Personal Learning Network

The first blog I chose to subscribe to is YA-Lit -- the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. This site offers hundreds of ideas of excellent, up-to-date titles in the young adult market, along with reviews for each one. This is a very valuable resource for English teaching, as it keeps teachers in touch with the latest books out there for his or her student population, as well as information as to the content of each book.

The next blog I chose is a unique site entitled Six Things. Each post consists of six items related to English language teaching. As a TELL minor, this website offers some excellent ideas in helping ESL students, such as book recommendations for English language teachers. It also offers interesting trivia and explanations on cultural differences.

Another good blog that I discovered is Weblogg-ed, a valuable resource regarding technology in the classroom. The author, Will Richardson, keeps readers up-to-date on technological issues and practices in the classroom, covering everything from practical advice to ethical debates.

Another blog related to technology in the classroom is the Edublogger, which offers similar information as Weblogg-ed, but sometimes more practical applications. The information covered in this and the previous blog is material I would otherwise find difficult to follow. Therefore, these are valuable additions to my Google reader.

Finally, an excellent content-specific blog I found is the Shakespeare Teacher, which covers new ways to teach Shakespeare. The author answers specific questions from teachers, along with innovative activities for teaching the bard's different plays. This is definitely a fun and useful website for any high school English teacher.

All of these websites have different things to offer that can help any English teacher become more effective by keeping up-to-date on the various issues related to the field.