Goal 22 of The 30 Goals Challenge 2011

“The power we have through networking is humbling, frightening, and exciting. Use it well.”~ Ruth Cohenson, @tearoof

Goal

Short-term- Find at least one teacher to mentor or find a mentor online.

Long-term- Continue mentoring that teacher long-term by communicating with him/her once a week through social media. When meeting with a person one-to-one use the tools we use for our professional networks online. This is a great way to show them how to use the tools and ease them into the journey.

Resources

• Join the Edu PLN Ning Teacher Mentor group created by Lisa Dabbs!
• Join the aPLaNet EU Project and mentor teachers worldwide.

**NOTE

Due to traveling, I am behind on posting the podcasts. I will try to get the podcasts up soon!

Challenge:
Mentor another teacher online for find a mentor!

Did you reflect on this goal? Please leave a comment that you accomplished this goal by either posting your own video reflection on Youtube, using the hashtag #30Goals, posting on the 30 Goals Facebook group, adding a post to the 43 Things web/mobile app, or adding a comment below! Feel free to subscribe to The 30 Goals podcast!

Keep an eye out for the book, The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators, that will be published by Eye on Education in the Fall of 2011!

Podcast is coming soon!

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

Recently, Scott Mcleod, blogged a very thought-provoking post, Are We Edubloggers too Harsh on Our Kids’ Teachers?

My initial thoughts….

As a teacher, I remember throughout my career parents who griped at me about something I didn’t do to their standards. It’s part of the job and I believe this will continue to happen throughout my career. Just the other day a great educator tweeted a parent withdrew his son from his class because he used technology. How many of us get the third degree from parents, administrators, and other teachers for using technology in our curriculum? I bet many of us, because not all are on board and they have their presumptions. Dealing with parents is part of our job. The way I take it is that I rather have parents who care so much to be involved in their child’s education than not at all.

I think we should expect educators and administrators to prepare students for their future successfully. They don’t necessarily have to use web 2.0 tools, but the majority of the curriculum shouldn’t be students completing worksheets, buried in a textbook for hours, or filling out and being prepared for bubble tests. I want my child’s teacher to inspire a passion for continuously learning or to nurture my child’s curiosity. I don’t want my child to hate or be bored with learning. I don’t want my child to be conditioned to think there is only one correct answer to a question, accept rules that have never been explained or else, or to be brainwashed into believing that achievement in life is measured by how well they perform on tests that measure how well you perform lower-level skills and not creativity.

It’s not about the technology….

I’ve seen teachers motivate students to learn without much technology and I applaud them for being passionate and motivating students. What is important is if the child is engaged, problem-solving, and learning how to collaborate with their peers. Yes, I would want the educators who I communicate with on Twitter, Facebook, through this blog, and other online tools to teach my child not because you use technology or know what I mean when I write Glogster, Wikis, Voicethread, Web 2.0, avatar….

I would want you to teach my child, because…

• you’re passionate about educating and motivating your students
• you engage in professional development almost daily
• you love to learn from other educators
• you love to be inspired and inspire others
• you collaborate with educators worldwide and get your students to collaborate with their students

I don’t know why we expect parents to stay silent when it comes to their own children, especially if they are also educators. Educators are preparing children to be future CEOs, engineers, politicians, teachers, and more. Being an educator is a serious calling and if we treat it like less then we don’t give it that respect.

Being a green dot….

I’m not advocating that educators in our Personal Learning Networks (PLN) should tell teachers their instructional practices are crap. Instead, I like Kelly Tenkely’s recent post, Be the Green Dot, which was inspired by this incredible post by Seth Godin, How Big is Your Red Zone?. Seth Godin and Kelly illustrate 3 graphs which I have embedded below. These graphs show how teachers not in our PLN react to learning about the innovative practices we are exposed to often by having ongoing professional development from our peers. A majority of educators do not participate in online educator communities so they experience an initial frustration when we share with them resources, links, blog posts, and tools (see the red graph). However, these educators do eventually experience joy (see the blue graph) when they get the hang of it and discover effective ways to engage students. The red zone in the last graph shows the gap between the initial hassle and the joy. This is the critical period when educators are resistant to us sharing with them the innovative practices we are exposed to daily. They believe we are hassling them and often make this very clear in their behavior toward us.

