Nings

Nings are online platforms that are created for people to make their own social networks. They create a community for educators to stay in contact with other educators and learn from one another. Classroom 2.0 is the ning I found most interesting. Classroom 2.0 has a forum section which I particularly like. Here educators are able to post questions they have, ideas they have used in their classrooms, and different tools and technology they use. One post I found interesting was by Karen Cameron titled "10 Engaging Activities for Students Who Finish Work Early". Karen remarks on how as a student herself, she would never had in work early for the fear of being "rewarded with more work". She presents us with ten activities for students who finish their work early.

1. Newspaper Blackout - Give the student any newspaper article and a sharpie and ask them to say something about themselves by blacking out the words.
2. Write a Six-Word Story - Using Hemingway as an inspiration, write a story in six words.
3. Read Whatever You Want - Allow the student to grab any book, comic, magazine, or newspaper to read.
4. Wikipedia - Allow student to pick an article about anything that interests them. Then ask them to find a link on the page to a different website where they learn something that they never knew about the topic.
5. Reviews - Have the student read a review about a movie, game, music or book they like and summarize it.
6. Another Middle School - Have the student look up the website of another middle school that they don't know about. Talk about what they learned from their website.
7. World News - Have the student use Google news to find a current world news event and summarize what they have learned.
8. Found Poem -Have the student find any webpage they want and create a poem from it.
9. Suggestion for Class - Ask the student to find a website, game, or online program they would like to seen used in the classroom.
10. Make a Timeline - Have the student create a timeline with at least 6 events starting from the time of their birth.

I think that Nings are a great way for educators to communicate with one another and share ideas. It is definitely a valuable tool for all educators, both new and old.


10 Engaging Activities for Student Who Finish Work Early