Social Media Revolution!!!

I really do believe that teachers need to embrace the skills of the social media...NOW!!! I had a conversation with a teacher who mentioned that she avoided facebook because she didn't know too much about it. I thought hard on this, because I realize she's in the majority of teachers who I come across on a daily basis. Social Media is something that they did not learn in a traditional setting, which maybe the reason why so many teachers are a little apprehensive to it.

"I don't want my son to be limited to learning only what his teacher already knows!" John Couch, VP of Apple Education.

I thought long and hard after I heard that quote. It really made me think about who we as teacher are...and who we should strive to be. I don't consider myself to be a "tech person", but rather a creative, problem solver. I don't always know what the answer is....but I know where to find it.

Here's a video that I found that inspired this post....

It's not all Flowers and Sausages.....

Ok, I think it's safe for me to say that I really love this blog. I have a lot that I follow, and they are spread out across the board, but I love the well placed humor and emotions that are placed into every post. For those of you who are wondering just what I'm talking about....(you're not alone), You have to check out her blog to enjoy the whole enchilada. Mrs. Mimi is a teacher in NYC who writes about her adventures in teaching the second grade, with a very funny outlook on life as well.

As a teacher, we all know that this profession is a calling....and clearly not meant for everyone. No matter what school you work in, there's always that one teacher who you just can't mesh with. Life is like that, however teaching is one where you can find yourself sinking or swimming in your classroom very quickly depending on how you handle the first couple of situations. I know what's like to have to deal with administrators who are from another planet, teachers who give lazy a new defination, and substitutes who do more good staying home than being in the classroom. These are our adventures...These are our stories.

Please be sure to buy her new book on amazon when it comes out in Sept. It's a mixture of her old posts with some back story as well. I know I can't wait for it.

Here's an actual interview that she had on Alexander Russo's blog This Week in Education.

Apples to the students....

The future of teaching is slowing changing and for this Houston Community College course, it's already here. Lifang Tien, a biology professor, and Roger Boston, who teaches computer science and business technology, received $100,196 from a fund created by HCC Chancellor Mary Spangler to encourage innovation, then used the money to buy phones and pay the monthly bills. The students have to give the phones back by the end of the semester.

I find this to be extremely exciting and I'm very interested to see how it pans out for overall teaching. I always felt that, laptops although as helpful as they are, can be quite a hassle with and a pain to lug around. I love how small and compact the apple iphones are. They have all the features and capabilities of a laptop, without the bulk and hassle. Which just makes one less thing for students to carry around from class to class.

I was just at a conference last weekend, and I became a bit frustrated at how distracting some of the laptops were. Could those distractions be minimized by something smaller? I'm not sure, but I would love to find out. I'm not even going to get into that opening sound that the computer makes when it's turned on for the first time. We all know that sound!!!

Take a moment and just think how you could incorporate the apple iphone into your teaching. Do you think it would be a wise idea to move in this direction for teachers, and for students? I love all versatility of it, and hopefully we'll have more data that will guide us, one way or the other.

Here's the story from the Houston chronicle for more info.