I value interaction with my peers as an opportunity for professional growth, collaboration, and maintenance of my mental health.  Historically, these functions were accomplished by means of team, school, district, state, and national professional organizations.  I see the role of these traditional groups becoming more and more obsolete as Personal Learning Networks emerge as a powerful and efficient way to communicate.
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I was intrigued to read a recent post by Jay Mathews on his Washington Post education blog about some DC-area teachers who are not making use of a web-based system designed to let them easily post homework online.  Based on the comments that follow the post, the purpose of the system seems to be in question.  Is it for parents of students (especially those who qualify for special education services) to help them keep track of assignments, or is it to be used with students who are absent and need to get caught up?
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The fantastic teacher site TeachHUB.com [full disclosure: I write a biweekly column for them] is running a really sweet Holiday Giveaway.  Just visit their site and sign up as a member to get instant access to thousands of teacher resources, and for a short time this season:

The TeachHUB Holiday Lesson Plan Giveaway provides all TeachHUB members with unlimited access to an archive of 500+ lesson plans through January 18, 2010. All lesson plans are inspired by pop culture and news headlines, aligned to national teaching standards and are a great way to enhance existing curriculum. For more information and to access the archive of Pop Culture Lesson Plans, please visit http://www.teachhub.com/holiday-giveaway/.

There is no cost, and you won’t regret being able to view and download all sorts of useful educational tools!

Happy Holidays!

Like many in my PLN, I lusted over Google Wave invites for weeks and finally received one of my own.  Unlike some, however, I have begun to see the great potential that this tool has to bring positive change into my classroom.  I have seen its drawbacks and missing features and I am ignoring them (for now).  Instead I am focused on the ways in which this tool (a “multimodal wiki” in the words of a colleague) could push wikis over the hump into widespread usage.
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