So how do we get these educators to the point where they feel joy about learning about these innovative practices?

Seth Godin writes in his blog:

My contention is that the only reason we ever get through that gap is that someone on the other side (the little green circle) is rooting us on, or telling us stories of how great it is on the other side. The bigger your red zone, the louder your green dot needs to be. Every successful product or passion is either easy to get started on or comes with a built-in motivator to keep you moving until you’re in. This is so easy to overlook, because of course you’re already in…

That green dot is you and me! Our PLN are the green dots that need to be loud with our motivation!

Clipped from: dreamsofeducation.wordpress.com (share this clip)

A final thought….

Yes, we should definitely share with teachers, administrators, and staff resources to help them with their professional development and have them become part of the conversation. We should root them on when they try new things and encourage to persist, eventually, they will learn and they will be better educators for the development. No, we shouldn’t be silent. We are preparing children to someday be in charge of their world! A caring parent’s role is to ensure his/her child is prepared to take the reigns armed with the creativity, imagination, tenacity to search for solutions, and collaborative skills needed.

Challenge:

Let’s be green dots and motivate loudly with passion and share resources with those not in our PLN.

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

What are your ideas and resources on motivating educators who do not participate in educator communities (PLNs)?

2nd Week of June 2010 edition of the What Did They Tweet weekly series!

Let’s see what our Personal Learning Network (PLN) tweeted about in education and social media.

Multimedia Tweets

The Last 18 Years In Rap from Week in Rap on Vimeo.

This video has been added to the post, 19 Resources About Personal Learning Networks (PLNs).

This video has been added to the Voki resources on the Technology for Kids Wiki.

Resources

• Incredible Mindmap of Various Links for Kids to Have Fun via @mwedwards
• Interactive 3D version of Anne Frank house via @NikPeachey
• Playcomic- Great resource of kid games & how to create a comic via @inma_a
• The TEDxClassroomProject- What happens when students respond to TED Talks? via @alexgfrancisco

Opportunities for Educators

Below is a list of great opportunities for free resources and more:

• Have your high school students participate in the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge to win a $50,000 scholarship and $5000 teacher grant! Details here! Tweeted by @DEN. This contest begins August 17, 2010 and ends March 15, 2011.
• The Economist is seeking insights on the topic of the 21st Cyber Schools to win $10,000. Tweeted by @eschoolnews. This ends by June 23rd.
• If you are in the DC area and an educator you will be able to attend the 140 Conference for nearly half the price! Register here!
• Freelance education bloggers are wanted! You will get paid! Might be nice for extra cash in the summer!More details here!

If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

For more tweets, check out these posts:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• My PLN Says… by Burcu Akyol.
• Monthly Tweets by Karenne Sylvester.

Challenge:

Share one of these resources with another educator not on Twitter. Then tell them you got the tip from educators on Twitter!

What was your favorite resource on Twitter this week?

June 2010 edition of the What Did They Tweet weekly series!

Let’s see what our Personal Learning Network (PLN) tweeted about in education and social media for the last two weeks.

Multimedia Tweets

Below is one of the videos, Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning.

Art teachers will love this free program and this is excellent for students creating characters for stop motion films.

Resources

• Story Starters- What-if questions for stories via @bjnichols
• Multiple intelligence quiz- shows strength areas for learning via @CarolRainbow
• 50 Informative and Well-Designed Infographics via @ptaylorsjr
• Visualizing the BP Oil Disaster- Students see a Google map of the how the oil disaster would look over the area they live via @tombarrett

Opportunities for Educators

Below is a list of great opportunities for free resources and more:

• If you are in the DC area and an educator you will be able to attend the 140 Conference for nearly half the price! Register here! I will post more details about the education panel on this blog!
• Freelance education bloggers are wanted! You will get paid! Might be nice for extra cash in the summer!More details here!

If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

For more tweets, check out these posts:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• My PLN Says… by Burcu Akyol.
• Monthly Tweets by Karenne Sylvester.

Challenge:

Share one of these resources with another educator not on Twitter. Then tell them you got the tip from educators on Twitter!

