Archive for the ‘Blogging & Technology’ Category
If you haven’t stopped by the actual website for So You Want To Teach? in a few months, er weeks, er days, er hours, you may not recognize it. I have used my summertime to really put in some solid effort into adjusting the layout of the blog. I haven’t done a full-on redesign since March of 2009. Since that time, I’ve added a few widgets here and something else over there, but never really spent a lot of concentrated time really thinking about the layout of the blog. Until recently.
How it all began
Quite frankly, I got bored of looking at the blog each day. I had some stuff there that just really didn’t make sense. It was more cluttered…
Tags
Comments
You are currently reading the 501st article on this site
Over the past few years of my time in the blogosphere, I’ve seen some blogs come and go. I’ve seen some great ones start up and hopefully even been able to send out some positive blogging encouragement to some of these folks in the process, either via Twitter or by linking to their blogs. Whatever the case, it’s always encouraging to see new bloggers start into the effort.
With all things, there are numerous people who start out but simply fail to follow through. It’s just the human propensity we have for starting something new and moving on after it loses its newness. I’ve had times in my blogging…
Tags
I am leaving tomorrow after school to go to the annual Texas Music Educators Association clinic/convention in San Antonio. I’m not taking my laptop with me and won’t be accessing a computer besides my iPhone, so I will be away from blogging for the rest of the week. I don’t want to spend a long time here, but I thought I would note that Thursday marks the third anniversary of So You Want To Teach?
This has been a fun project. I’ve learned a whole lot about web development, myself, teaching, and the art of blogging through the building and maintaining of this site. It has become more of a burden than I ever imagined, but I do enjoy the…
Tags
This evening, I decided to do something I’ve been toying around with since the summer. I finally deleted comments from my blog entirely.
Where it all began
I began this blog as a hobby back in the spring of 2007, shortly after I began to learn more about the potential that blogs held. Life was much simpler back then. For one thing, I taught 6th grade beginning band only. My obligations outside of school were minimal, and the amount of time I spent in front of the computer was similarly low. Life was much simpler back then.
I long for that again.
Where it has taken me
In the fall of 2007, I moved…
Tags
I tried the alternative comment system DISQUS for a few months here and have just grown tired of it. Since installing it in October, I have noticed:
- A decrease in the number of relevant comments on my blog
- An increase in the number of spammy comments that get approved
- An increase in the number of complaints about the difficulty of commenting on my blog
- A substantial increase in the the time it takes for pages on my site to load
I turned off DISQUS commenting this morning and while I lost a number of comments that have been posted to my site, I also notice that some of the comments posted on DISQUS actually were preserved. I also…
Tags
Over 10,000 of the visits to SYWTT this year came from nine sources. The top three alone actually sent me over 6,200 visitors. This is incredible, and I need to thank all of you for the help you’ve provided me.
Top referring blogs
These are the blogs that have sent the most visitors my way in 2009. I cannot thank these people enough for taking the time out of their schedule in one way or another and finding something on my site that resonated enough with them to send their readers my way. You people rock!
- It’s Not All Flowers And Sausages
- TutorFi.com with the post 50 Reasons Why I Enjoy Being A Teacher
- Guy Kawasaki with the post
…
Tags
Over the past (almost) three years of blogging, I have learned a lot more about myself, teaching, blogging, WordPress, CSS, HTML, and social media than I ever really thought I would. Most of it has been good, or at least fun. Some of it hasn’t been all that great, but I keep on keeping on.
As we close out each year, I like to take a sort of retrospective on the past year and look at some of the most popular articles from the year. I’ve traditionally broken this retrospective into three individual posts (2007 Loneliest/Busiest/Overlooked, 2008 Loneliest/Busiest/Overlooked), but this year I’ll do things a little differently and pack everything into one huge year-end blowout.
The busiest articles of 2009
Tags
Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. More guest posts by Karen for SYWTT are available here.
Teachers who are interested in furthering their education can find many free education resources online. There are colleges, universities, and education associations that offer free courses as well as informational sites that provide details on earning advanced degrees, certificates, and continuing education credits. Here are 15 free online education resources to explore in your spare time.
Thinkfinity – Thinkfinity provides free interactive webinars, online courses, and instructional videos for teachers and afterschool practitioners. Graduate credit is available for some of the courses.
Teachers Network – The Teachers Network offers a wide range of how-to’s for teachers. Covered topics include finding a teaching position,…
Tags
Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online school for OnlineSchool.net.
Nearly everyone is familiar with Moodle, the learning management system that allows teachers to communicate and share learning resources online. But Moodle isn’t the only free platform that can accomplish these tasks. There are many other free tech tools and sites that offer similar capabilities. Here are 20 tools worth exploring.
Engrade – Over 150,000 teachers use Engrade’s suite of tools to manage their classrooms online. The tools allow teachers to post assignments, grades, and attendance books on the web. Engrade can also be used to connect and privately communicate with administrators, parents, and students.
21Classes…
Tags
I have been getting more and more into sharing information via Twitter recently. With 1,300 RSS subscribers, and only 850 Twitter followers, I know that not all of my readers are getting all of the links that I share. I thought it might be fun to share with you some of the links that I came across last month and shared on Twitter. If you aren’t following me on Twitter yet, you should start: @sywtt
Also, if you’re on Google Wave and would like to add me, feel free! My address is soyouwanttoteach.com@googlewave.com
- 5 great resources to find out about Google Wave
- 5 Reasons Google Wave Is Not Ready
- 5 Step Change Strategy
- Five Technology Lessons Every Teacher Can
…
Tags
I have been asked to pass along a request. Unfortunately, I had a pep rally this morning and a football game this evening.
