Science for All is a blog run by Kirk Robbins. Kirk is a molecular biologist, elementary school teacher, and regional science coordinator. He also supervises student teachers, and has a lot to say about making science learning available to all students. His focus is on sharing transformational science education resources.
I chose to follow his blog because he shares resources I haven't always seen. He's very on top of current new about science education, and links to many reports when they're newly released. I also very much appreciate his focus on making sure that all students receive effective science education.
Mr. Barlow's Blog is where Australian high school science teacher Tim Barlow posts interesting science news, most often with video. Mr. Barlow has been recognized as an Apple Distinguished Educator. He strongly believes that with the current prevalence of the internet, where students are able to find information on their own, teachers must do more than "simply transmit information," and must give students a drive to question and explore this information. I'm following his blog because I agree with him about the importance of providing students with interesting, intriguing science, and the news items he posts can be used as launching points to pique student interest.
Compound Interest belongs to Andy Brunning, a chemistry teacher in the UK who creates very neat, clean infographics for teachers to share with their students. Some are of clear interest, such as "does acrylamide cause cancer?" or "the chemistry of popcorn." These make great starting points for student projects or discussion. My favorite posts of his are weekly research roundups that succinctly update students on new chemistry topics. This is a great way to coax students into thinking deeper, and even to consider future education or careers in chemistry. I would like to share these with my students.
Recently followed on Twitter:
Ramsey Musallam (@ramusallam)
HS science teacher in Santa Rosa, California. Posts a lot of photos from his classroom of fun experiments and activities that are great inspiration.
Terie Engelbrecht (@mrsebiology)
Terie posts links to good resources and articles with advice and interesting questions to ponder. She tweets frequently, but doesn't retweet a lot of distracting, unhelpful information, which I very much appreciate.
British science teacher, very active in discussion with other teachers, especially through #ASEchat. He's interested in technology for learning, and posts a lot of thoughts on "big questions" in education which I find interesting.
David Bydlowski (@ICCARS)
David is a science consultant for WayneRESA and I've had the opportunity to attend several training sessions he's run at various conference. He's a really fun guy, who posts great local opportunities as well as good resources for all science teachers.
Alicia Johal (@AliciaJohal)
Alicia teaches 8th grade science in California. I am following her because she describes herself as a "equity-driven" teacher, and seems really focused on making her classroom work for all students. I find her twitter feed to be very inspirational.
Martin Swanhall (@Swanny203)
HS science teacher in Connecticut, not the most active on twitter but consistent. He's a fan of science puns and bad science jokes, and I think he's worth following just for that.
I can't say that I've been making great use of my PLN so far. I do quite like my Feedly, though I don't find time to read it all that often. I've turned to Pinterest a few times, but there's always a lot to wade through that doesn't interest me. The one platform I have not used at all is Twitter. I genuinely dislike how cluttered Twitter can become, as well as how often I wind up seeing the same things tweeted and retweeted across different accounts that I follow. I'd like to become more efficient in
finding information on Pinterest and Twitter, as perhaps if I find a way to filter out the junk, I will find these resources more useful.
No comments:
Post a Comment