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My Top 5 Online Journals
Online journals provide easy-access life long learning. At our fingertips are tons of resources that can keep all of us up to date on new research and ideas, as well as foster a community of learning in our field of education. We expect our students to do daily reading and have an understanding of current information, so we should expect the same from ourselves. Here are my top five online journals to get you started!
Your Librarian,
Amber Sullivan
Edutopia
Edutopia is run by the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Yep, the famous George Lucas! Lucas struggled in school with finding teachers and assignments that engaged his naturally curious mind. He was often bored and frustrated. The George Lucas Educational Foundation is helping to spotlight that education can be an exciting and innovative place that creates life-long learners. The mission of the organization, and it's online journal is " We are dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process through innovative, replicable, and evidence-based strategies that prepare students to thrive in their studies, careers and adult lives." This site is set up very visually pleasing. There is only one stream of articles that pops up, with a picture, title, and beginning of article for each one. Up top is a drop down box for browsing specific categories or watching videos. It is very user friendly! Once you open an article, the left side shows a picture and a blurb on who wrote the article. You instantly can decide if you trust this person as a valid source. Some of them are teachers (and it will give you their grade level and state), some are researchers, and others are experts in their own field outside of education. An example of an expert outside of education is from an article titled, "Teachers: Five Ways to Ease Back into School." This article is written by Elena Aguilar who is a Transformational Leadership Coach from California. Her article is not about education, but rather health related, so she does not need to be an expert in the educational world. That is other great thing about this site; it has personal use articles for teachers. We do not ONLY have to read information about curriculum, it is important for us to read about how to deal with stress, or stay healthy as a teacher. And because Lucas does not want students to have the same school experience that he had, the curriculum articles are full of fun and innovative ideas. You can learn about many project-based learning activities, how to make sure you include kinetics into your lessons, and even how elementary school students can start their own businesses. The ideas and information that you'll get from this site can transform your classroom into a educational setting that inspires your students beyond belief. And, who would not want that?
George Lucas
All images were taken from the edutopia website only for the educational use of this newsletter to promote the George Lucas Educational Foundation and edutopia.org
Video of the Week
edutopia.org also has videos that you can watch to show you how innovative programs are being implemented in schools. This week's video is on How Making Connects Students to Engineering and Tech.
See exactly who wrote it
On the left side of each article is a picture, name, and profession of the person that wrote the article. This is Catrina Jacobs and she is an elementary school teacher in Phoenix, Arizona. She wrote the article, "3 C's to Supporting School Success," where she discusses how she Cares, Captivates, and Catapults her students daily.
The Horn Book
You know, as your librarian, that I cannot let the list of my top 5 online journals go by without having a journal just dedicated to books and reading. The Horn Book is a site that gives us just that! The site is a publication about books for children and young adults. It has book reviews, book recommendations, interviews with authors and illustrators, and even an entire section on using books in the classroom that connect with a particular theme or lesson. Each week the site reviews an app as well which allows you know which educational apps are worth downloading without having to try all them out yourself. I also admire that the Editor in Chief of The Horn Books, Inc, Roger Sutton (as seen in the picture above), posts his own editorials as well as writes some of the articles and reviews. It shows that he is still completely involved in the world of children's and young adult's literature. As for the rest of the site's articles, they are written from literary heads around the world, many whom serve on literary awards committees.
Education Week
Education Week is an online journal that handles ALL topics involving education. It has different tabs at the top of the page to help navigate through those different topics. There is a teacher tab where all articles are related directly to your classroom, like promoting better classroom behavior and if cursive should make a comeback. The digital directions tab handles articles on technology such as a Khan Academy study and weeding through apps for use in your classroom. The home page tab gives us insight into the American Education system as a whole. What are politics doing in the area of education, what are states doing with their education budges? EdWeek.org was started in 1996 from the non-profit publisher Editorial Projects in Education (EPE). EPE's mission is to raise the level of understanding and discourse on critical issues in American education. In their role as the premium publisher of K-12 education content, EPE employs reporters, editors, and researchers with in-depth knowledge of school-related issues and data. To get access to every article daily, there is a fee, but they also have a FREE registration you get access to 10 articles a month! We all love FREE and 10 education articles a month (articles you get to choose) is a great way to start your path on staying current in the world of education.
eSchool News
eSchool News is your source for Tech News and Innovation. It is a neat site because you get to personalize the news site to meets your needs and interests. Once registered you get to choose between 14 different topics to customize the topics that appear in your news feed. Topics range from curriculum, technologies, professional development, research, and more all revolving around a technology and innovation foundation. You also get to choose how many articles appear in your news feed so that you do not feel overwhelmed when you log in. Another neat feature of eSchool News is that they accept articles from the public. The articles are reviewed by the editors before they are published on the site to be assured they either generate thought and discussion between educator, help other educators facing similar challenges, or success stories of how a school institution solved a problem or overcame a challenge. With the ability to customize your news categories and have the option to submit your own work, this is a great educational site.
Technology Horizons in Education
Technology Horizons in Education (THE) Journal is dedicating to transforming education through technology. Their online journal is full of information and trends in K-12 education technology. Their editorial board is filled with educators who are still in the direct school world across the United States. There is a Superintendent from North Carolina, a Principal from Florida, a Chief Technology Officer for a school district in California, Director of Cyber Education for a school district in Pennsylvania, and a Division Director of Technology from Irving, Texas. They join other technology professions (one the coordinator of a school library system) to give you current and real life information on technology in the classroom. With an editorial board like that, you know you've got a good site! There are tons of articles on technology programs and apps that are great for the classroom, as well as research articles on such topics as over filtering of internet content. You can also search the site from their search engine and find exactly the technology articles you are looking for. So, if you need ideas on how to incorporate your ELMO, Smart Board, or other presentation tools, you can do a quick search. And if you are feeling extra tech savvy, they even have Webinars on the site. This site is a must to be put under your favorites because technology is ever changing, so we need to stay current!