My friend and colleague Lauren, who returned to teaching this year after working with administration at my school, has started a blog called New Teacher Assistance. Lauren’s self-proclaimed audience is new teachers, but we can all learn from her insights.
Welcome to the edublogosphere, Lauren, and watch out — I might recruit you to help me with my GISA presentation on using blogs and wikis for professional development!
I enjoy your posts at the faculty room. I'm trying to interest( coerce) our teachers towards using wikis and blogs too. What's a good starting point for increasing their awareness and excitement about the idea.
Thanks, Gerry. I think teachers just need to be able to see with their own eyes what blogs and wikis can do. Professional development is a start, but I think even more than that, showing them what you're doing or what others are doing (for example, Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsey's Flat Classroom project and Horizon project). They also need to see how easy it is. I had a teacher comment today that she wants to try blogging, but she was concerned about not knowing what she needs to know, and she mentioned HTML. The beauty is, that's a perfect opportunity to explain that you don't need to know that in order to blog anymore. I have some posts in my archives aimed at teachers thinking about using blogs and wikis and not sure what to do:
What Can You Do with a Wiki?
How Do You Get Something Out of Education Blogs?
Blog Hosting Services for Educators
Blog Software for Educators
Wikis for Educators
There's probably more, but that's a start.
By the way, I graduated from high school at Warner Robins High, and my parents now live in Macon, so I guess you could say I'm from your neck of the woods, although I moved a lot while I was in school, and saying I'm "from" anywhere is problematic.
Thanks for the links. That's kind of the method I am using right now but anytime I can tap other resources, it usually is beneficial.
Both my younger brothers graduated fro WRHS and that's where I grew up. I've been in this area for quite some time. Thanks again!!