Today kicks off the second week of Connected Educator Month. I find great value in being a connected educator, regularly tapping into the information and social aspects of using the web for professional and personal growth. It has taken time, but has been worth it because it has transformed my practice and provided me with invaluable feedback and support. Most importantly it has linked me with other educators who opened up the world to me and my students. Twitter, Skype, even Pinterest have all become a part of how we connect and learn with each other.

This initiative from the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education and invites everyone in education to embrace being connected. For that reason, we will be running weekly webinars all month dedicated to this topic. Last week, I hosted Holly Clark and Beth Holland to discuss Connecting & Collaborating in Elementary Classrooms.

Greg Kulowiec continues the conversation this week with Creating a Connected Classroom on Tuesday at 7:00pm EST. Registration is FREE.

In addition to live events, Twitter is a great way to follow the events for Connected Educator Month – as well as to get connected. Educators across the globe are on Twitter learning, sharing and collaborating. If you are new to Twitter, you can check out this presentation – Introduction to Twitter for Educators as well as this article, Teaching Teachers to Tweet. Once you get comfortable, go on at certain times and “follow” some chats by using a hashtag. Check out this schedule of Educational Twitter Chats to find a chat that would be meaningful to you. Connected Educator Month even has its own hashtag #ce13. Just click on the link or type it into the search at the top of the page on Twitter.

I hope you will join us as we share and learn together to strengthen education across the country. Make this your month to connect!

Quick Links

USDOE Connected Educator Site – http://connectededucators.org/

Calendar of Events – http://connectededucators.org/events/

CEM Newsletter – http://connectededucators.org/cem/cem-newsletter/

Getting Started Kit – http://connectededucators.org/cem/cem-getting-started/

Twitter Hashtag – #ce13

Introduction to Twitter for Educators

• Introduction to Twitter for Educators SlideShare
• Teaching Teachers to Tweet
• Educational Twitter Chats