There are so many great blogs to choose from that it is hard to pick favorites.  The three I picked are more directed toward my love for drama, but I did put one that is not.  The Dream Teacher is a great one for those of us who like to read stories and real life instances than just information.  She tells stories about her life and teaching.  In those stories lies information for future and present teachers alike.  The Drama Teacher and Shakespeare Teacher are of course more directed toward Theatre however they are different in many ways.  The Drama Teacher has information about current events in theatre.  It keeps me up to date on what is going on with certain plays and lets me see what is to come.  Shakespeare Teacher is more exclusive on of course Shakespeare.  This blog gives me information about Shakespeare plays and what currently is being applied to them.  I like that it isn’t just about the information; it is about having fun and being in a different world.  He posts some things in old English like his riddles and it is fun to guess what the answer is.  Each one of these blogs can give you multiple facets of information that can help you in your future endeavors.

I listened to the podcast on preparing students for making good decisions online so that we don’t have to block them.  I agree with them that we want them to be able to use the resources that are available to them without us fearing that they will use it inappropriately.  We don’t want to have to block them from sites because they did something they shouldn’t be doing.  They had great points that students might not know what they are doing is wrong, so if we teach them and explain to them what they are doing and why it is wrong than maybe we won’t have to block certain sites.  Also, teachers are not helping students by blocking sites; they are just blocking the problem and not teaching them why it is wrong in the first place.  So, we are not getting rid of the problem we are just pushing it to the side so that we don’t have to deal with it.   On another note, I agree with the fact that we as teachers need to look to the future even if it is harder for us.  We need to be able to teach the students what they need to know for the future in their world not the one we lived in.  We need to embarrass the technology that we have in this world so that we can teach the students to use it in a way that will help them and slingshot them on their way to success.

Your website is chalk full of inspirational videos and writings.  Each one has its own type of information to help teachers learn new things.  Also, there are many click-able areas to get to other sites that have even more information for us.  There is so much information on this site that no one person could explore all of it.  I have to say my favorite thing on your site is the video about reading and using the black eyed pea’s song to promote it.  That took a whole lot of talent and cooperation.  It was a motivating way to get students to read more.  I know that if I was a student watching or participating in that video I would want to go out and read afterward.  It is an out of the box way to get into students heads and hearts.  Using songs that are current and upbeat are a perfect way to promote whatever it is you want the world to hear.  There are many videos on this website that I would use in a classroom setting to teach my students in a way that they would enjoy learning.  On another note, I love the look of the website; it looks like a professional newspaper site of some kind and it makes me feel like what I find on it will be legitimate sources of information.  It also is colorful and bright which is very inviting to most people.  This site makes you proud to be a teacher and helps you become a better one.

There is so much information on this website that will help teachers on multiple future endeavors.  It is too much for me to get through in one or two sittings but what I did see was inspirational.  My favorite site that I found was the Spliced website where you could cut You Tube videos to fit your time frame for class.  I know I will be using that site multiple times throughout my teaching years.  In drama classes there are numerous clips that I could show to explain certain aspects of acting and with this site I could show only what I wanted them to see instead of have to start and stop clips.  Some other sites that caught my attention were the Google Charts website, QR codes website, and Winded Sandals story time website.  All of these will be sites I will use in the future.  There is also great information on this site on pretty much every subject imaginable.  All teachers could use the information on this site for several classes and to know current events in the teaching world.  Having those updates at your fingertips will help you be a better teacher daily.  I think it is awesome that there are so many people contributing to this site because that means more information to those who visit and different points of view.  The more we hear and learn; the better teachers we become.