There are countless education blogs available for educators to read; these blogs discuss almost every aspect of teaching. I have recently spent some time exploring blogs of some notable educators, and this has led me to make some generalized discoveries about educational blogs. The first thing that I have learned about education blogs is that the blog posts are designed to be a platform for discussion amongst educators and members of the educational community. These blogs posts share the authors perspective on an educational topic; this gives the reader an opportunity to evaluate these viewpoints and share their own opinions on such matters. Essentially, these blog posts are designed to create meaningful dialogue between educators and the greater educational community. The second thing that I have learned about education blogs is that these blog websites are designed to be so much more than a collection of blog posts. They provide accessible classroom resources, lesson plans, and book recommendations to name a few; these tools can be used to empower teachers to excel in their own teaching practices. Lastly, education blogs are being used to promote alternative methods to teaching and learning. These blogs are encouraging educators to think outside of the "traditional" teaching constructs and embrace new ideologies. This means that they are challenging teachers to continuously refine their teaching pedagogies.
There are several notable blogs created by educators that I would like to share! I would encourage anyone in the educational community to follow these educators and explore their blogs. The first of these blogs is created by José Vilson; his blog is called The Jose Vilson. Vilson is a math teacher from New York City who uses his blogging platform to discuss issues such as race and social justice in the education system. He is also the executive director of EduColor; it is a platform for members of the educational community to discuss a variety of issues such as gender equality and racial injustice. Through his blog, Vilson is creating meaningful discussions about issues that are happening in our schools; he is normalizing conversations about the "hard stuff" that often goes unspoken in the education system. Vilson is addressing issues that has been ignored throughout history in many educational institutions; he is starting dialogue that has been long overdue. Vilson is empowering educators around the world to examine their perspectives on these social issues and advocate for a better education system for everyone. For these reasons, every educator should spend time reading Vilson's blog.
The second of these notable blogs is created by Nat Banting. Banting is a mathematics teacher in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and the name of his blog is Musing Mathematically. His blog is dedicated to helping other educators successfully teach math programs in their own schools. Banting's blog posts consist of cross-curricular math-based projects, strategies for teaching tricky concepts, and resources that educators can incorporate into their own classrooms to teach the curriculum. Banting is a must-follow blogger for any educator teaching math for the first time. His blog posts are created from his experiences teaching these math concepts in his own classroom; this means that he is able to identify and explain challenges that other educators may encounter as they teach certain theories. Banting's blog posts also explain tough concepts in a simple way, so that any educator can feel confident using his techniques and strategies in their own classroom. Banting is changing how educators view mathematics and making it seem a little less daunting one blog post at a time.
The last notable blog is created by Wesley Fryer, and his blog is called Moving at the Speed of Creativity. Fryer is a teacher that is passionate about the digital environment; his blog is dedicated to exploring different avenues of technology. His informative blog posts teach educators about the many different digital tools they can use in their classroom. Fryer also creates many other blog posts dedicated to teaching educators how to troubleshoot with technology and become more tech savvy. It is important that educators follow bloggers such as Fryer because students and teachers alike are surrounded by technology every day. Our society is becoming technologically focused and it is important that educators adapt this digital mindset into their classrooms. There are countless opportunities to enhance student learning with technology, and Fryer's blog offers many different ways to integrate technology into learning. Furthermore, Fryer's blog empowers teachers to teach digital literacy to their students in the classroom; this is an invaluable skill that these students will utilize for the rest of their lives.
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Hello Morgan. When I was reading your blog, I couldn't help myself but place my field of view into an interpretation of a non-education student; one who may not have been revealed to the world of educational blogging. And I must say, your blog is equipped with a style of simplicity that makes complex topics of conversations easy to understand. I very much enjoyed your choice of bloggers, and how you attributed them through your explanations to a world that overextends school, and how you directed your center of focus on explaining how they are important for discussing real world problems, such as social inequality or racial biases. I very much enjoyed reading your blog post Morgan, and I hope…
Morning, Morgan! I enjoyed reading the blogs you posted but the one you wrote about Jose Vilson? The topics he spoke about in his blog are real issues that are constantly seen in both the classroom and society caught my attention. There was a quote from one of his posts that really displays the social injustice and unfairness that African-Americans face as educators, "when we’re accepted, we’re normally assigned the more difficult classes, or, when one of our colleagues finds a student difficult, pushes said student in our direction..." He highlights a lot of social injustices that people of different races have to face. I'll for sure be reading some of his blog posts since they are riveting reads but…
Hi Morgan! Thank you for sharing such great blogs and bloggers, I am looking forward to following them and seeing more of their content! I especially enjoyed Jose Vilson's blog "EduColor" and his posts about race and social injustice within the community and more importantly the classroom. This is such a difficult but important topic to enlighten students on because of the issues that are presenting themselves today especially in America! In my opinion it is very beneficial to keep students present with the issues going on in the world today! :)
- Tamara