Another Inspiring Video

As I said earlier, I think all the Tales from a Teacher's Heart videos are awesome.  Here's one from Season One featuring my work with one school.

My Favorite Middle Level Resource Site

There are lots of resources out there, but just for middle level teachers, nothing beats  Middleweb.
 John Norton is a great guy, and his site is one of the most comprehensive for teachers.  If you need information on a topic related to middle schools, you'll probably find it here!  

Online Resources for Teaching

I started to compile my list of other great online resources for teaching, but I ran across this site  and decided not to reinvent the wheel!  As the author points out,

The possibilities for social media tools in the classroom are vast. In the hands of the right teacher, they can be used to engage students in creative ways, encourage collaboration and inspire discussion among even soft-spoken students. But we’ve already made our case for why teachers should consider using social media in their classrooms. What about the how?Even when people say they want to incorporate social media, they don’t always know the best ways to do so. It’s especially daunting when those efforts can affect the education of your students. To help, we’ve collected seven of the the best classroom tools for incorporating social media into your lesson plans.

Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning

This is another great resource from the ALA.  It's their list of the top 25 best websites for teaching and learning.  Here's their introductory description:

The "Top 25" Websites foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, Web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover.

• Media Sharing
• Digital Storytelling
• Manage and Organize
• Social Networking and Communication
• Curriculum Sharing
• Content Resources: Lesson Plans and More
• Content Collaboration

Visual Thesaurus

Another of my favorite resources is the Visual Thesaurus.  It's an excellent tool for students to see how words are related in a "living visual" format.  Words can't fully describe it (so take advantage of the limited free searches), but you are able to see how synonyms related, then by clicking those, you see other related words.  A great tool for any content area!

Having Trouble with Educational Jargon?

This is one of my favorite sites.  ASCD"s Lexicon of Learning is an online (free) searchable dictionary of common educational jargon explained in simple terms.  It's a great resource for new teachers, for communicating with parents, and for anytime you just wonder what something means!

Too Much to Do, Too Little Time?

Here's an article  JUGGLING MULTIPLE PRIORITIES: Time Management Strategies for Principals.    Lots of strategies plus recommended resources. For example, 

Take control of E-mail - Check e-mail at set times, not all the time. If you can, respond when you first read a message. Handle them all as a group---start with the first and move through them until complete. Use descriptive subject lines to identify the substance of a message. Keep messages short and be clear about what response may be needed.


For the full article, click here!