Honestly, there are other great sites out there that give free lesson plans and have cool connections to Web 2.0 tools. A teacher looking for resources will find great ideas at So You Want to Teach (I'd recommend this to people thinking of teaching) or at Classroom 2.0 or in some of the advice and discussion occurring at TeachHub (I really like some of their tie-ins to Twitter that they've done lately). All of those sites are excellent, but they have a broad, diverse focus.
So, about two years ago, I was a lonely teacher feeling frustrated by the often political and shallow reality of the profession. Yes, I was too idealistic. True, I had no desire for seven steps or five keys or any other kind of practical advice. So, I looked up "teacher blog community" and saw TeacherLingo. What I found was a relief. Although on some level I said I wanted more ideas and resources, what I really wanted was a voice. Teacherlingo became a place where I could be open about my thoughts on teaching.
It wasn't long before I had people commenting on my blogs and I had an opportunity to comment on theirs. The focus has remained on blogs. Not tweets. Not friends. Not plugins for Facebook. It's been this simplicity and ease of navigating that allowed me to read other edublogs. On some level, I feel like I "know" This Brazen Teacher, Science Teacher, Betty, The Doc, Mrs. Love, Sneaker Teacher and others because they all exist in this intangible, at times almost authentic community of bloggers.
While the process is organic, I learned about many of them through the updates on TeacherLingo. I want to assure you that I don't endorse products often. I don't plug things and advertise for stuff on my blog. I'm not paid by TeacherLingo. I'm not a secret investor or anything. I just feel grateful for the existence of the TeacherLingo site.
2 comments:
I agree. Teachers are so isolated. If we say what we think, we are bad people. If we support each other, we are sheltering the bad apples. If we talk about kids, we are condemning the innocent. Mostly, who has time to interact with their peers, as planning times are regimented, grading requirements are up, feedback to parents is sacred? All we have left is 7 hours a day of interaction with children, which is not necessarliy contributing to my intellectual growth (other than to improve my skill at deciphering alleged handwriting). Now I "meet" you and others like you. I say thanks for the site and for all of you who contribute of yourselves regularly.
It's strange, because it does feel like there are many people I have "met" (though I really don't know them in person) and interact with on a regular basis. I joined Teacherlingo about two and a half years ago and I think that's been on the main reasons I've found a group of other edubloggers.
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