Teach Me Twitter

Tonight I participated in a live twitter chat; #ELLCHAT. It opened an entire new world for me. I have never explored my options through Twitter, the most used micro-blogging program today. Over the years I have had a pre-conceived notion that Twitter was only a gossip site. After tonight's live chat, that notion has been erased. 

The connections, ideas and reflections of past experiences were brought to the chat.  The topic was on bullying.  More specifically, bullying with ELLs. The best part about the chat was how serious other educators participated.  The chat begin promptly at 9PM and the tweets did not stop until 10PM. I truly feel that live chats on Twitter can benefit any educator with their professional development. It takes you out of your comfort zone and hear what other educators have learned and experienced in their school, and the steps they take to solve problems.  

Many of the educators shared resourceful journal articles on bullying as well.  One of the articles shared was very interesting and I saved it in my Diigo account titled, 8 Tips to Protect ELLs from Bullying in Your Classroom and school. This article provided 8 clear tips on how to protect ELLs from bullying.  This article can be passed along to parents as well. 

By attending this chat, I can now utilize this experience in my future teaching career. As educators we should never stop learning through each other.  Live chat provides a great support to keep the learning meaningful and engaging! 









Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

The Teachers Guide to Twitter

EFL Classroom 2.0!

A Great Home for Learning and Teaching 

Today I have joined a wonderful community on-line.  The community website page is titled EFL Classroom 2.0 !  I couldn't believe the resources before my eyes after joining!  The foremost greatest surprise about this new connection is that I haven't even seen everything it has to offer.  The depth of content materials, videos, blogs and mp3's are endless.  

By creating your own personal profile (which can be private if you chose) you are able to network with other teachers to share ideas of successful lessons and what I also call  "flop" lessons.  

From my past student teaching experiences, I found it absolutely necessary to reflect on each lesson.  Even if it was on a brief post-it note with 5 bullet points, listing what went well and what to change for next time. Reflection is essential to continuously learn as a teacher and building a network to share these reflections, takes it one step higher. You are not only helping yourself as an educator, helping other educators in your field, and you are most importantly, helping your students learn in the most meaningful environments, with the most advanced materials.

EFL Classroom 2.0 also provides monthly newsletters to help keep you informed with the most recent resources added to the site, along with special seminars and training's that are free! The professional development aspect of this website is current and readily available for their members. I am truly very grateful that my professor has provided this site for me to browse and join:)

Any questions?  Please comment! 

L