Social+Networks+for+Teachers

(DEN)** - RRevere || I chose DEN because W-L already has an account with them and it is easy to get access. You are allowed to personalize your page with info specifically for Virginia. You can set up Quick Content Links to as many teaching areas as you want. You can also select as many streaming videos as you want for your content area...a great site!! || (Dave) || I chose this site because I had heard a lot about it. It's incredibly comprehensive, and can take time to navigate, but I suspect all these sites are like that. I've been somewhat resistant to the concept of social networking (I refuse to join Facebook), but what I like about the site is I'm realizing that it actually meshes well with my personality. I'm the kind of person who is always sending e-mails to groups of friends where I share my thoughts on movies or television shows or the like, even when thet're not nearly as interested in them as I am. Now I can share my thoughts with an audience of people who by definition are interested in the same things that I am. Nice!! ||
 * ~ ** SOCIAL NETWORKING FOR TEACHERS ** ||~ === What's it good for? How can it help me? Who else would benefit? === ||
 * **Teachade** - Viet Phan: || I chose **teachade** because it is one that was more applicable to math. I was able to easily access materials/resources created by other math instructors or join a math group specific to my subject (Algebra 1, Algebra 2, etc.). Not only was I able to access the materials, but able to add comments about the resources. Also, I am able to post my own work to share and be critic by others. ||
 * **Discovery Educator's Network
 * **DEN**-Sara || I chose DEN because it's the first one I found that has health-related material. I just joined the blog that Brian recommended, as well. ||
 * **The English Companion Ning** -Lynne || I chose **English Companion** because it has many useful groups (126) including: Librarians, libraries and literacy, Teaching with technology and Adolescent literature. It would be helpful to teachers interested in literature and literacy. ||
 * **PBS Teachers** (Catherine S) || I decided to try the PBS site because so many of their broadcasts deal with historical topics. I frequently refer my students to the reference materials available through the PBS site when researching projects. What I found is a more complex (perhaps "more robust" is a better description) teacher resource source. Personally, I like the idea of the "webinars" PBS offers for its PBS Teachers members and hope to take advantage of some of the upcoming broadcasts. The discussion threads that I looked at appear to be dominated by new teachers or people teaching a topic for the first time and in search of resources. I would like to see teacher discussions of how to include specific PBS resources in lessons. I think this is a site that I would visit on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to see what is new. PBS Teachers has forums for all academic disciplines as well as discussions about using digital technology in the classroom. Regardless of what you teach, at least take a look. ||
 * **English Companion Ning**

By Danielle || I just experienced a professional social network where I discovered that I'm not the only one new in the "field". Lots of teachers are still questioning about new ideas of how to use these new tools in a productive way, or simply sending short messages to start any kind of communication. Some of the groups were linked to wikis, diigo, and other websites.... and this is were I found more useful resources that other foreign language teachers posted. Some teachers are even calling for cooperative project partners, which I may look at closely later. It can definitely be great to share ideas and get new ones. but, i need to familiarize myself more with it to be able to find useful resources faster. Focusing on a couple of groups that could be of interest for me would be a good start, rather than loosing time reading toooooo many messages. ||
 * **Classroom 2.0**
 * **EFL Classroom 2.0** - Claire || This network is for teachers of ELL students. It has some interesting resources, but seems more geared toward general ELL classes, not content classes for ELL students. I did find some fun games. I find the site a little bit hard to navigate. There is a lot of information, but because it is posted by individual teachers, you sometimes have to scroll through a lot of comments before you find one that is appropriate to your classroom. I was disappointed that I could not see the video links that had been posted. Maybe I will be able to see them on my home computer. I agree with Danielle, that networks can be time consuming and that it would be good to join something that was more focused on the classes I actually teach, rather than teaching in general. ||
 * **Innovative Educator and Daily Updates for Science Educators on Diigo**- Mary Fretts || How do you get access to DEN? I have used it in the past using a password from Science, but don't know how to set up my own page. Can someone help me?

