Instructify

First off, if you enjoy Instructify, you probably already know of a few other education blogs out there, but I found a few more that will make a nice addition to your RSS or Google Reader. Here is a handful, in no particular order.

Adventures in Educational Blogging – Written by Susan Sedro, who describes her blog as “A modest attempt at discovering if social technologies such as blogs and wikis can make teaching and learning more relevant and effective.” A modest attempt, maybe, but Sedro has some fun musings on the ways Web 2.0 is a valuable tool in our schools. A former 5th grade teacher and now Singaporean ex-pat, Sedro’s humor and knowledge come through in her writing. In a recent post, she muses: As you could predict, many students forgot to complete step 8. Fortunately, most of them did remember to paste the photo name and URL onto the photo sources form, so it was easy to locate the photo again and save it to their computer. Check out Adventures in Educational Blogging for a fun and easy-to-relate-to series of posts by someone who gets it.

2 Cents Worth – David Warlick, author of Raw Materials for the Mind: A Teacher’s Guide to Digital Literacy, Classroom Blogging, and creator of Citation Machine, gives his 2 cents on this blog for educators and those interested in literacy in a rapidly changing world. Warlick is transparent and open about his opinions and ideas, which makes him a compelling read and someone to keep on your radar. He’s got some interesting theories, and blogs about his travels as a speaker and classroom technology advocate. He also has a podcast worth a listen called Connect Learning.

Is Our Children Learning? – Yep, you read that right, it isn’t a typo. The title of this Bronx teacher’s blog is taken from a quote of our not-for-long president Georgie W, back in ’00 “The question is rarely asked: Is our children learning?”  This blog is less heavy handed in theory and practice, but has some great musings from the day-to-day life of a teacher “Ruben” and his experience in the NYC school system. Here’s a tidbit to give you an idea of Ruben’s big-city teaching life: Apparently, her friends told her they saw a spirit in the bathroom and she was scared that she could die. When she told her mom about it, her mom told her she had seen a spirit before too. How exactly do you respond to something like this?

High Techpectations – Another cleverly named teacher blog, this one is also about technology in the classroom and beyond, but is voiced by Lucy Gray, who serves as the lead technology coach at the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute. Lucy’s blog is full of great resources and insights, including a peek into her own life as a mother of two. She’s raising her own kids in a Web 2.0 world, and seems to have a grasp on technology as it pertains to education. She’s also got a great web presence on various social media sites from Twitter to Digg, you can find her by the name elemenous.

DetentionSlip – This blog is dedicated to news on the education forefront, because it’s important to know what’s going on in schools other than your own. Presented with a semi-snarky and often humorous voice, this blog is a great resource for gathering education information no matter how strange or unlikely it seems. This is a blog more for in-the-know teachers and parents though, so it might be best to keep your younger students from reading some of it. The pictures accompanying the often-ridiculous posts will keep you cracking up, though.  -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Photo credit: NightRPStar on Flickr