What I’m Reading: 11 Blogs to Follow

Neil and I taught a workshop on how to subscribe to blogs yesterday. (Want us to lead a workshop for you or your school? Let us know HERE.) If you’re a subscriber to this blog (and if not, become one), you know I read a lot of them. I haven’t really taken the time to get specific, however, on which ones I’m reading most often. Here are ten that I think you’ll love:

What I Learned Today

Blogger Steve Goldberg, founder of Triangle Learning Community, offers a unique (and inspiring) take on education. He writes often about the ways in which his school will be incorporating global events directly into the curriculum. His school is the kind of school I wish there were more of (and the kind I’d love to work at!), so his posts are always a good read.

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day

Mr. Ferlazzo, where do you find the time to do all that you do? You teach me about great new sites to explore. You write thought provoking articles. And you compile lists. Scads of lists. At last count, there were 600+ “Best of” lists, I think. If you are a novice interested in ed tech and you only want to follow one blog, I’d choose this one. It’s one of the first feeds I ever subscribed to, and it hasn’t let me down!

MindShift

Offering up thought provoking writing on a wide range of topics, MindShift, a production of KQED, never fails to teach me something. And when I say wide range, I mean it. Recent posts include “Budding Writers Benefit from Sharing Their Work Online,” “Can Anyone Design a Mobile Game?” and “Do Students Really Have Different Learning Styles?”

Edutopia

A seemingly never-ending stream of brilliant content. That’s how I’d describe Edutopia. Whether you’re interested in Project Based Learning, Educational Technology, educational reform, or you just like reading good stuff, their blog is for you. In fact, their bloggers (an amazing array of classroom teachers, experts, and more) write about such a slew of great topics, it would be nearly impossible to categorize them all for you here. You’ve got to check it out for yourself.

transformED

If you’re a progressive minded educator with a reformer’s spirit, then transformED is for you. A production of the Center for Teaching Quality, their posts are written by a brilliant cadre of bloggers. I never fail to be inspired, challenged, or motivated when I read this blog.

Free Tech 4 Teachers

I don’t think there’s a blog or site out there that has taught me about more new teaching tools than this gem, which is a creation of teacher Richard Byrne. Whenever I read it, I think of that quote by Jack Nicholson as the Joker in the original Batman movie: “Where does he get these wonderful toys?” How does Richard do it? We may never know. Luckily he’s got a great blog.

Connected Principals

You don’t have to be an administrator to enjoy this blog. You may, however, be tempted to email a link to every new post to your boss each time you check the feed. We warned you!

The Innovative Educator

Yes, we are classroom teachers, but we love the way blogger Lisa Nielsen challenges our thinking about traditional schooling and the need for education reform. Whether she’s blogging about technology, cell phones, or home and un-schooling (among other great topics), the Innovative Educator always makes me think.

Education Rethink

Speaking of thinking, John T. Spencer’s blog, is insightful, funny, engaging and most certainly thought provoking. He has some great ideas about education and his blog serves as a terrific conversation starter pretty much every time he posts.

Tech Savvy Ed

Fellow Michigander Ben Rimes writes this blog. And as I’ve written before it leads the league in “ISF,” also known as Ideas Stolen From. Nearly every time Ben blogs, I come away with a new idea about how to use technology in the classroom. Definitely practical, and definitely brilliant.

Cool Cat Teacher

Our list wouldn’t be complete without this one, also one of the first blogs I ever followed. Its author, Vicki Davis, taught me pretty much everything I ever learned about wikis and global collaboration. If you told me five years ago, when I first discovered her work, that we’d be collaborating on a huge book club project, I wouldn’t have believed you. Great resources, great ideas, great stories, and heartfelt motivational pieces. This blog has it all.

I subscribe to well over 60 education-related blogs, so I better stop now. There are tons of great blogs that I’m not mentioning, so I apologize if I left you off this list. I will offer up this Google Reader bundle, which will allow you to subscribe to all of my favorites with one click: http://bit.ly/EEblogbundle.