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For Common Core resources, teacher videos, strategies and lesson plans, go to Teaching Channel. Find great ideas and strategies in classroom teaching videos covering Math, Science, English, History and more.

This article, which was written for The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, discusses the value of teachers being a part of many communities of practice. This enable them to see social media modeled and be more likely to use it in the classroom.

This is a nice site with a compilation of helpful links for language arts, ranging from middle grades on up. It is a good resource for finding a helpful site quickly.

This is a fabulous site for finding resources for students who need immediate help, especially in grammar. There are links to unit and lessons plans for a variety of works of literature, including recent ones. When I need something quickly, this is my favorite page to which I refer!

drag and drop words onto a picture in order to generate writing ideas

a resource of links to game formats for learning English

Stevens, V. (2008). Trial by Twitter: The rise and slide of the year's most viral microblogging platform. TESL-EJ: Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 12(1). This article did not focus just on Connectivism or just on communities of practice but provided a clear example of both after my previous readings. If you think about the basic fundamental of twitter it would be easy to discount at first whether or not it would be successful. I'm sure along the way some may have even felt that it was a fad destined to fail or fade. Who would want to be limited to only one hundred and fifty characters to get out a complete thought and why would anyone be interested. Well right now according to this article twitter is the most popular microblogging tool that has existed. I found it interesting if you have read my previous articles especially about linguistics in communities of practice that twitter type has made its way into our everyday vernacular, such as saying hash tag in actual dictation. Interesting that a change in our speech and actions are indicators of belonging to a certain community of practice, much like how some groups say 'lol' instead of actually laughing out loud. This article draws these dots that are easily linked together to show Connectivism. The author spends time explaining when he "got" twitter, or when it dawned on him this is an excellent tool. From there he uses some great analogies to describe the connected world twitter produces for millions of users a day. My favorite quote from his article "To 'get' twitter, you have to have your finger on the pulse of what is pumping lifeblood through the Internet, and that is the people on it and how they come together (Connectivism), connect, and relate to one another (communities of practice) in virtual learning networks". (Stevens,2008)

I didn't realize Twitter had been around as long as it has - I also didn't know it's origins. Lost most of the social media sites it's changed a lot since the beginning!

Great post and I was cracking up at "The Twitter Curve" image. It gave a good explanation to me about what makes Twitter so powerful and its benefits but am also glad it touched on things to be leery of.

Communities of practice give teachers the opportunity to interact, communicate, gain knowledge and collaborate in an environment of English Language Learners (ELL). Teacher not only have a community of practice with fellow teachers, but also in the classroom.

Free web based Text To Speech (TTS) service. Convert online any English text into MP3 audio file. Useful for Universal Design for Learning.

This is a simple resource that explains personal learning networks for those being introduced to it.

The first section of this resource is great for someone new to PLNs. It expresses how PLNs provide the tools and resources that allow for an educators continuous growth. I also like that this resource explains that teachers may still have face-to-face PLNs within their district or subject area. However, it is beneficial to have the digital PLN as well to allow for growth that can expand further and can be accessed at all times. In addition, this article emphasizes how it is important to remember the "personal" part of PLNs, you can adapt your PLN to your changing needs.

Rosetta Stone Shared Talk allows for real-time online chat with Spanish speakers from around the world.

Pup's Supper describes the life of a sea otter pup and its mother. It has been animated and made interactive by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation. The aquarium has several live cameras including one in the otter enclosure.

This is the best online library I've come across. There are complete books online from 25 countries, in addition to the United States. Many of the books are in the original language, which would help tremendously if you had students who didn't speak English.

I have been using this Web site as a resource since I first started in educational publishing way back in 1998. This has been a long-term and consistent source for information, ESL expert reviewers, and just general discussion around what needs to happen for English-language learners to have success in school. If you have ESL students and are not sure what to do for them, this is a great place to start and to find individuals who are willing to give tips and support your efforts.