Saturday, September 27, 2014

Teacher websites


I looked for individual teacher websites and blogs, but didn't find any that caught my attention.  I decided to do a generic search for teacher blogs and found these "hosting" websites where I could choose what and where I wanted to go.  All the searching and wondering was taken out.  These are the top four that I liked as I looked.  They didn't just offer the normal teacher websites with ideas for classroom, but also offered some humor for us as teachers.  We also got some good ideas to help keep us focused on why we teach.

http://www.edudemic.com/best-teacher-blogs/
           This is the "best" must follow blogs. It is so nice to see teachers thanking their students, sharing their history and giving encouragement to other teachers. Not all on this site are what we need for the younger student, but you can take their suggestions and make them for us.  My favorite from this page is called Kevin's Meandering Mind (http://dogtrax.edublogs.org/).  Their are different posts for subjects, but he always keeps it focused on students and who we are to work with other staff.  He also uses humor.
  

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/top-14-teacher-blogs

 I have used scholastic for other items in school.  I found this site and thought "Okay, why not", but after looking at a few of the sites I realize they picked ones that would let you go to the subject you wanted.  My favorite from this site is one that isn't serious.  It is about humor and the need for humor as a teacher.  We take things seriously most of the time, but this blog site lets you laugh, and I'll admit it isn't education based in the typical way.  I sometimes need to get away from learning and the demands of lesson plans and now I have a teacher who feels the same way. (http://regurgitatedalphabits.blogspot.com/)

http://www.teachingblogaddict.com/2011/04/oh-places-well-go-join-tba-as-we-travel.html

     If you are stuck and need to find blogs or information for any age this is a wonderful source.
I was able to navigate through websites from pre-k to 3rd grade and beyond  It also covered different subjects such as ELL and TAG.  Depending on your needs you are able to navigate through different sites and activities.  As I went through 2 or 3 sites I noticed they might have had the same unit, but completed the tasks in different manners.  I liked having so many blogs in one location.


http://thecrazypre-kclassroom.blogspot.com/

     This is now a kindergarten blog, but she gives her history of pre-k classroom. One of the reason I like this website is she gives her personal background and tells you about herself.  Although the portion about her personal background isn't important it is nice to know where her history in education is and how she has used it with her family and classroom.  This website gives links to units and subjects.  Even though it gives how she completed the activities, you can change them to fit your students.