EDU 618

Middle School Teacher: A great mix of personal thoughts, ideas about education reform and practical tipsBetty's Blog: She's level-headed and yet passionate and full of both personal and practical wisdomCornerstone: Tons of practical ideas with a slightly cutesy perspectiveIt's Not All Flowers and Sausages: A blog filled with wit and humor, but often containing some sharp analysis of the systemBrazen Teacher: I connect well with this blog, because the author is as anti-standardization as I am, but she explains it in a much more creative style Science Teacher: One of the smartest bloggers around, a scientist with the soul of a poetCal Teacher Blog: Mr. Bibo is a man with wisdom, conviction and practical ideas. The blog has some real thought-provoking postsClif's Notes: If I needed one blog to keep me up to date on technology, it would be this.  It's like having a tech guru on my laptop all the timeReach for More / Aspira a Mas: One of the few teaching blogs out there with a Latina perspectiveThe Power of Educational Technology: A little less practical than Clif's Notes, but constantly thought-provokingThe Doc is In: He seems to blog about everything, but with a distinct mix of both authority and humilityCountdown to Teachhub: I wish I had this site when I was first starting out.  I felt like i constantly needed some practical tips and this site offers them. One of my favorite features is the YouTube writing prompts. In the Trenches: It's the kind of blog that I read when teaching feels a little lonely.

There is a temptation with using a tool like the wiki for teachers to simply introduce the tool and ask the students to use it, and then watch to see what happens. That usually occurs because teachers themselves are unfamiliar with the actual potential of the tool to the process of teaching and learning. While knowledge around this is still growing, we do know from teaching in general that students respond poorly to badly designed assignments with no real purpose articulated as to their connection with the learning outcomes or direct benefit to the student's overall learning experience.