My favorite tweets this week were all articles and posts, which struck an emotional chord with me. Therefore, I will not have beautiful videos to share with you like I usually do. If you prefer the more visual tweet links, then I invite you to check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?, in which I share some of my favorite educational tweets.
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The Rubber Room: Teachers Stuck in Limbo
I first heard about the “rubber room” from one of my favorite podcasts, This American Life. Check the link for a description of the story and to listen to the story. The rubber room is where teachers who get in trouble in New York school districts go. They may end up staying here for years and are not allowed to teach, but wait for a judgment. Deven Black, a blogger known for his heartfelt posts, mentions this.
As an educator, I often worry about dealing with students bureaucratically. What I dislike about the rubber room system is the feeling of hopelessness and abandonment. After giving so much to students, some educators will just be left in limbo under the wrong circumstances.
The Origin of Hiragana: Learn About Japanese Culture
Brett Fyfield shared this passionate post about the origin of Hirigana, a component of written Japanese and the name of the woman who originated it. Within this post, you learn about the Japanese culture and the beauty behind the writing. I really enjoyed the storytelling quality of the piece. No amount of summary would do this post justice, therefore, I urge you to read the post yourself!
Second Life Saves Lives: Virtual Worlds for Professional Development
Shelly Blake-Plock urged his education students to start a conversation with this article detailing how Second Life saves lives. I would like to urge educators to begin the same conversation about using Second Life as a teaching tool and for professional development. This article exemplifies how Second Life has been used in health care issues. In the first example, the Children’s Memorial Hospital uses Second Life to train hospital employees to evacuate patients in emergency situations. Several drills are performed in the virtual world with various situations. The article explains how the virtual world was the best way for these drills in order to add realism and prevent the hospital from shutting down. These are just one of several examples of hospitals using Second Life to train employees. I have attended ISTE conferences in which I have seen how pre-med students are trained on Second Life.
In the second example, the article discusses how Virtual Ability, one of several peer support groups on Second Life, is able to provide emotional support and advice to 400 of the people that live on its islands who suffer severe physical, sensory, emotional, and mental disabilities. I know several educators still fail to see the potential of Second Life as a valuable tool due to bad experiences. However, I urge you to read the positive research about Second Life and give it another chance. To find out how to be oriented by a volunteer educator on Second Life, please read this previous post.
Value of Negative Learning: Alfie Kohn Article
Fred Podolski shared a recent article by Alfie Kohn entitled, “How Traditional Education Can Produce Nontraditional Educators.” In this article, Alfie Kohn writes how all but one of the biographies he came across of nontraditional educators involved a traditional education. I believe that several educators can identify with learning how to teach from bad examples of teaching. Unfortunately, with the focus on standardized tests, several schools are approaching education with the theory that one type of learning fits all! Ironically, the results of these tests reveal that most students fail with this approach to education. You have to pay to read the entire article. Read a list of free Alfie Kohn articles by clicking this link.
Add the people in this post to your PLN by using Russel Tarr’s mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!
spedteacher, rainbowhill, teachpaperless, fredpodolski, larryferlazzo, vale24, kalinagoenglish
On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!
If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:
- September Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
- My Week in Tweets by Valentina Dodge.
- The Blogosphere, the Twitterverse (ELT 08/09) by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.
Challenge:
Read one of these posts with your students to spark conversation or enjoy with a great cup of coffee!
Would you like to recommend a favorite tweet for next week? Please contact me to share your favorite Tweet! Please mark the tweet as a favorite so that I can find the tweet!
