20 Social Media Educators

PINTEREST PEOPLE

1.      Maria Manore: Kindergarten teacher from Detroit who runs the blog Kinder Craze and keeps up a well-stocked Pinterest board with teaching ideas.

2.      Seusstastic: Melissa D. is a first grade teacher from Chicago who posts classroom inspiration regularly to Pinterest and is the author of the blog Seusstastic.

3.      Megan Zachman: second grade teacher from Minnesota and manager of the website Almost a Third Grader, who keeps up an active Pinterest board for teachers.

4.      Stephanie @ Third Grade Thoughts: Third grade teacher who runs the website 3^rd Grade Thoughts, which is full of teaching resources and more.

5.      Charity Preston: Pinterest user who runs the Organized Classroom website and frequently posts important classroom resources and information acquired during years of teaching.

6.      Mandy Neal: Runs the website teachingwithsimplicity.com and shares tips and tricks for teaching with simplicity.

7.      Mr. Hughes: John Hughes is a full-time elementary administrator and blogger of An Educator’s Life, who has a huge Pinterest board full of educational ideas for teaching.

8.      Schoolgirl Style: Melanie Ralbusky authors the website schoolgirlstyle.com, which offers many creative ideas for classroom decor.

9.      Patti Barker: Fifth grade teacher from South Caroline who posts about classroom management and technology in the classroom on also authors the blog Tales from a 4^th (and 5^th grade teacher).

10.  Jennifer Jones: Literacy staff developer and curriculum and instructional coach who keeps up the blog Hello Literacy.

11.  Samantha Ham: Samantha keeps up boards about Spanish education and English as a Second Language.

TWITTER ACCOUNTS

12.  @donalynbooks: Donalyn Miller is the author of The Book Whisperer, and is a strong promoter of books in education.

13.  @pernilleripp: Pernille Ripp is a 7^th grade teacher and creator of The Global Read Aloud, who keeps followers up-to-date on literacy development.

14.  @ronclarkacadamy: Ron Clark is a middle school teacher and author, and is the founder of Ron Clark Academy.

15.  @frankigibberson: Franki is a 3^rd grade teacher and blogger who tweets mainly about literacy and technology in the classroom.

INSTAGRAM EDUCATORS

16.  The Pinspired Teacher: The Pinspired Teacher is a fourth-grade teacher and active Instagram user who posts photos about creative classroom activities and other things for teachers to enjoy.

17.   Apples and ABC’s: This is a kindergarten teacher who is very creative in her classroom and loves sharing her teaching life and experiences with others.

18.   What the Teacher Wants: This Instagram account is geared towards those who work with children and is mainly used to provide inspiration and teaching tips for educators.

19.  Tattooed Teacher Blog: Mrs. Lamb is a teacher who posts about what it is like to be an elementary school teacher by including pictures of students working and other school-related activities.

20.   A Differentiated Kindergarten: Marsha McGuire is a kindergarten teacher who posts many unique ideas for teaching which are easily accessible and doable for other teachers.

Educational Organizations

One influential organization that supports the development of bilingual students and educators is the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE).

NABE is very involved with social media, and is linked with Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and even has their own YouTube channel. There are many avenues for even nonmembers to keep up with NABE.

If an individual is interested in a NABE membership, the rates are very reasonable. An annual membership for individuals is usually $60, but university student memberships are only $30. A membership with NABE includes six annual issues of its PERSPECTIVES magazine, as well as unrestricted access to the website, discounted rates for other publications, professional networking opportunities, and much more.

There are three publications put out by the NABE organization. One is the PERSPECTIVES magazine. The other two publications are research journals called the Bilingual Research Journal, and the peer reviewed NABE Journal of Research and Practice. Some of these publications are available to the public and the organization’s website.

NABE offers their 45^th annual conference in the spring of 2016, which is a 3-day conference in Chicago. A basic package for the entire event is around $445.

NABE is one of the only national organizations that is actively working to ensure that minority students have equal opportunities to learn English, as well as support bilingual educators and usher in improvements to the field of bilingual education in the United States.

More information can be found at the organization website: http://www.nabe.org/

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A Michigan-based organization which supports technology in education is the Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME). The purpose of this organization is mainly to support Michigan library media specialists, and it does this by providing opportunities for profession growth and access to resources and workshops, by keeping educators up to date on recent educational media news, and by advocating for school libraries.

MAME can be accessed through the social media sites Twitter and Facebook, which both provide extra resources and information about the organization.

An annual membership with MAME is $50 for individuals and $30 for fulltime students (with proof of fulltime, post-secondary school attendance). Joining MAME allows members to be part of MAMElist, an active listserv community for sharing educational resources, Media Matters monthly newsletters, discounts on the annual conference, professional development opportunities, and an awards program for recognizes outstanding professionals in school library media services.

The annual conference is in late fall, and is a two day conference. For nonmembers, the price of the full conference is $220 and $165 for 1-day attendees. Discounts are available for students and retirees upon request.

More information can be found at the organization website: http://www.mimame.org/

About Me

Hi, all!

My name is Lanaia Walker, and I am going to Grand Valley State University for Elementary Education and teaching Elementary Spanish! Super specifically, I am a Core Sciences and Arts for Teaching (CSAT) major, and a Teaching Elementary Spanish Minor.

Directly related to my degrees is my first fun fact: I am the very first person to be going through my program in the College of Education. This makes me a sort of guinea pig for the COE; while they figure out the best way to send us elementary Spanish teachers through. This semester I am in a Spanish transition bilingual kindergarten classroom at Cesar Chávez Elementary School, and so far it is awesome! I get to teach the children everything you would normally teach kindergartners, but for the Spanish language instead of English.

Some things that I absolutely love, besides Spanish and children, are reading, spending time outside being active, hanging out with my husband, watching NCIS (season 13 starts September 22^nd!), and getting to see my family. I have seven people in my family, and soon there will be nine of us, as we are in the process of adopting two toddlers who have been in foster care in our home for almost two years.

As far as planning and using technology in the classroom, throughout my time at Grand Valley I have spent a lot of time planning and using PowerPoint presentations while teaching lessons. They are very helpful for keeping lessons on track and interesting. I have also used a couple different blogs, including Weebly, in many classes to organize information and incite discussion among classmates. While tutoring in English 308, I relied heavily on a couple different book websites, including the Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD), to help me evaluate book levels and quality for my tutees. Finally, in our elementary health class, we were required to find websites and online videos to help plan lessons for each unit of health. In many of these lessons, Pinterest was an extremely useful resource.

Kayaking with my husband, Kevin, in Wisconsin.

The schools I have spent the most time are Robinson Elementary, which is a part of Grand Haven Area Public Schools, and Sibley and Cesar Chávez Elementary, which are both part of Grand Rapids Public Schools.