Are Your Eyes on the World? – 14 Education Resources for Your Summer

Do you feel that summer energy?  I love this time of year for many reasons.  Good friends, travel, great music, outside Shakespeare, festivals, the beach… Just this past week I got to see my first concert at Fenway Park in Boston MA – Dead and Company. It was a great show, especially the second set which included an extended version of “Eyes of the World.”  Check out the full set list here .

Anyway, with all the summer fun going on, it is easy to get distracted from devoting time to developing our craft and repertoire.  I always told students to use the summer to renew, relax, and discover something new.  The same goes for educators.

To support your summer professional learning endeavors I have listed 14 resources to explore.  Like a sonnet, which is 14 lines,  exploring these items will connect your eyes and heart.   Hmmmm.  Shakespeare wrote it better in sonnet 47.

Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
And each doth good turns now unto the other:Image result for shakespeare sunglasses
When that mine eye is famish’d for a look,
Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother,
With my love’s picture then my eye doth feast,
And to the painted banquet bids my heart;
Another time mine eye is my heart’s guest,
And in his thoughts of love doth share a part:
So, either by thy picture or my love,
Thy self away, art present still with me;
For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them, and they with thee;
Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
Awakes my heart, to heart’s and eyes’ delight.

 

So, get a pitcher of sangria, or a milk shake, or whatever you fancy and have a wonderful time exploring.

Until next time – enjoy!

 

Things to Explore 

  1. Participate – Twitter Chat Index  Thank you Participate!  I have hosted and participated in Twitter Chats.  But I never knew there were so many options. This index is incredible (see sample of topics in the image).  Please explore and share this with your colleagues. And if you don’t have an account, get one.  By the way, there is a “Global” category!
  2. Virtual Field Trips PART 1 -Discovery Education: Take your students beyond the classroom walls and into some of the world’s most iconic locations for rich and immersive learning experiences — no permission slips required. Tour the National Archives, see how an egg farm works, explore NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, or hear from the President of the United States. Discovery Education Virtual Field Trips are fun, educational, and free!
  3. ED Camp : I have been to one Edcamp and loved it. The website has the listings of events in the US and beyond. They say it best “Energy, enthusiasm, and collaboration! Everyone at Edcamp is there to ask Image result for edcampquestions, share passions, and learn from each other. No one is required to be there; they make a decision that they want to learn and grow, and so they come!”
  4. Virtual Field Trips PART 2- Google Earth VR: Explore the world from totally new perspectives. Stroll the streets of Tokyo, soar over Yosemite, or teleport across the globe. Google Earth VR puts the whole world within your reach.
  5. Free Images – Pixabay is a recent find for me.  It is awesome.  In sum, there is over 1 million images of all types for you to use… free of copyright.  Images are worth … well you know.
  6. Podcast – The 10 Minute TeacherVicki Davis covers a lot of ground across disciplines in her outstanding podcast series.  With over 100 episodes, and much more on her website, you are bound to find something that will improve your craft and want to share with your colleagues.
  7. Open Culture:   This is an amazing resource.  “Open Culture brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community. Web 2.0 has given us great amounts of intelligent audio and video. It’s all free. It’s all enriching. But it’s also scattered across the web, and not easy to find. Our whole mission is to centralize this content, curate it, and give you access to this high quality content whenever and wherever you want it.”

 

Things to Read 

  1. Digital Promise – I will always remember a professor if mine saying that education is more of a D and R field Image result for No More Telling as Teaching:not an R and D profession.  In short, educators don’t wait for research before they implement the next best thing.  The result include the continuation of Edu-Myths.  Enter Digital Promise and their new feature called “Ask a Researcher.” WOW! “Ask a Researcher makes it easy for educators to get trusted, research-based answers to questions about real education challenges…(and) can provide the first steps for using research to improve student learning.”
  2. Book – No More Telling as Teaching:  Cris Tovani  has been working with Fairfax schools this past year.  Her consulting work has pushed the discussion and action around literacy  in a positive direction. I am already into her new book linked above. The crux of this book challenges the power of lecturing as an instructional strategy … “when we rely on lecture in an effort to cover content, we’re doing students a disservice. Although lecture can be engaging and even useful, lecture alone cannot give kids real opportunities to learn, retain, and transfer the disciplinary ideas, skills, and practices we’re trying to teach.” If you work with schools or teach, this is a must read. 
  3. Book – Empowering Students to Improve the World in 60 Lessons– Harvard’s Fernando Reimers Related imagehas done it again.  This latest work is a wonderful compilation of lessons across grades and content areas that teachers can use/modify in order to implement global citizenship education.
  4. Mapping the UN SDG:   The International Cartographic Association have mapped each of the goals from their particular perspective. The available poster collection gives an overview of the strength of cartography. It is telling the story of cartographic diversity, of mapping options and of multiple map perspectives. The link above has free posters you can download.
  5. Blog – Choice Schools: I met Ally Henderson and Kelly Cummings at a recent conference in Washington D.C.  Their education blog has a focus on the Charter School world but the topics of their blog – teacher leadership, technology, relationships – are relevant to all K-12 schools.
  6. Article -How Education Reduces “Othering” – I have been waiting for this one!  The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change shares some remarkable research on the impact of Videoconferencing  with students. “Designed to expose them to other cultures, break down stereotypes and build tolerance and cohesion, it puts children from different cultures directly in touch, allowing them to communicate through videoconferencing and online dialogue. The children discover what they have in common, learn to successfully navigate difference, and realize that stereotypes about different cultures are not true.The study found it made young people less susceptible to extremist views, and opened their minds to other cultures and ways of life.”
  7. Blog – Language and Linguistics:  This is a new blog on the scene created by a former professor of mine Dr. Jilani Warsi. I look forward to what comes from this resource.  The blog’s vision is to link  ” L2 acquisition theory to pedagogical practice can discuss intervention techniques that can potentially increase the chances for adult students to acquire native-like proficiency in their target language, and offer guidance for second language teachers to incorporate such techniques into their own teaching.”

 

 

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