What was your favorite resource on Twitter this week?

Many of you are wrapping up the year. In the midst of the madness you may have missed some of the tips, resources, and tools shared on Teacher Reboot Camp.

What you might have missed…

Your favorite posts this month based on comments and overall traffic:

• How Do We Nurture Passion?- Be inspired by the passion of 6th grader, Greyson Chance, who takes the world by storm with his musical talent. How do we inspire every student to be brave enough to show their passion? As educators how can we ensure we are passing our passion for learning and knowledge to our students?
• A New Way to Make PowerPoints Interactive- In this post, I shared how you can use the free Microsoft Microsoft Mouse Mischief software and a set of wireless mouse devices to make PowerPoint lessons interactive. I also provided several lesson ideas and resources.
• New Series: Children of Immigrants- This new series is in response to the several laws and educational policies that are recently targeting immigrants and their children. In this post,Struggling with the Dialect, I share with you how my parents were able to help my four sisters and I break the poverty cycle and graduate from college. We celebrated the Teacher Reboot Camp blog’s birthday and you were able to find out about my life growing up as a Chicana in South Texas.
• Favorite Cool Sites Series- In this post, you can find 17 resources, articles, presentations, and videos that will help you with your presentations on Personal/Passionate/Professional Learning Networks (PLNs).
• Favorite What Did They Tweet Series- In this post, our PLN shared with us Sir Ken Robinson’s newest TED Talk, A Jedi Approach to Professional Development, Creative Common presentation slides of great quotes, Daniel Pink’s animated Drive video and more!
• My Favorite Tech Tools & Resources This Month-
  • Google Wave- It is now open for everyone. You don’t need an invite. In this post you will find 25 Google Wave resources to get you waving with other educators!
  • Voki- Students can develop characters, add scenery, and add their voices to these free avatars! These are easily embedded in a wiki or blog. This post will get you started!
  • Twitter Parade-See all your followers in a fun parade with you as the star! You can here cheers and music. You can embed this in your blog or wiki.
• Guest Posts- A heartfelt thanks to all my guest bloggers this month! Please leave them comments on their fantastic posts!
  • How Many School Districts Are There on the Head of a Pin? by Tom King- How do you feel about America’s new Race to the Top education policy? Tom King takes a critical view of this policy and how it will negatively impact our students.
  • Employ Technology for Fun Summer Learning by Alexis Montgomery- Find various fun resources on the internet that offer educational games, reading, and activities for kids of all ages!
  • If you would like to contribute to this blog, please e-mail me at ShellyTerrell at gmail.com.
• My Wikis and Presentations:
  • We Connect- Updated! This is my PLN wiki where you will find several resources, tutorials, videos and more on helping educators join a PLN. Please feel free to use the resources in your presentations on PLNs and social media.
  • Technology 4 Kids- Updated with new Skype resources! Ozge Karaoglu and I developed this wiki to help educators integrate technology effectively for young learners. Read about digital storytelling tools, Glogster, Voicethread, and more!
  • Children’s English classes- Updated! Search by theme for book ideas and games for children ages 4 to 10 years-old.
• My Guest posts!
  • Check out these ideas on, Goal-Setting with Wallwisher, that is on the Prestwick blog. You will see how I get my students to reflect at the end of the year on their learning goals.
  • In the Peoplegogy blog, I talk about the importance of rookie teachers participating in PLNs and using social media tools.
  • Check out these ideas on, Motivating Adult Learners by Skyping an Expert, that is on the OUP ELT Global blog. You will see how I get my students to reflect at the end of the year on their learning goals.
  • Check out these ideas on, Using Wikis and Games with Students, that is on the Digital ELT Play blog. You will see how to motivate students to practice English at home.
  • I write the weekly summaries for Parentella’s #PTChat, the parent and educator discussion, which occurs every Wednesday at 9pm PST.

Thank you so much for your support of my free 30 Goals Challenge E-book. Over 1500 of you have read it and I am truly grateful! Download your free copy here.

Please feel free to use any of the resources shared here or in the wikis because the ultimate goal is to get other educators involved in our PLN.

