Student Teaching 3.0

Brad Currie and Starr Sackstein at a recent visit with pre-service teachers at Rider University.

Recently I sat down with a pre-service teacher who was ready to embark on her student teaching experience for the spring semester. She had many questions as it related to her role as the "teacher in charge" and how to land a job in the 21st Century. During our discussion I recommended she explore the use of several resources that could promote the success of students, engage stakeholders in her classroom's story, and most importantly help her grow as an educator. Below you will find these resources that were recommended to her and that have also made me a better educator over the years.

Twitter ~ Follow content specific hashtags, share best practices, assess student's knowledge, and tell your classroom's story in a 140 characters or less. Specifically explore the New Teacher Chat hashtag #ntchat

Remind ~ Formerly called Remind 101, this tool allows educators to disseminate information in a safe manner. Choose to communicate via text, email, or push notification.

Blogging ~ Consider using a site like Weebly or Wordpress to reflect on your experiences as an educator. Reading education blogs also helps educators realize that others are experiencing the same things on a daily basis.

ClassDojo ~ Manage your classroom virtually, celebrate student accomplishments, and communicate timely student information to school stakeholders.

Edmodo ~ Create an online learning environment where students can turn in assignments and teachers can provide feedback.

Connected Educator Series ~ Check out this series of books that addresses the importance of integrating technology, social media, and web tools in the educational world

What Great Teachers Do Differently ~ Todd Whitaker provides tremendous insight on what it means for a teacher to do what's best for kids all day every day.

Teach Like a Pirate ~ Dave Burgess provides guidance on teaching with passion and making learning fun for students.

Teaching Mythologies Exposed ~ Starr Sackstein shares what is reality and what is myth in the world of education.

Harry Wong ~ Check out Harry Wong's monthly post on Teachers.Net related to best practices in classroom management.

Google Certified Teacher ~ So many school districts are transitioning to Google Apps for Education. It behooves educators to become certified in tools like Gmail and Drive in order to push the envelope with collaboration and communication.

Teaching Channel ~ Watch teachers in action as they integrate bet practice strategies to meet the needs of diverse learners.

This list can be overwhelming which is why I ask you to pick three to try out. Share this blog post with other like-minded educators and feel free to add more resources to this document or in the comment section below.

Brad Currie is the author of All Hands on Deck: Tools for Connecting Educators, Parents, and Communities. He is one of the founding partners of Evolving Educators LLC. Brad is an ASCD Emerging Leader, Bammy Award Finalist, ClassDojo Thought Leader and Google Certified Educator. He currently serves as a K-8 Supervisor of Instruction and Middle School Vice Principal for the Chester School District in Chester, NJ. Learn more about Brad by following him on Twitter @bradmcurrie or visiting his website at www.bradcurrie.net.