Edutopia

I really found the edutopia reader's survey helpful and informative. Four items in particular caught my eye as I perused the survey list results.

Best site to download free lessons
Best blog for educators
Amount you spend out of pocket each year on classroom supplies
Greatest concern expressed by parents

The free lesson site at marcopolo-education.org offers plenty of free lesson plans that I know I will be able to incorporate, expand upon, or just plain generate ideals from for future lessons in my classroom. As I'm always on the lookout for these types of items I was happy to see this site listed. In conjunction with it, I noticed that a free wiki called Curriki, for educators, students, administrators and parents was offered as edutopia's "Our Take." After looking at this site I would highly recommend that everyone take a minute or two to look this one over!

I was tickled to see that Warlick "walks away with it," as the best blog for educators. His "2 cents worth" offers a "fresh and forward thinking" approach to teaching. It is nice to see that someone we have been avidly reading has managed to receive recognition for his contributions to education.

As an upcoming 20th century teacher I'm concerned with being able to provide my students with approbriate classroom supplies and tools. I want to be able to have a class library and I know that it is likely I will have to get many of the books with my own money. So, when I saw the link for the amount a teacher might spend out of pocket, I just had to take a look. It was interesting to note that Uncle Sam will allow us a deduction on our taxes, even though it is likely going to be worth, at most, about $50. At least there is some form of payback available, although I'm not all that sure that it matters that much to me, since I want my students to have the tools and books they need to succeed. Other tools I would be interested in procuring would have to include technology related items such as digital camera cards, microphones for pod casting and movie making, and a bunch of rechargable batteries!

I can't say that I was surprised to read that parents greatest concern dealt with the safety of their kids, the school district, and teachers. In particular, I noticed that on-line safety was the second listed item under the heading of safety. This is a concern that I share, particularly with the increase in cyber bullying. This has become a topic I would like to hear more about and I'm sure it is a topic that parents would like to see addressed in a positive way. There are just way too many young teens that have decided to commit suicide rather than face the pain, and humiliation of cyber bullying.