Online Education Commiunity
Professional learning communities provide teachers with valuable resources for successful classrooms.
For this assignment, I joined two social media sites about teaching, Edmodo and Edutopia. I was already a member of Edmodo which is an online social networking site a lot like Facebook that can be used for teaching purposes. In Edmodo you can post and grade assignments online as well as answer questions in the online chat forum. It was a great way to keep absent students up to date as well as provide information for students anywhere there is Internet access.
There is a discussion board in Edmodo that allows you to contact other teachers in the network. It is a great place to discuss projects and teaching methods, post interesting discoveries, ask questions, brainstorm ideas, basically anything you need. When I was teaching in Hawaii, I used this forum often to get ideas for different ways to teach certain subjects and also to ask professionals how to deal with classroom management. Many teachers have different techniques for dealing with large, integrated classes and I really appreciated the ideas that they gave me for dealing with behavior problems etc.
I have one rule for my classroom and that is mutual respect. This is an idea that my school supported but I fine-tuned its meaning and how to express it to the students by talking to teachers on Edmodo. I discovered that once the students truly understood what this concept meant, it alleviated a lot of the other problems I was experiencing like bullying, talking out of turn, and negative attitudes. I found that having fewer rules and higher expectations for my students helped create a better learning environment.
Edutopia is an awesome site and I read it almost daily. It is a professional learning community that helps teachers become more successful in the classroom by providing blog posts, videos, and ideas to help increase productivity and participation. One discussion that I participated in regularly was about reawakening student engagement. My goal as an educator is to help inspire students at a younger age, especially female students, to engage in math and science. This site it a great way to interact with teachers who have successfully practiced great teaching techniques and gain invaluable knowledge about classroom management.
There is a discussion board in Edmodo that allows you to contact other teachers in the network. It is a great place to discuss projects and teaching methods, post interesting discoveries, ask questions, brainstorm ideas, basically anything you need. When I was teaching in Hawaii, I used this forum often to get ideas for different ways to teach certain subjects and also to ask professionals how to deal with classroom management. Many teachers have different techniques for dealing with large, integrated classes and I really appreciated the ideas that they gave me for dealing with behavior problems etc.
I have one rule for my classroom and that is mutual respect. This is an idea that my school supported but I fine-tuned its meaning and how to express it to the students by talking to teachers on Edmodo. I discovered that once the students truly understood what this concept meant, it alleviated a lot of the other problems I was experiencing like bullying, talking out of turn, and negative attitudes. I found that having fewer rules and higher expectations for my students helped create a better learning environment.
Edutopia is an awesome site and I read it almost daily. It is a professional learning community that helps teachers become more successful in the classroom by providing blog posts, videos, and ideas to help increase productivity and participation. One discussion that I participated in regularly was about reawakening student engagement. My goal as an educator is to help inspire students at a younger age, especially female students, to engage in math and science. This site it a great way to interact with teachers who have successfully practiced great teaching techniques and gain invaluable knowledge about classroom management.