Value in Teacher Bloggers

Reading many blogs, Nat Banting is a math teacher in Saskatoon who has an exceptional blog.  His blog is worth reading for not only math teachers but everyone involved in education in Canada. He is highly educated and is heavily credited for his work in STEM. Recently Nat received the Certificate of Excellence from the Prime Minister's Awards for Teaching Excellence in STEM. This award was won for his contributions to Canadian STEM education. This award is one of the highest honours for teachers and early childhood educators in Canada! With Nat Banting making a considerable impact on education, he has vast amounts of resources on his blog to use. Following his blog, many worksheets are free to use, additional resources to help guide students who are having difficulty, and he also includes helpful tips for teaching specific mathematics. Nat's blog does a tremendous job of having useful resources and tips for not only teaching math but teaching in general. He is highly credited with his work and acknowledged, making him the perfect candidate for a blogger everyone should follow!

                                                 

In general, blogging is a valuable resource that not only connects other educators together but gives new resources and materials to share. Education blogs are a way to allow other educators, parents, guardians, and students to learn about their work. Blogs create a sense of community that allows for many forms of collaboration, enhances practices, and gives a sense of accountability to the blogger itself. Learning more about blogging, it is clear that many educators are taking part in this new age of communication. Technology is heavily advanced and using it to advantage, blogging is fundamental. Utilizing all resources present, there are great advantages to reading teacher bloggers. You step inside the teacher's world and can get a sense of what makes that teacher who they are. Having many links, resources, pictures, and new material, readers can fully dive into the teacher's education philosophies. Readers can see what makes each teacher so unique, as well as analyze things you may or may not do in your classroom. Overall, blogging grants readers and the blogger with great resources, collaboration, and areas/ways to enhance one's practice. 

Another great Candian blogger is Patti, who is from Ontario. Patti is a grade four/five split teacher who explores excellent ways for differentiating in her classroom. Her blog, "Madly Learning," focuses on grades three to six and includes many forms of resources that are valuable to learning. While this blog provides excellent resources for literacy, math, science, social, and classroom support, the blog also provides readers with organization tips and tricks. There are vast amounts of teacher bundles that are readily available for purchase. "Madly Learning" is learner-focused and emphasizes engaging material that is suitable for all learners. This blog is an extremely effective resource for all teachers across Canada. Patti creates bundles for each subject, differentiated material, and also gives tips for having a teacher work and work-life balance! Overall, "Madly Learning" should be read by all teachers, and for further support to enhance one's practice, the teacher resource bundles are an effective tool to use. 

Reading "Runde's Room," this blog clearly has fundamental resources that are available for all educators to use. The blog provides teachers with creative and encouraging posters that are aesthetically pleasing to students and educators. Not only does the blog provide great resources for posters around the classroom, but it also includes creative homemade crafts for decorating your classroom as well. Teacher blogs do not always have to emphasize new ways of teaching and are centred on educating students. Blogs, like this one, can provide great material for classroom decorating and new material to spruce up the classroom environment. "Runde's Room" ditches boring and cliche classroom decor and opens up the education world to more colour, design, and creativity. Children must be in a space that is warm, welcoming, and inviting, this sets the tone and mood for what a student's day will look/feel like. Many teacher blogs have a heavy emphasis on teaching material, resources, manipulatives, and teaching methods; "Runde's Room," explores material that can add to your classroom to create an environment with coloured posters and encouraging words. Overall, this blog is an excellent resource for many teachers who want to add more colour and aesthetics to their rooms!

 

Imagine Credit: RLT_Images

Imagine Credit: Sturti