I tried to avoid for my blog to become a venue for me to vent some political issues in education happening in our school district, although I will be posting more about my own experiences and reflections here related to education reform. My goal for having this blog is to share my resources with the teachers, parents, students, and other professionals in this field in my school district, across the country and around the globe. For six years, I have been getting emails and feedback from teachers around and outside the country thanking me for the vast resources, teaching tips and ideas, news articles, etc... my blog has served its purpose.
Teachers in Kentucky's Jefferson County are slowly integrating social-networking Web sites into the classroom, saying the sites help improve student learning and communication with parents. One teacher has established a classroom Twitter page and selects students to post short updates about classroom activities throughout the day for parents. Teachers also are using YouTube in lessons, and officials say they are considering lifting a ban on Facebook in schools. The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.)
Educators should take advantage of the popular social-networking site Facebook as a free and timely forum for sharing ideas and improving education, writes Nancy Flanagan, a former teacher who is an education writer and consultant. If teachers can overlook the site's tendency toward lightweight social content and administrators can work through filtering issues, the site could provide a user-friendly and highly collaborative tool for teachers, schools and professional associations, Flanagan writes. Education Week/Teacher in a Strange Land blog
Students who are gifted at a Tennessee elementary school produce a video news program shown throughout the school each morning. The fourth- and fifth-graders create the 5- to-7-minute program in the school's news studio equipped with a green screen, video cameras, a mixer, a laptop and other equipment, which was funded through a grant, fundraisers and private donations. "I've learned a lot and it's fun -- problem-solving, technology. ... We all have jobs, but we're all needed to fit it together," one student news anchor said. Farragut Press (Tenn.)
Having students create written responses to news photos of the Haitian earthquake and its aftermath or tackling the science behind the natural disaster are two ways educators might address this recent event in the classroom, according to suggestions outlined in this blog post. The writers offer links to background materials on the history of Haiti and relief organizations that provide aid to those affected by such events. The New York Times/The Learning Network blog 
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