On the way to the cabin tonight I heard this story twice:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127840329

Why is that interesting? Because it talks about how the World Cup fever is putting pressure on the social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, etc.  So why is THAT interesting? Because I've been trying to send a tweet for the past 30 minutes and it's been too busy - exactly what the article said might happen.

Give it a listen.

OK. It's finished. I finally have the entire web saved as bookmarks in my Diigo account. They're all nicely tagged - even if, perhaps, I've got multiple versions of the same tag. (google earth, googleearth, and google_earth) At least all the sites (up to today) are properly bookmarked. There will no doubt be new sites to bookmark tomorrow. (A teacher's work is never done.)

Yes, I'm being facetious, but stay with me here. I've been eagerly and proudly, and even dutifully finding new websites that do one thing or another, and I've been saving them in my Diigo account. That's just what you do, y' know. But, since I don't have a class of students any more, what is the purpose of this collection? Yes, I can now select a tag and see all the sites I've found that fit that tag, but - then what? And, even if I were a teacher, what good is a list like I've made? Not much good at all, I suspect. Yes, I can share this list with other teachers in the workshops that I do, but somehow it feels like an artificial collection. It has no REAL purpose for being.

But, a classroom teacher wouldn't just be finding sites for the site of the find. A classroom teacher would be bookmarking sites that would help to make that teacher more effective. Right?

I don't know. Maybe this wonderful silence that I've been listening to for the past few hours has gotten to me. (I'm at my cabin and the woods are VERY quiet.) But, suddenly I've begun to question why I'm finding the need to collect all these bookmarks.

Do any of you feel this way from time to time?

A few days ago I wrote about how a gifted teacher was planning already for next year and how she was going to have Ted Talk Tuesday lunches for her gifted students, etc. I made up the Tuesday part. I have no idea if she's going to have it on Tuesdays or not. But, I've been thinking about it and about how that very good idea could be ramped up a bit.

At first I thought, "After they've watched a few videos and get the hang of it, allow THEM to choose the next one to watch. They would have to introduce it to the others and also tell about the speaker. And they'd have to tell why that video was chosen." Then I thought, "No good, because they'd have to watch so many of them ahead of time and then the event wouldn't be as interesting." Hmmm... OK. NO way around that. So, the teacher will have to choose. But, that said, I'll just BET that the kids will be watching others anyway and suggesting them. Maybe that's the better solution. Let it happen naturally.

Then I got to thinking about something that Joanne Romano, another CFF Mentor, had said. "What if they made their OWN 'Teddie' Talks?" (They'd probably have to use another name, but you get the idea.)  They would have to submit their written speech to have it checked for accuaracy, etc, and then maybe eight would be selected. Make it a challenge to get accepted. Speeches would be written and slides created (NO BULLETS!!!) Then, wouldn't it be great if they'd get to give those speeches in an assembly - or even as an evening event that parents could attend? All the speeches would be filmed and posted to, maybe, the Keystone Commons, or even to the district's own site. The bio's of the speech givers would be withheld unless the parents knew a password or something, if that was a concern. (They don't have a problem with posting images and names of kids playing sports, though.) I'm also thinking that, if these speeches were given during the school day they could be live streamed to other classes around the country. Stay with me here - maybe not the country, but the state. Several teachers doing this and then the top speeches get chosen and could be presented virtually over video conference units, or streamed over the PAIUnet. Or.. I guess that's jumping the gun, isn't it?

Max length of a speech is ten minutes. Max number of presenters in a night is 7 or 8, maybe. The details would be worked out later. I'm just thinking out loud.

Don't you love the idea? Wanna get that started? How can I help? Say the word.

Among the members of your faculty are folks who are currently taking Graduate courses, some even for a Doctoral degree. They are reading current literature on topics ranging from classroom management to school law to technology and resiliency. You also have teachers who are just simply fascinated with technology and the impact it can have on teaching and learning. Still others are reading for pleasure. The sad part is that, in most schools at least, there is nothing in place to help those teachers share what they're learning.

Think about this a minute. What if there was a way to easily share their learning with the rest of the faculty? And, what if that sharing lead to more sharing and discussions at faculty meetings? We're talking about a culture of learning. Those of us on twitter are there for that reason. We enjoy learning from others. We read blogs and follow the links and suggestions of other educators. Why not do that in your own faculty?

What tools would I consider for this? You could certainly use something like Twitter. In fact, once they got into a habit of checking in on twitter every now and again, your faculty might then begin to follow other educators from around the globe, and wouldn't that be wonderful? The only piece to using twitter that would not make it first on my list is that it's difficult to save tweets and refer back to them later. Yes, it can be done, but after a while the tweets just aren't in any sort of manageable format.

You'd have to use something else in addition to twitter - I'm thinking of Diigo, in particular. Imagine having your faculty on Diigo and into various groups according to disciplines or interest. You could have a Science group, and a Math group, etc. You could also have a group called Classroom Management or Tech Ideas, etc. Then, as they happen upon a good website they could bookmark it, tag it, and share it with their group members via the Groups option built into Diigo. The ability to leave notes on a page that other group members can see means that they can discuss their findings with each other - right on the site. What happens, then, is that they're sharing their discoveries with other staff who have the same interest. They're sharing their learning. This would then give them the understanding in order to get their students using the tool, thus creating a culture of learning among your students, as well.

I'm thinking that a Ning site, or its equivalent, might be ideal. There, in a private environment, the staff could share the articles, have discussion posts about them, share photos, share videos that they've found online, and much more. If not Ning, then maybe a site like a Drupal site on your own server might work well with a little planning.

But, the bottom line is that I think the dividends are many from working toward this goal. You've got a building full of educated people. Why not let them share their learning? All buildings seem to have their own 'culture', so to speak. Why not make it a culture of learning and sharing?

Recently, a friend who teaches (soon to retire) in Central York school district in PA, emailed me to tell me about how her Gifted teacher is going to be using TED videos with her students next year.

The teacher will have a weekly Ted Talk Luncheon with the Gifted students. They will bring their lunches to her room and they'll watch a Ted Talk video and discuss it. Now, with so many of the talks being 20 minutes long their discussions can't be very in depth, so I'm betting that she'll set up a Discussion Forum for them to use, as well.

Isn't that a great idea? I love it! Wouldn't it be great if, say, the AP Physics teacher and the Earth Science teacher, and the Social Studies teacher would also do something like this? There are plenty of great videos for each discipline, and they could always show videos from PopTech or Fora.tv, as well.

I love it!