Inspiring Videos and Blogs

Over time I collect a large number of links to things that I read or watch and I find myself being overwhelmed by information. There is so much out there that is relevant, interesting and inspiring. I feel that there is never enough time in the day to digest all the information, and where do I store it all? Where can I keep the best bits and how can I tell others about them? Finally, now I have started blogging, I have found the space. I think I will collect the ones I want to go back to, and every month or two I will write a blog so I keep them in one place.

Over the last couple of months I have been copying and pasting urls onto a draft, waiting for the day when I had time to type them up into some sort of order. There is no link at all between these, they are just some awesome blogs or videos that I found useful and wanted to be able to come back to time and time again, rather than just reading once. So this is more for myself, but hopefully it is useful to others as well.


The first is a video on students designing their own School within School. This relates well to what I do at Hagley College (this will be my next post - Schools within Schools)
Students design their own schools


Charles Tsai wrote an awesome blog with an awesome title "From excellent sheep to motivated elephants" which challenges us to think about what we are teaching and how. I love his quote...

"Education today needs to help young people change the the world for the better — for themselves and for others."

From Excellent Sheep to Motivated Elephants



James Paul Gee has made me think about how I can use video games in my teaching. The power of games to change education is huge. Time to look at this more closely.
Video Games, Learning and Literacy


Grant Wiggins wrote about his experience following 2 students for 2 days. He did all the work they did and sat for as long as them. It has inspired me to make sure my students move more and get some physical exercise as well as looking at what my class will seem like from their point of view.
A sobering lesson learned


15 year old Audrey Mullen shared how she and her peers used technology in the class and provided some dos and don'ts for teachers. There are some awesome ideas in here that I will certainly be using in my classes!
A cat is not a dog and other advice


And finally, my latest read that I know I will go back to often, how to fight burnout. It's been a hard year or three for me and I have been trying to feel motivated lately. This article summed it up for me and has given me some great strategies to use. Interestingly enough, I had already started on some of them of my own accord. The hardest will be the work/life balance - there is always something to do for work and I have to learn to stop.
Fighting work burnout as an educator