones or highly active Twitter streams we may miss the chance to participate in conversations or miss important links. Therefore, I will post five of my favorite tweets each week. Hopefully, you will be introduced to some new people you were not following before who would benefit your PLN. These are in order of occurrence with the first tweet being the earliest tweet in the week.

Goodbye Geocities

I really enjoyed this tweet by the Kenny Christian, EnglishProfi, because I was able to reminisce with others  about our first website beginnings. David Truss and I had a similar conversation later in the week. I think many will be slightly saddened by this event. Geocities was the first hosting site I used to create a website when I first began college. Back then animated gifs were the hot items and I had plenty on my website. Needless to say I have come a long way from that time. Click here for to find out what to do with your Geocities account.

Language Learning in Second Life

SecondLife is the latest technology I have been learning for educational purposes. Nik Peachey’s tweet provides a link highlights the amazing possibilities SecondLife provides for learning languages. The program offers the student a language learning experience akin to traveling abroad. The student gets a roommate from China, creates an Ecological part in China, and is immersed in Chinese culture all from the comfort of a computer screen. Click here to try this learning experience for free in the month of August!

Parent Edtech Workshops

Thomas Whitby is well known for his thought-provoking tweets. I liked this idea so much I went to my school administrators and asked them if I could hold an educational technology workshop for my young English language learner’s parents. Click here for the link!

Collaborative Mindmapping Tool

I discovered this really cool mindmapping tool through Aniya, TheEngTeacher! Aniya is well known for feeding teachers on Twitter. The link she provides is to Richard Byrne’s blog post about Slate Box, a collaborative mindmapping tool. This tool has several uses for class projects, distance learning, e-learning, and so forth. Can’t wait to use this tool for my online classes. Click here for the link!

One Comment A Day Project

The last of this series of tweets comes from Steven Anderson, web20classroom. Steven provides information about the One Comment a Day project in which each person commits to posting at least one comment to encourage a new blogger. Then the person tweets the link to the blog post with the hashtag #OCP. I added my name to the list and encourage you to do the same. For more information on this project visit Steven Anderson’s post by clicking here!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with more favorite tweets:

• Gr8 Edu-tweets by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.
• June’s Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.

Your challenge:

Explore these links and follow these Twitterers. Don’t know what to say to them? Just tell them you thought their links were extremely helpful and you heard about them from ShellTerrell!

Would you like to recommend a favorite tweet for next week? Please contact me to share this tweet and I will give you credit for the recommendation! Please mark the tweet as a favorite so that I can find the tweet!