I joined the innovative educator and found it to not be very specific to science. I also joined a Diigo group called daily updates for science teachers. I don't find myself going to the site often, but I get an automatic email almost everyday with new postings. I find this helpful and while I have not gotten any specific ideas I have used yet, there are some good ones for other science disciplines I have seen. So I am hopeful. || Kevin Clark || I joined this site because it seemed like a well accepted network of educators. I've joined a mathematics teacher group, but am not sure what resources are accessible through this resource. I think it is mostly relevant for exchanging information among teachers and collaborating on projects across the country. I would like to see more access to shared materials and resources through this community. || Christine C || This Ning includes a number of groups of interest to librarians. Some of the group topics are young adult literature, Web 2.0, and information fluency. A book group is also being organized, to read and discuss //Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action// (Harvey and Daniels, 2009). The book group will include an international membership. || It is basically a collection of links by areas (history, art, literature, cooking, among others). It offers a variety of interesting topics and ideas to utilize in the classroom. I also have found some other good sites; such as [|www.spanish.about.com], [] (from the Embassy of Spain in DC), and [] (Search: Spanish). The problem with most of these collections of links is that many of them have not been updated (or the links do not exist).
 * **Classroom 2.0**
 * **Be Active Your Way Blog** - Brian Pinney || I have joined this Blog and it is very informative, great for health educators or anyone interested in where the field of health is going which should be all of us. ||
 * **TeacherLibrarianNing**
 * **Espanole** (MariselPC) || I have found [] a useful website.

Regarding social networking, the only site I have used so far is the []. I have submitted questions twice and somebody has replied with accurate information, right away. || AP Studio Art Educators** Joanie B || Not a lot of comment yet, but I'm hopeful.The potential is for these to replace the AP Art Studio list serve, which has been dying down as teachers pick up other tools on the net. Traffic on these new social networks is slow to start, but should pick up as we get ready to produce the different exam portfolios in the Spring. I look for advice on curriculum and assessment from other art teachers and the College Board moderators, as well as updates on the health of the College Board websites. || Anne Reed || I joined to network about differentiation strategies, particularly as it might relate to new technologies and tools. I am receiving discussion threads on very interesting topics that I don't always take the time to read or respond to. I am also developing more interest in webinars through this tool. || Rosa Reyes || I chose this network looking for new ideas and innovative concepts to adapt to my instruction. What I have found is a network of many teachers who want to talk about what they do or current trends. I have found that helpful but overwhelming, especially with the large amounts of requests I've been receiving daily via email to be a "friend" to a specific teacher. The network includes anyone interested or working in the Language Arts or Library Sciences. ||
 * **Classroom 2.0** Susan Lauffer || This professional social network has lots of people asking for help on incorporating web 2.0 materials into the classroom and folks are posting responses and links to websites. I looked at a helpful seeming link about free on line tutoring help for students, but it turns out that all the "free online tutoring links" are actually for tutoring services you need to pay for. I would like to see actual lessons posted like how the math department currently uses the common drive of the wl network. ||
 * **The English Companion Ning** - Sarah C. || I chose this site because it's ELA specific, and I get frusturated spending so much of my time on reinventing the wheel with literature that's been around for ages! The site is pretty robust, mostly because it has an awful lot of involvled teachers participating. I didn't particularly like the amount of sifting I had to do, mostly because I kept getting lost down various rabbit-holes, so to speak. That said, I would especially recommend this to special educators who are teaching English for the first time, without much ELA-specific background. Most of the posted materials are highly useful as a jumping-off point for further exploration. Overall, pretty cool! ||
 * **Classroom 2.0** Paul J || I looked at several options and joined Classroom 2.0. The one thing I can say is that it's overwhelming! There just seems to be so much and it takes a long time to go through various subgroups to find one of interest. If only there was a way to access web 2.0 tools tailored to subject or interest areas. ||
 * **Classroom 2.0** Joel R. || I liked it most because it was easily understandable for a person like me who is on the wrong side of the technolgy curve. ||
 * **Classroom 2.0** Anne V. || This professional teacher's social networking site has a lot of people looking for help on how to incorporate web materials into the classroom and others are posting responses and links to websites. I'm a little concerned about the "ads" that are being posted looking to sell teaching materials. It would helpful to findactual lessons posted that will show how to use current technologies ie Ipod in a math class. ||
 * **Amaco Social Network
 * **DEN** Andy || I joined DEN. After spending some time with the site I found great pertinent information which can practically used to complement the existing PE curriculum. The source has great videos illustrating active human anatomy and physiology. ||
 * **Classroom 2.0**
 * **English Companion Ning** Esperanza De Sisneros || I selected **English Companion** because I wanted an opportunity to interact online with Librarians and English Teachers. I have 5 "friends" now, all English teachers and I look forward to some lively discussions about what their students are reading and their ideas on how we can work more closely with classes. ||
 * **English Companion**