You may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

Part of the Cool Sites series

For the past year, I have researched the what, who, when, how, and why of Personal/Professional/Passionate Learning Networks (PLNs). We have seen the benefits of the people we choose to connect, collaborate, and problem solve with through social media. The educators, subject matter experts (SMEs), authors, and mentors we choose to derive knowledge from help us self-reflect on our methodologies and beliefs. They support us, remember our birthdays, celebrate our accomplishments, and stir within us a passion to improve the status quo. Many might argue we are an echo chamber, but I don’t really believe this. I know that within one year of connecting with a PLN I have jump started so many projects at my own institute. A few examples include- my five-year-old students have connected with others from other countries, we use technology with the English language learners regularly at my institute, and we Skype. We also have added many new courses and wikis along with these classes. We give workshops about technology to parents and educators. The students love the technology, are improving their English skills at faster rates, and are motivated by using technology. I am excited, because I know that I am preparing them adequately for their world of globalization and information and communication technologies (ICTs). By preparing them I know I am actively making a difference in the future. As an educator my goal is to send forth my students skilled and armed with knowledge to better, not burden the world.

A community raises a child! Yes, I do believe this, which is why I am passionate about PLNs. My PLN helps me be a better educator and prepare my students daily. They feed me experience, knowledge, and support 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week. Therefore, I hope you take time to bookmark these various resources, share them with other educators through workshops and presentations, and spread the message of PLNs.

Research about PLNs

Below are several resources I have collected about the history of PLNs, how to build a PLN, and the tools needed to build a PLN. Please scroll down and take a look at these resources and see if they can be an addition to a future presentation.

We Connect Wiki- This wiki is full of videos, Wallwishers, Wikipedia articles, and more that help educators find the resources to build a PLN. You will find all the materials listed in this post there as well as at least 50 other links to video tutorials, step-by-step guides, lists of people to follow, and more to help any educator new or old to this concept build a PLN.

Wikipedia article about PLNs- This article explains the history and theory behind PLNs. Do you know where the term developed, the theory behind PLNs, who are the forerunners of the PLN movement?

Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age by George Siemens- Siemens is noted as one of the forerunners behind the PLN movement. In this article, Siemens discusses the theory behind PLNs. This is one of the most important articles behind the PLN movement.

Origins of the Term ‘Personal Learning Network’ by Stephen Downes- Downes is another forerunner of the PLN movement and connectivism. In this post, he delineates the origins of the term.

The Art & Technique of Personal Learning Networks by David Warlick- Warlick defines PLN in easily understood terms, explains how the process works, and provides several articles for more information.

PLN posts on Teacher Reboot Camp- Read several of my posts about PLNs and the type of learning they provide. You will also find posts like, PLNs, Where Do We Begin?, to help you relate the concept to educators who have never experienced this before.

Videos

Why Do We Connect? from Shelly Terrell on Vimeo.

How To Build Your PLN Using Twitter

Personal Learning Networks for Educators by Skip Via

The Network is the Learning by George Siemens

Personal Learning Networks – the what, why and how from darren elliott on Vimeo.

Sketchy Explanation: Starting a PLN

Presentations

Presentation: Constructing a PLN by Richard M. Byrne

Twitter for your PLN Public by Al Rowell

Interactive Multimedia

VoiceThread- Why a PLN? by Steven Anderson

VoiceThread- What Does the Network Mean to You? by Alec Couros

Wallwisher- What My PLN Means to Me by John Evans

Wallwisher- Getting Started with a PLN by Don Lourcey

Challenge:

Use one of these resources to prepare your next PLN presentation.

You may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

What are other PLN resources I should add to this post?

Month in Review: April 2010!

April has been a busy month and you may have missed some of the tips, resources, and tools shared on Teacher Reboot Camp.