I’m hosting the next EduCarnival at my blog (http://imadreamerteacher.blogspot.com/), and there aren’t a ton of submissions. Since you have a widely read blog, I was wondering if you could post a short thing about how people could still submit today? It’s too late to do it through the form, but they could email me links directly at imadreamerteacher@gmail.com.
EDIT: It’s now too late to submit…but check out the EduCarnival V2 Issue 11 anyway.
Tags
Guest post from Karen Schweitzer, the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online degree programs for OnlineDegreePrograms.org.
Teachers who are looking for technology to implement in their classroom can find many different resources online. From presentation apps to educational microblogs, the Internet has everything teachers need to improve learning experiences and productivity in the classroom. Here are 15 free ed-tech resources worth exploring:
Empressr – Empressr is a free, online presentation tool. It can be used to upload photos, audio, and video. Uploaded information can be shared publicly or with a select group of people.
Web-Chops – This unique web app makes it easy for teachers to share portions of the web with their students. Web-Chops allows…
Tags
Comment
I got my Google Wave invitation the day the first set of invites came out. Today on Twitter, a friend asked me if Google Wave was as amazing as he’s heard it is. My response was something along the lines of:
The potential of Google Wave is still pretty amazing, but the implementation of it so far is not there.
That being said, I have to keep in mind that it is still in alpha testing phases right now, and thought it has been unresponsive at times, it has not yet crashed on me. These two facts are pretty solid for the infrastructure so far!
What is the potential? Well, clearly it has some pretty far-reaching possibilities in the use…
Tags
Today is the day. Thousands of new users will be presented with the opportunity to get their hands on Google Wave.
What is Google Wave?
Google Wave is a brand new technology that positions itself as the way Email would have been made if it were invented today. (Watch the 1:20:12 long video clip)
Imagine a combination between Email, IM, Twitter, Facebook, and Skype all bundled into one. Now imagine it being drag-and-drop easy, live-updated, and being constantly improved. Then throw on top of that an eager community of developers seeking ways to make it even easier to use and more powerful.
Cool, but what does it look like?
I haven’t gotten my…
Tags
This weekend, I read Back to School: Tips for Teachers on Facebook on the Facebook blog. In it, the author writes:
Some teachers stay away from Facebook altogether, while others — like some of my friends — have found creative workarounds such as only accepting friend requests from students who’ve graduated or those who are over the age of 18. However, it doesn’t have to be that difficult. In fact, it is useful and rewarding to connect with your students on Facebook. So, in honor of all the people who are heading back to school this month, here are some tips for using Facebook.
The article continues by outlining some things that we as teachers can do to secure…
Tags
This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes for OnlineClasses.org, an online college class resource.
Teachers and other education professionals who are interested in starting their own blog or integrating blogging into a classroom can find many online resources to improve their blogging experience. Many of these resources are free and easy to implement on a variety of platforms. Here are 15 no-cost tools to explore today:
Edmodo – This free microblogging platform was created for students and teachers who want to be able to blog and share files through a private connection. Edmodo works a lot like Twitter–it allows threaded replies and a place to share links…
Tags
On the day that the iPhone 3G was released, I rushed out to the local AT&T Store to pick up my very own. I was excited, so I rushed home and wrote 10 Awesome iPhone Apps (Band Director Style) and listed all of the cool things that I was going to download and use in class. Well, a year has passed and things have changed somewhat. So I thought I’d go back and look at the list. I was somewhat surprised to see how it has changed and how some of those apps never panned out to be what I thought they would be.
Even so, I am thrilled at the purchase of my iPhone and continue to find it…
Tags
I don’t use a whole lot of social media outlets, but I know a lot of my readers do. Over the last few months, I have added a few things to make sharing SYWTT articles easier. I’ve also added some rating type things where you can tell me how bad (or good) an article is. I find that Facebook and Twitter are by far the websites I spend most of my time on when I’m online. In fact, I mostly use Facebook at home and Twitter on my iPhone while I’m out.
Up to this point, I have used them mostly for personal things. I have also noticed, however, that my use of Google Reader and other RSS type things…
Tags
If you haven’t visited Angela Maiers’ blog before, you’re missing out. Her blog turned two years old today. She has been blogging for almost as long as I have, and was one of the early commenters on my site who really inspired me to continue pressing on. One of the things I most respect about Angela is her obvious patience with children and her desire for them to be educated as well as they possibly can be. Thanks for everything you are doing for 21st Century Educators, Angela!
Tags
This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer who writes for OnlineCourses.org.
The Internet has tons of online tools, apps, and downloads with the tech-friendly teacher in mind. This list offers 20 free sites that would be genuinely useful to educators throughout the school year:
ThinkFold – ThinkFold is a structured environment for groups to collaborate on documents, presentations, ideas, and plans. This free app is perfect for students and teachers who want to brainstorm, interact together on an outline, and make changes in real-time.
Mindomo – This site provides a versatile mind mapping tool that can be used to organize and store research. Educators can share their maps online or embed them into an existing webpage.
SchoolTool –…
Tags
