I am not sure how people taught before the internet age. One great resource is Read Write Think. There mission is:

Here at ReadWriteThink, our mission is to provide educators, parents, and afterschool professionals with access to the highest quality practices in reading and language arts instruction by offering the very best in free materials.

And who doesn't like FREE and HIGH QUALITY?!

One unit that I liked in particular was on creating a poetry slam. It jives with my intent to bring students' lives in to the classroom in a meaning and authentic way. Another thing this unit has going is how it is foregrounded with ELL and bilingual children in mind. As always, adapt to suit your needs!


http://www.readwritethink.org/resources/resource-print.html?id=30525

I have arrived...

As part of the Urban Teaching Program at Metro State University, I have to take a technology class. Well, this is it! You'll see mostly required homework for class now. There is no time for much more than that. Perhaps later on I will do a better job and develop this into something better (and read the books on my ever growing WANT to read list). For now it is what it is. Don't ever discount the importance of merely surviving. From there, potential is limitless!

So for now, the required stuff...

Blogging: Verb. To post ramblings on the interweb in the form of an online journal.
Blogger: Noun. The person who maintains the content and access of the blog.
Feed Burner: Noun. An add on program to a blog that can track traffic, origin of traffic and add blog to your reading list.
My 2c worth: I am very active on a number of message boards and follow several blogs. As with the rest of the internet, they are a fantastic way to communicate. But... everything in moderation. When it comes to blogs, it helps to have a healthy diet of a few blogs that interest you versus a junk diet of drama worthy blogs. There are only so many minutes in a day after all!

Here are three that I spend time reading:
http://apparentwind.wordpress.com/2011/01/ <--- A friend of mine who teaches at the Waldorf school in Minneapolis. They loop with the kids from 1st-8th grade. Yes, that makes eight years of the same students with the same teacher. The philosophy differs dramatically from traditional schools and focuses heavily on the arts and whole child. It's not perfect but worth examination.

http://misterteacher.blogspot.com/ <--- Middle school teacher in Ohio who can show anyone a thing or two about using technology on the classroom. He keeps it up to date and nicely tagged with key words.

http://sixwingedseraph.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/pattern-recognition/ <--- This blog belongs to Professor Wells from Metro U. It might not have a high number of posts but what is there is dense.

All the above three blogs have helped me already. They flesh out my educational beliefs and cover the range of learners' age. They also hit on a very different educational pedagogy, tradition high school but tech heavy and traditional at the college level.