What you might have missed…

Your favorite posts this month based on comments and overall traffic:

• PLNs, Conferences, and Tweet-ups- In this post, I described my PLN as the bar scene in Cheers where everyone yells, “Norm!” I guess that makes me Norm!
• Changes- I recently am undergoing changes in my life that are impacting my online activity. Has this ever happened to you? How did you deal with this fork in the road?
• Favorite What Did They Tweet Series- In this post, our PLN shared with us a Chris Lehmann education technology quote, children’s books on the IPad, the youngest participant of TED Talk, and more!
• Favorite Cool Sites Series- In this post, you can find 15 resources and tips to back up Twitter hashtag discussions, DMs, blog posts, e-mail, and your Ning content.
• My Favorite Tech Tools & Resources This Month-
  • Twistory- Simply sign-up with your Twitter account name only then pick which calendar service (ICal, Google Calendar) you’d like to export your tweets to and your tweets will show up on this starting soon after you sign-up. Looks like the picture below.
  • Box.Net- Sign-up for 1GB of free space to share and archive various presentations and documents. You get a nice widget to embed to your blog and can access the files on your mobile phone.
  • WikiMatrix-If you want to start a wiki, then you’ll want to compare the various features on the free Wiki sites using this matrix.
• Guest Posts- A heartfelt thanks to all my guest bloggers this month! Please leave them comments on their fantastic posts!
  • The Good Mentor: Are You up For the Challenge? by Lisa Michelle Dabbs- You’ve adopted a PLN, but are you ready to be a mentor to a teacher? Lisa explores why we need more teacher mentors.
  • My Favourite Sites for Teaching Phrasal Verbs by Janet Bianchini- Find various tools to help students with phrasal verbs. There are many great examples!
  • 5 Favorite Technology Integration Projects by Kelli Erwin- Kelli makes several great suggestions for some end-of-the-year technology projects for students!
  • If you would like to contribute to this blog, please e-mail me at ShellyTerrell at gmail.com.
• My Wikis and Presentations:
  • We Connect- Updated! This is my PLN wiki where you will find several resources, tutorials, videos and more on helping educators join a PLN. Please feel free to use the resources in your presentations on PLNs and social media.
  • Technology 4 Kids- Updated! Ozge Karaoglu and I developed this wiki to help educators integrate technology effectively for young learners. Read about digital storytelling tools, Glogster, Voicethread, and more!
  • Children’s English classes- Updated! Search by theme for book ideas and games for children ages 4 to 10 years-old.
• My Guest posts!
  • Check out my favorite post ever written, Children of Immigrants, on Ken Wilson’s blog!
  • I write the weekly summaries for Parentella’s #PTChat, the parent and educator discussion, which occurs every Wednesday at 9pm PST.

Thank you so much for your support of my free 30 Goals Challenge E-book. Over 1200 of you have read it and I am truly grateful! Download your free copy here.

Please feel free to use any of the resources shared here or in the wikis because the ultimate goal is to get other educators in our PLN.

You may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

Month in Review: March 2010!

Sorry for how late this post is but March has been my busiest month professionally and April looks just as busy. March and April seem to be popular months for conferences and I’ve been busily preparing presentations and wikis. You probably have been just as busy and may have missed some of the tips, resources, and tools shared on Teacher Reboot Camp.

What you might have missed…

Your favorite posts this month based on comments and overall traffic:

• Why Do We Connect? Video Project- In this post, I asked you to submit a video for the We Connect Project. I was excited to have over 50 submissions from over 15 countries. I am presenting various versions of this video throughout the conferences I attend.
• In My Absence- You can watch the first version of the We Connect video that was shown in Greece.
• Favorite What Did They Tweet Series- In this post, our PLN shared with us several cool videos you have to see such as the Virtual Choir, An Interview with Sir Ken Robinson, Nature by Numbers, PLNs, and more!
• Favorite Cool Sites Series- In this post, you can find 18 resources for teaching English Language Learners through blogs. You will also find my video tutorials on subscribing via RSS and e-mail.
• My Favorite Tech Tools This Month-
  • Youtube Downloader-If you’ve been presenting then you know many venues don’t have wifi or the Internet available. With this free FireFox extension I have been able to quickly and easily download video tutorials for my presentations and embed them in my PowerPoint. This is extremely helpful when presenting on web 2.0 tools. Just credit the author and ask them if you can use their video if you don’t have some of your own uploaded.
  • Slideshare- After completing my presentations, I upload them to Slideshare. This allows me to narrate the presentations and play video! This will also easily embed in a wiki or on your LinkedIn profile.
  • Camtasia- From the same developers of Jing this screen capture software allows you to do some serious video and audio editing. It is free for 30 days so if you have an upcoming video project, try it!
• Guest Posts- A heartfelt thanks to all my guest bloggers this month! Please leave them comments on their fantastic posts!
  • Creativity in Education by Leonor Cristina Santos- How can we ensure students are allowed to be creative in schools? Watch the videos and reflect on this important issue.
  • 10 Cool Tips and Resources for Text Response by Judith Way- Find various tools to help students reflect on the books they read.
  • Syllabus or Silly-bus? by Tom King- Do you use a syllabus? Does it work? Do we even need to have a syllabus for our classes. These issues are explored.
  • Do We Learn More through Microblogging? by Tony Ratcliffe- Tony explores how we learn through Twitter! Do you agree we learn more through Twitter versus blogs?
  • Do Those That Show Up Make a Real Difference? by Harold Shaw- Harold suggest that education reform is accomplished in backrooms.
  • Who Turns the Lights Off When We Leave Kindergarten? by Tom King- Why can’t the powerful model of kindergarten be extended into the upper grades?
  • 12 Resources for Grammar and Punctuation Usage by Karen Schweitzer- Find various resources for teaching grammar.
  • If you would like to contribute to this blog, please e-mail me at ShellyTerrell at gmail.com.
• My Wikis and Presentations:
  • We Connect- This is my PLN wiki where you will find several resources, tutorials, videos and more on helping educators join a PLN. Please feel free to use the resources in your presentations on PLNs and social media.
  • Technology 4 Kids- Ozge Karaoglu and I developed this wiki to help educators integrate technology effectively for  young learners. Read about digital storytelling tools, Glogster, Voicethread, and more!
  • Children’s English classes- Search by theme for book ideas and games for children ages 4 to 10 years-old.
  • Adult English classes- Several topics, tasks, and resources for lower-intermediate to upper-intermediate classes.
  • Skype connection between Oklahoma and Germany- We explore the Gold Rush, Trail of Tears, and Manifest Destiny.
• Where I’ll be this month, let’s tweet-up!
  • IATEFL Harrogate- I will be visiting Harrogate, UK from April 4th -12th. I will be presenting with Ozge Karaoglu on using digital technologies with young learners.
  • 140 Conference in NYC- I will be recording and reporting on the education panels as part of my new role as the VP of Educator Outreach for Parentella! This takes place April 20th-21st.
  • Virtual Round Table- On April 22nd-23rd I will be conducting a 20 minute presentation and moderating the 2 day Pecha Kucha event. It’ll all be online so you have no excuse not to meet me here!
  • I write the weekly summaries for Parentella’s #PTChat, the parent and educator discussion, which occurs every Wednesday at 9pm PST.

Thank you so much for your support of my free 30 Goals Challenge E-book. Over 1200 of you have read it and I am truly grateful! Download your free copy here.

Please feel free to use any of the resources shared here or in the wikis because the ultimate goal is to get other educators in our PLN.

You may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

Say Good-bye to March 2010 edition of the What Did They Tweet weekly series!

Let’s see what our Personal Learning Network (PLN) tweeted about in education and social media.

Video: The Amazing Youtube Choir

Social media continues to amaze me. I believe a new online collaborative art form has emerged in which several people contribute to create a masterpiece. This virtual choir conducted by Eric Whitacre and produced by Scott Haines will show you what I mean by a collaborative masterpiece. Read the rest of the story of how this was created here. You may also want to see the collaborative video masterpiece my PLN has helped me create. This video was tweeted by @larryferlazzo.

Video & News: Sir Ken Robinson Webinar

@JackieGerstein shared this incredible wiki she has created to help educators teach with TED videos, Teaching With TED. Below is one video interview I found on the wiki with Sir Ken Robinson. Also, @RMByrne has posted on his blog about a chance for educators to attend a free webinar with Sir Ken Robinson on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 8pm EST.

Math Video: Nature by Numbers

@TeachScience shared this fantastic video to inspire students to make connections between math and nature.

PLN Video

@BrightIdeasBlog created this fantastic Animoto video on Personal Learning Networks in her post, Creating Your Personal Learning Network.

