3 Great Teacher Blogs!

Last week I began looking at some teachers' blogs that can help me in my journey as a teacher, and now as an education blogger! I will review three of them as a tool for future teacher Wendy Potter. 


1. Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Yes, the first thing that caught my eye was the word "Cat" because I love cats. 


☼What it looks like: 

☼ Blogger: 


Vicky Davis
Her name is Vicki Davis, she is a classroom teacher with 14 years of experience teaching high school. She has 18 years of experience teaching teachers how to use technology in the classroom. She won ISTE's online learning award in 2006 for the Flat Classroom Project, and she led more than 30 global projects for students since then. Right now, they're collaboratively building apps in the MAD about Mattering Project. In 2014, She won the BAMMY Award for Best Talk Show Host in Education.

☼ What I liked about the blog: 

I love her section: The 10 minute teacher show. In this show she has podcasts, tips and many great tools that we can use in our classrooms. 
This is the weekly schedule: 



I enjoyed reading "5 ways to get laugh in the classroom" I am a big fan of bringing humor into teaching and this 5 tips are great. This is something I will refer back many times. 

I also loved her blog section: What's Hot because it keeps us teachers updated with the latest trends or news in education. 


For example she teaches us how to use Padlet which is an amazing tool I learned how to use in my IT class at Western Washington University with Brian Pahl. 

2. Learning is Messy

Who doesn't like messy? I chose this blog because the title was catchy and the blogger has a lot of experience.  

☼The address: http://www.learningismessy.com/

☼What it looks like: 



☼ Blogger: 
Brian Crosby 
Brian Crosby has been teaching for over 30 years! He facilitates STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education for teachers and administrators in six counties in northern Nevada. Brian fused his "at risk" students use of technology with field trips, art, hands-on activities and a problem-based approach, to build their schema of the world while at once connecting them to it.


☼ What I liked about the blog: 

I like that Brian publishes his students videos. I love seeing the work that students do through technology. That usually speaks to me more than words. 

Through this blog I learned that Brian co-wrote a book called: Making Connections with Blogging. The aim of this book is to help teachers bring blogging to their classrooms as a way to make writing less of a chore for students. Once they have a real audience, they get to write about topics they are interested about and they can respond to their classmates posts, students will be more engaged in their writing assignments. This book also invites teachers to see blogging as a tool to also develop students reading comprehension, critical thinking, digital citizenship, and communication skills.


One of the things I will use a lot in the future in his section of Stem Lessons Activities. I was very touched by one of these activities called If a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, What is a Video Worth? where students recorded how they skyped with a student with Leukemia. I want to keep in mind how I can use Skype for amazing things in the classroom. 

3. My Paperless Classroom 

A paperless classroom? Oh yes, I want to learn more about it. I chose this blog because it made me pay attention right away and the blogger is a great contributor of Edutopia which has become a very valuable support for me.

☼The address: http://www.teachercast.net/my-paperless-classroom/

☼What it looks like: 



☼ Blogger: 

Sam Patterson
Sam Patterson: Author of Programming in the Primary grades: Beyond the Hour of Code, Poet, Writer, blogger, teacher of students: Sam has taught in independent schools since 2002 in the subjects of English, writing, darkroom photography, algebra, algebra 2, and pre-calc, K-5 technology, and making ind tinkering. Sam is a innovator on campus and he uses his blog to reach out to his campus environment and to reach beyond into the community of connected educators. There are many things that edtech can do, Sam looks at the pedagogical opportunities and helps teachers find the best tool for the job. Resource: https://about.me/sampatterson

☼ What I liked about the blog: 

Sam is fun! He has used puppets for teaching and I love it! Here is a video where he teachers how to make these puppets which I will definitely do when I have my own classroom. 


Sam's blog is full of videos of how to! And I love that because I am a very visual learner, so I know I can get back to this blog and just pick an activity I want to do and there I have the instructions! Very practical to me. 

I think is very important for teachers to learn how to make our own educational videos and Sam has an article with a video, of course that shows not only how to make them, but it convinces you how you must make your own videos! 


These three blogs are ones that I will keep as resources and if you are an educator in service and/or preservice, I suggest you do too! 

Your blogger,






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