Summer Goals

Summer is almost here in our district.  Seniors are attending for their last day today and all students are wiggling in their seats anticipating the last day before their release to summer time activities.  As an educator, many of us look forward to a more relaxed pace of life in the summer.  Yet, as professionals we are always seeking to learn more about our students, the process of learning, technology and other relevant educational topics.

The following resources provide me with a "go to" list for summer.  I hope others can use it for their personal goals as well.

• Teacher Reboot Camp offers What Will You Learn This Summer?  26 Professional Development Resources.  Here teachers can choose from free programs, live events (including webinars and online presentations), and free online classes.  
• If you are a teacher interested in blogging, check out Kick Start Your Blogging at the Teacher Challenge site.   Check out the Free Tools Challenge at this site where you can learn more about Web 2.0 tools including Wordle, Glogster, VoiceThread and more for a total of 26 tools.  Currently these challenges are on the left sidebar of the site.
• Edublogger offers Our trips for getting blogs ready for the end of the school year.  If you are new to blogs, this discussion may provide some information about how blogs are used not only during the school year but over the summer, too.
• Edutopia is full of rich resources including blogs, polls, group discussions, videos, articles and connections to other educators.  Topics cover more than educational technology including project-based learning, social and emotional learning, assessment, classroom management, STEM, and the arts.  Here is a direct link to the Summer Professional Development Blog Series.
• If you are curious about all of the talk of iPad use in the classroom, you might enjoy 58 Ways to use an iPad in the Classroom by Tom Barrett - a Google presentation.  The number '58' is a moving target.  I've seen this presentation move from 53 to 56 to 58 in a matter of months.  This presentation offers two things - an overview of iPad use and a nice demonstration of Google presentation.

I will continue to add a few more resources as they come across my desk.  Enjoy your summer and have fun learning within your chosen topic.