Resources

• Visit the Twiz TV site to find scripts to popular television shows. Shared by @BethCagnol who uses this website to read scripts with her English Language Learners.
• Check out this cool interactive brain flash site. Students will enjoy what they learn when they click on Bangor. Tweeted by @altucker.

Opportunities for Educators

Below is a list of great opportunities for free resources and more:

• Make a comment describing how you would use the eBeam Edge in your classroom to win one.. Tweeted by @SimpleCEO. This ends by March 31st. I won a prize from them and you could be the next winner!
• Enter to win a 21st century classroom from Discovery Education! This ends by May 3rd.
• Early childhood educators, submit your best ideas for engaging children as active, curious learners to win $200 and a Flip Video camera. Tweeted by @weareteachers. This ends by April 6th.

If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

For more tweets, check out these posts:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• My PLN Says… by Burcu Akyol.
• Monthly Tweets by Karenne Sylvester.

Challenge:

Share one of these resources with another educator not on Twitter. Then tell them you got the tip from educators on Twitter!

What was your best find on Twitter this week?

Starting next Sunday, I will begin presenting about Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). My presentation will take place at the TESOL Greece conference and two weeks later I will give a similar presentation at the ISTEK conference in Istanbul, Turkey.  I am deeply passionate about my topic. I believe that if every educator was part of a PLN, then educational reform would occur. You may think me naive but I have seen social media accomplish miracles. I can count many times when a review on a website or tweet helped a friend or me receive a refund or better service from a company. With the Iran elections, I witnessed Twitter become a message system to let people know where to find a safe house. Social media brought the atrocities to the world’s attention. With the Haiti earthquake and other natural disasters, I witnessed social media help raise money, recruit volunteers, and find missing people. Why can’t social media revolutionize education?

With this in mind, I am taking my presentation very seriously. I just don’t want to give a good presentation. I have a goal in mind. I want the audience to get involved with a PLN and stick with it. I realize I have a tough task to accomplish. When we present about PLNs we are not simply providing information. Instead, we have to inspire the audience to register for these tools, learn to use them, and stick with them. These are three difficult tasks to ask a person to do. The best way I can think of to influence this amount of action is to inspire my audience. Therefore, I am asking for your help.

The Video Project

While watching the livestream of the TEDxNYED, I came across Michael Wesch‘s Youtube channel and was inspired by the video, The Message. Videos often inspire people to action.

Update

I want to do a similar project, where I get members of our PLN to contribute reasons why we are connected. I need educators, parents, students, and any other stakeholders to record a video of less than 30 seconds. In this video, simply write your reason on your hand or on a piece of paper. Please, limit this to a sentence at the most. Below is the video I have started with a few members of our PLN! Thank you so much it is looking better than I could have ever imagined! If you choose to participate, this will be shown at all my conferences. Your name will be included in the wiki I have created for this project. The video will also be included on my Vimeo and Youtube channels and available under a Creative Commons License to be downloaded and used.This is a bare bones example just to show you the direction of the project.

Why Do We Connect? from Shelly Terrell on Vimeo.

Details

So we do not all do the same message, I have created this Google Doc for you to fill out. Please, keep the following items in mind:

• Remember, keep it as short as possible. It should be a sentence at the most.
• I was just warned by my wonderful friend Marisa  No Open Palms please because this is considered disrespectful in Greece.
• Only written words, please.
• If possible, would you mind your child participating as well? I would like to include a diverse group. You don’t have to show your child’s face.
• The first video will be shown next Sunday in Greece and the next in Turkey so there is a bit of a time crunch.
• When you write your message remember it will be recorded reading left to right. This was a challenge for me.
• Try to do this inside a room away from daylight.
• You can use Photo Booth to easily record if you have a Mac. If you have a PC then you can use Jing or Camstudio.
• If you want, I can record you through Skype.
• If the file is to big to email to me at ShellyTerrell at gmail dot com, then you can use the Transfer Big Files site.

Thank you so much for your help!

Challenge

Send me your short video clip and participate in the Why Do We Connect project.

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Music in video by DJ BLUE / CC BY-NC-SA 2.5