12 Great Facebook Pages for Educators

Learning is not the product of schooling, but the lifelong attempt to acquire it. ~Albert Einstein

The digital age has reaped huge benefits for the educational profession, and its impact is felt globally as well.  Educational collaboration extends beyond contract hours and for an educator, lifelong learning truly becomes a way of life. While there are many opportunities available through website browsing and navigation, the question for many educators is how to quickly access this reserve of educational information. Where does networking start?  How does one get connected with educational vendors and fellow educators from around the world?

The answer begins with social media. The most commonly used social media among educators today include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and blogging. The most common of these is Facebook. While it does cause frustration and headaches to its million users because of format changes and updates, Facebook also encourages its users to remain up-to-speed with new capabilities. Additionally, it can link educators, as well as parents, to many educational resources that include products, activities, information, ideas, and content.

Facebook offers a variety of ways of connecting with other educators through pages and groups.  The following is a list of Facebook pages that offer a wide variety of educational resources.

Education.com -An excellent resource for both parents and teachers providing developmental information and ideas about children.

ScholasticTeachers -Provides updates and resources for reading and reading interventions.

Education World  -Resources for classroom teachers at all grade levels. Also, provides links to informational teacher blogs.

Facebook in Education -Discussion and information about how educators can use Facebook as a resource.

K12 Inc. -Provides a variety of educational resources for parents and teachers in the way of activities, information, and educational links.

Teachers.Net  -Provides teachers with educational updates on strategies, activities, content, and lesson plans.

Creative Teaching Press -Updates on educational products and supplies for the classroom.

Teaching for Change -Provides teachers and parents with educational tools for teaching students reading, writing, and how to change the world.

ReadWriteThink.org -Resources for teachers on materials, literature, and other educational content for the classroom.

Lesson Planet -Teacher resources for curriculum planning, educational updates, and products for the classroom.

edWeb.net -Online professional learning network for educators.

Educator -Provides relevant content for activities and lessons.

Holding out for a hero

You can't relate to a superhero, to a superman, but you can identify with a real man who in times of crisis draws forth some extraordinary quality from within himself and triumphs but only after a struggle. ~ Timothy Dalton 

I had the wonderful opportunity to have lunch today with several young ladies who not only went to graduate school with me, but are also public educators. After our luncheon, I thought it would be an appropriate time for me to see the latest film, "Waiting for Superman," written and directed by "An Inconvenient Truth" director, Davis Guggenheim.   The film has taken the nation by storm with its talk of teacher unions, tenure, and failing schools. What better way to lure this public educator to the theater to see the next "attack" on the job that public school teachers are doing in America.

The good news about this film is that as a public educator, I did not feel attacked by its message. Indeed, I felt rather inspired at knowing how much our students/someone's children are loved by the adults in their lives. They are loved so much that some parents will do anything to help their children receive the best education possible.  For the parents of the children in the film, that meant applying for a lottery where a drawn number decides which child is accepted to smaller prep schools, charter schools, or private schools.

This film looks everyone in the eye declaring that it's not about adults and delivers a RESOUNDING message that all children are entitled to the best education possible. With consideration to that message, audiences will be forced to look at how adults are creating a mindset for kids through attitudes, actions, and choices. Therefore, everyone (parents, students, educators, community members) will benefit from seeing this film.

While everyone will more than likely relate and identify their own situations with bits and pieces of the perspectives presented in this film, no one will escape blame in this film for failing our kids as students. This film is a reminder to all that these children will one day inherit our nation.  They entrust all of us, their SUPERMEN, to prepare them for the world to come. Public schools should not be viewed as the enemy of learning but rather a vehicle for the best learning available to our children.