From the United States Department of Education:
The Connected Educators project is designed to help educators leverage online communities of practice to connect around improving teacher and leader effectiveness and enhancing student learning.
October 2013 is Connected Educators Month, a celebration of online communities of practice and networks in education. The Department of Education invites all states, districts, and educational organizations to participate in Connected Educators Month.
We here on the Jossey-Bass K-12 Education team value CEM as a way to help educators survive and thrive in an ever more connected world. There will be many events planned all month; visit the official CEM website for sign up, starter kits, special events, and all the news. There are infinite resources online; here are some of our favorites:
If you find yourself needing to brush up on the latest in EdTech, check out a few of our books:
Social Media for School Leaders, by Brian J. Dixon
In this book, Brian Dixon, an expert in social media in education, offers detailed descriptions of the best online tools available today and provides step-by-step instructions for using them to move a school community from awareness to advocacy and from feedback to collaboration.
What School Leaders Need to Know about Digital Technologies and Social Media, by Scott McLeod and Chris Lehmann
Educational technology experts explain how to best integrate technology into K-12 schools, from blogs, wikis and podcasts to online learning, open-source courseware, and educational gaming to social networking, online mind-mapping, and using mobile phones.
Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Leaders Who Lead but Don’t Leave, by Barnett Berry, Ann Byrd, & Alan Weider
Teacherpreneurs follows a small group of teacherpreneurs in their first year. We join their journey toward becoming teacher leaders whose work is not defined by administrative fiat, but by their knowledge of students and drive to influence policies that allow them and their colleagues to teach more effectively. The authors trace the teacherpreneurs’ steps—and their own—in the effort to determine what it means to define and execute the concept of “teacherpreneurism” in the face of tough demands and resistant organizational structures.
21st Century Skills, by Bernie Trilling & Charles Fadel
This important resource introduces a framework for 21st Century learning that maps out the skills needed to survive and thrive in a complex and connected world. 21st Century content includes the basic core subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic-but also emphasizes global awareness, financial/economic literacy, and health issues. The skills fall into three categories: learning and innovations skills; digital literacy skills; and life and career skills. This book is filled with vignettes, international examples, and classroom samples that help illustrate the framework and provide an exciting view of twenty-first century teaching and learning.
Teaching Generation Text: Using Cell Phones to Enhance Learning, by Lisa Nielsen & Willyn Webb
Shows how teachers can turn cell phones into an educational opportunity instead of an annoying distraction. With a host of innovative ideas, activities, lessons, and strategies, Nielsen and Webb offer a unique way to use students’ preferred method of communication in the classroom. Cell phones can remind students to study, serve as a way to take notes, provide instant, on-demand answers and research, be a great vehicle for home-school connection, and record and capture oral reports or responses to polls and quizzes, all of which can be used to enhance lesson plans and increase motivation.
