Happy March! As the
weather changes and the flowers start to bloom, I can’t help but think of the
similarities in an emerging reader. As an
emerging reader begins to discover how letters work together to make words, they
are taking the first steps toward blooming into a reader. The road to reading
can be a beautiful process. I think this
is what makes an early childhood classroom so special. Just as some flowers
bloom more quickly than others, so does the emerging reader bloom in their own
time. As teachers, we must find innovative ways to teach reading and meet every
reader’s needs.
I discovered, during research for my Twitter list, there are
hundreds of people who share the same love of reading in the early childhood
classroom. There are teachers who blog,
parents who research, professionals who discuss, and everything in
between. It is an assortment of resources
readily available to anyone willing to explore. When developing my list, I was interested in many
perspectives in early childhood. I
wanted to include people from all walks of life interested in education. I enjoyed reading blogs from professionals,
but there is also something very inviting to explore from moms of preschoolers.
I tried to include a multitude of resources to make the view of the child a
well-rounded one. I wanted to show the
beginning reader from all viewpoints home and school……parent and teacher.
One of my favorite resources is from @readingrockets. This Twitter account is concerned with reading
and filled with great articles, podcasts, video links, and everything in
between to encourage reading. Any early
childhood teacher would benefit from this site.
You can research a specific reading topic and find links to the skill
you are teaching. For example, I found a
great story mapping link and was able to reference it in another class. This
would be treasured resource for any professional in the classroom. The articles could be used to gather
information for you or to share with parents about the reading process. It was
a perfect spot to visit on Dr. Seuss’ birthday. The contributors provide great author study
links and book reviews too. This account
should be visited often by educators and parents.
Mrs. Dr. Seuss sharing about her husband In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday, here is one example of the @readingrockets wonderful resources. (click to view video)
Another one of my “must visit” sites is @skypeclassroom . It is similar to a global want ad for
resources in the classrooms. Teachers
post requests to teachers all over the world and share projects in the
classroom. From Flat Stanley’s travels
to comparing landforms in different countries, it is an amazing resource. It would be wonderful to have book buddies
across the world to share a love of reading with in the classroom. Each time I search this account, I find
something new to introduce in my own classroom. An educator should seek out this resource to
use in their classroom to enhance learning across the curriculum.
Twitter List of Early Childhood Literacy Resources Thanks for visiting my list & blog!
What an amazing account @readingrockets is in helping teachers with literacy instruction. I looked at both accounts and they both are truly beneficial to any educational professional looking to add new techniques and strategies into their classroom. I absolutely love, on www.readingrockets.org, how the toolbar/tabs are setup for parent, for teacher, for principal, etc. I found the video and podcasts section to be extremely insightful as it allowed you to learn from educational experts, meet authors, tutorials on educational processes, among many other enlightening videos and podcasts. I felt like this is a very user friendly site and think it would be beneficial for educators to follow and link to, in order, to access all the educational resources available from this account.
ReplyDeleteI also found @skypeclassroom to be a phenomenal educational resource. I really liked how skype’s website gives a tutorial on how to implement skype into the classroom. Additionally, I thought it was very thoughtful of the skype website to break the educational learning process into separate videos for the novice trying to learn how to use their technology within teacher instruction. Another benefit to the skype resource is the potential it has to be a Professional Learning Network (PLN) for teachers. I really like these two accounts from your twitter list, and I think they will be great additions to my resources for instructional purposes.
Beth, I agree...it was amazing how easy it was to find Twitter accounts of people who share the same love for early childhood as I do. Once I started searching, I enjoyed reading the tweets of everyone from published authors, bloggers to classroom teachers. I too, especially enjoy reading the ideas from those who are in the classroom can offer. It was interesting to me that even though we have similar topics for our blogs, we were able to access a very diverse list of Twitter accounts to follow. I am so excited to start following some of the ones from your list.
ReplyDeleteI am especially excited about @readingrockets myself. This is awesome! I am adding this to my list as soon as I finish this post. I am going to share this with my fellow colleagues at our next grade level team meeting as well. I like how you are able to search the specific skill you are working on to find resources to use.
Also, the @skypeclassroom account looks like another winner! I too, had added this to my list for this assignment. I look forward to researching through the account to utilize my skype connection to it's fullest potential within my kindergarten classroom. Thanks for such a great blog post and wonderful Twitter list of useful resources! Happy blogging...Michelle