Google Communities in the Classroom
The first community that I joined on the Google + was a community of Wisconsin Social Studies Teachers at WI DPI K-16 Social Studies PLC. Before I could even scroll down the page an article popped out at me "Why Teaching History Matters: 5 Professors Weigh In." The article covers many issues that are related to history and how it is being taught. Each professor whieghed in with their thoughts and expertise. Shannon Speed, Chickasaw, is the director of Native and Indigenous Studies at the University of Texas, Austin in particular made a really good comment "Pretending that nothing bad ever happens, that our country has never done anything bad, only creates an ignorant population that is very likely to fall into the same problematic perspective" which is a great issue not just with American history but with many other aspects of how global history is taught. This social studies community is one where educators can engage in dialogue around practice and research by adding ideas through links, posts, and comments. There are so many great links on this page not just about social studies but also about how to become a better teacher, educator, and leader. I enjoyed reading all the posts down this page and exploring all the ideas that are being shared about social studies. This also has many of my favorite type of links and that is about history. I would recommend this community to anyone who is interested in history, social studies, teaching or just becoming a more well rounded individual.
The second community I joined was the Iowa Social Studies community at Iowa Social Studies Teachers Using Technology. This one has more of an emphasis on government and technology which I also really enjoy reading and learning about. The purpose of the Iowa social studies teachers community is to share what is working in their classrooms to improve students learning, engagement and understanding using various types of technology. This resource also has some links embedded about the more adaptive history and social studies curriculum that is getting away from textbooks. The information for the classrooms are gained through the use of technology. It makes good points about how students fall behind with textbooks and how at times its hard for teachers to get the information correctly interpreted from the text to instruction for the class. The article also made mention of a database that has been created called BirdBrain Science and is a data base of articles that range in different reading abilities. I think its a good idea and would be interesting to if it will ever be grown into something that more mainstream. The information is out there and if it could be compiled all into one area where students and teachers alike could draw from it I think that would be great. The community has many great resources to look at and being interested in history and social studies it is a great fit for me. I really like the format of this community and the last one I reviewed. This is a really great way to share ideas about instruction and a really good way to figure out what is working good and what should be scraped when it comes to introducing new ways of delivering instruction to students. I would recommend this page to anyone who is looking to get smart on new technologies and social studies with in the classroom. These teachers are bring the information that needs to be shared with others in this profession.