Technolanguages is a site I have belonged to for a while, but had forgotten about it!  Sometimes, I take workshops, find something that I become very interested in, sign up and then never log into it again.  It's probably a side effect of my vida loca... :)  It's expanded a little bit since my last visit, but it doesn't appear that the forums are any more active than they used to be.

Spanish Teacher Chatboard is another place I use to connect to others in my field.  The chatboard takes on a couple of different tangents: one is the "newbies" asking for advice and the other is discussion about how to approach different topics within our common levels.  I like this particular site because one can take a look and discuss theory and practice as well as connect on grade level and find out what topics are trending in the field.

I can't say that I contribute much to these boards, I mostly lurk with a purpose in mind.  At this point in my career, I feel more confident beginning a thread or contributing my ideas to add to a discussion.  After all, I'm always willing to learn something new!

What Will "THEY" Think of Next?

So, the newest thing on the horizon is this service called REMIND 101: find it here.  It's being touted as TWITTER for TEACHERS and if it's as fabulous as it sounds - I'm in business!  Rather than having to have access to a computer for email or a social networking site, students AND parents can receive SMS text (you don't even need a SMARTPHONE!) messages from the teacher.  The service is only TEACHER to STUDENT/PARENT and there are no exchanges of numbers, but rather just the use of a pre-determined code for each group. Sounds secure to me! In addition, a history of messages is retained by the teacher on a dashboard feature.

I can definitely see myself using this in my classroom to remind students/parents of upcoming quizzes/tests/projects or interesting events.  One of the people who commented mentioned that he taught in a lower income district (as do I) and that not every home has a computer, but more and more homes use cellphones and have access to text messages. I don't really see a downside to using this service and if it can improve communication between school and home, I'm all for it!  I plan to do a little research, present it to my higher-ups and ask for permission to use it with my students and parents!