John and Hank Green call themselves the vlogbrothers. Their video blogs are short, 1-3 minute videos that are a great way to start a lesson or get a discussion going. You can find all of their videos on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers. Some of the vlogs are just random updates on what is going on in their lives, but most of the videos are about a specific topic or current event. With election day coming up soon, I plan on discussing one of the greatest practices in any democracy -- voting! The vlogbrothers just posted a vlog that breaks down American's top ten excuses not to vote. This video would be a great way to begin a discussion over elections and voting in America. I came upon this video a few days ago on Twitter.
Twitter has been a great place for me to find resources for my classroom. Teaching at a small school means I have several preps each day. I teach two subjects, social studies and language arts, and I have 5 different lessons to prepare. I love finding new ways to engage my students in both content areas at varying levels. Twitter is the best place to find new ideas. Some of my favorite groups/people to follow are: @edconnectr, @edutopia, @DiscoveryEd, @TheCrashCourse, @johngreen, @GoogleForEdu
I also use Twitter to share ideas with my colleagues, this year I have a new building administrator who has required all staff get an account to be able to easily collaborate with one another. This week in EDU 5312 I explored ways to use Twitter as a professional development tool. I had already been doing this to some extent, but this week I increased the amount of time/effort spent searching specifically for educational purposes and I was pleased to find tons of amazing ideas to use in my classroom and to share with my colleagues. Check out this link to find TONS of great stuff for the classroom!
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