Educator-Focused Social Networks: Free Lesson Plans, Blogs and Suppor

Educator-Focused Social Networks: Free Lesson Plans, Blogs and Support 

Date updated: Tuesday, October 02, 2012

By Alysia Clancy

Chances are, you’ve joined Facebook to connect with your friends and family. Perhaps you have a LinkedIn account to maintain professional contacts. Maybe you even tweet about your life using Twitter. But did you know there are numerous social networking websites created specifically for the education community?

By joining an educator-focused online community, you have the comfort of knowing you are interacting with colleagues, as opposed to “friends” who might be students and their parents.

You can also benefit from the interaction with like-minded peers who personally understand the obstacles you encounter every day and who can communicate with you on a professional level.

Ready to join more of your colleagues in groups, find and share tried-and-true lesson plans or follow some fresh education blogs? We’ve compiled the following list of social networks dedicated exclusively to educators like you. Try adding one or two of these sites to your social media collection:

• TeachAde: One of the original educator-focused social networks, TeachAde is built around groups, blogs and sharing educator-submitted resources. With more than 400 groups dedicated to curricular areas and hot education topics (i.e., 21st Century Skills, Elementary Technology), you’re sure to find like-minded colleagues across the country. In addition, TeachAde has more than 58,000 educator-submitted resources, including lesson plans, printables, online activities and more, all free. And TeachAde is an NEA Member Benefits partner, providing a special social networking communityjust for NEA members.

• Curriki: Striving to create a complete digital curriculum, Curriki is compiling and organizing thousands of educator-submitted lesson plans and resources. In addition, many of these are aligned to state standards. This free site has both a national and an international focus. Curriki members can rate lessons and activities, and most resources are reviewed by a panel of educators.

• Classroom 2.0: This site is self-described as the social network for “those interested in Web 2.0, Social Media and Participative Technologies in the classroom.” Recent forum topics include discussions about using iPads in education, classroom management and social media tools. Free membership allows access to the forums and more than 900 groups, as well as live webinars and recordings.

• We Colloborate!: With a focus on professional development, members of this site (formerly LearnCentral) each receive a three-seat virtual meeting room and access to webinars. In addition, members can create professional blogs, participate in forums and join groups.

• Thinkfinity.org: Supported by the Verizon Foundation, this free website offers a professional development support community and online tools for educators. Resources can be searched by keyword or state standard. In the Community Hub, you can connect with peers, join discussions, and read blogs and articles.