We spend most of our days surrounded by adolescents who use a host of technology tools to rapidly communicate with each other. They IM, Tweet, text…  and a bit of that has rubbed off on us. Each time we present, we hear great ideas and wish there was a way to do what our students do — pass information quickly and efficiently to others. We hope that this web page will serve as a means to broker ideas and innovations.

For the time being, we know that this will be a bit one-sided — it can take some time to get a conversation going, and for that we really need you. We promise we’ll do our best to share ideas, time-saving tips, and tell you about those moments when we say to ourselves, “Why didn’t I think of that?” We hope you’ll do the same. There’s a wealth of knowledge out there, and lots of teachers doing quietly amazing things every day. We’d be honored if you would consider engaging in an ongoing conversation about your professional practices.

We read lots of interesting books, articles, and postings but don’t usually have the time to share them with others, so we thought we’d each make a recommendation about something new we’ve encountered. Nancy’s recommendation for this month is to spend time exploring Wikipedia for classroom use. For example, many of the entries include a Simple English version (scroll down through the available languages on the left side of the page.) These entries are composed using a controlled vocabulary of about 3000 words. However, while the language is simplified, the content is not. Great for English learners, younger students, and anyone who needs a bit more background knowledge about a topic!