Participating in #ntchat

Hi Everyone!
Long time no post!  Sorry I have been MIA, just enjoying a week of "non-connectedness" out in Florida for Thanksgiving.  I got back yesterday and was rushed right back into my hectic life, it was like I didn't even go on vacation.  Real life was waiting as soon as I stepped off of that plane!

Anyway, I was able to participate in the first half of the new teacher chat tonight while the girls I nanny for were finishing up some work they had to do.  I was really intrigued by the topic because it was about helping new teachers connect globally and what the benefits are.  I was able to contribute some ideas and they got RT (even by the moderator Lisa Dabbs herself!)  I basically stated that connecting globally gives us new perspectives which we need to teach our students as well.  I think that encouraging students to look at multiple perspectives makes them think critically and analyze and gives them a much more rounded education than they currently receive.  I also saw some thoughts on how we can learn from others and broaden our students' horizons by doing so.  Lisa also posed the question of how we can connect globally and I believe that Twitter is an amazing way to do so.  Even though I haven't taken advantage of it a lot so far, Twitter provides so many connections with people all over the world.  I remember reading in an article about an assignment that a teacher gave the students (they were studying geography and coordinates) and she just posted a tweet for people to send in clues or coordinates and the students were able to play the "game" of finding where these people were (using Google Earth I believe).  This is just one example of how Twitter can be a very useful tool in connecting globally.  I also really like the idea we talked about of having email pen-pals with children all over the world (or even just across the country).  There is so much to learn from other people, and I believe that it's really important.
So anyway, that's all for now.  I have a really long blog post coming soon (I've been working on it for a couple of days) about something I've become really passionate about; Poverty in Education.
Thanks for reading!
Sherilyn