A recent study in the Chronicle of Higher Education talked about scholars using social media tools in their research. This is just one example of the way that educators get online and work and learn together. I've got a fantastic collaborative online resource for our k-12 global educators, called TeachHUB. It's a free website that brings teachers together - and is also a great place to find and share resources and experiences.

We talked with Annie Condron, Editor at TeachHUB and the K-12 Teachers Alliance, about Teach HUB, learning, teaching around the world, Elearn, and more. Here's what she had to say...

WE: Please tell us about your site, TeachHUB...

AC: TeachHUB is a relatively new resource website for K-12 teachers. Our goal is to bring teachers together to share their favorite resources, websites, teaching strategies and their experiences.

We want TeachHUB to be both beneficial and fun. We run interactive contests and giveaways, share lesson plans and video writing prompts, have daily teacher-written articles and blogs and foster conversation and recommendations between educators.

WE: What was the genesis of your site?

AC: The K-12 Teachers Alliance, our parent company, has been working with thousands of teachers throughout the country to advance in their careers and become better teacher through professional development and graduate education.

TeachHUB was launched to translate that formal experience of professional development into a free Web 2.0 model where educators can constantly learn from one another and share the tremendous wealth of resources available. We have been fortunate to have such a generous community of educators coming together on TeachHUB.

Since our launch in April of 2009, TeachHUB has been constantly evolving to provide as much interaction and to feature as many valuable teacher resources as possible. We’re always looking for more tips and feedback from site visitors.

WE:  What can educators find on TeachHUB about intercultural and diversity issues?

AC: As you know, the value people place on education is universal. We have active engagement with teachers all over the world on TeachHUB. Many of the resources we feature, especially sharing free ed tech resources, are valuable regardless of the country in which you teach.

Our recommended websites and articles on Using Skype in the Classroom, 20 Amazing iPad Apps for Educators and 100+ Google Tricks for Teachers are universally popular because they share the global resources that foster education no matter what your location.

Specifically, our “Teaching Around the World” blogger Kim Cofino shares her experience teaching at international schools around the world to develop technologically-savvy literacy programs.

We’re also very excited to be working with eLearn, a new online teacher resource that teaching reading comprehension through current events and news article. It is quickly becoming a favorite among international schools.

WE: How can educators best teach about international issues?

AC: For this one, I’m going to let our Chief Academic Office Jim Conklin, who is Canadian born and currently teaching in Mexico, share his international teaching tips:

Today, there is a conspicuous lack of interest in world events amongst our middle and high school students.  Though we have small pockets of students who are always up to date on current affairs, these are the exceptions to the rule.  In order for schools, administrators, and teachers to engage our kids in the world events that shape their future, educators need to push our students toward reading newspapers.  Though many say that print newspapers are on their way out, online newspapers are just hitting their stride, and finding their place in our fast paced, “made for tablets” culture.  As always, our young people are more comfortable, and skilled than adults at maneuvering through the various technological hardware that inundate our society.  We, as educators, need to take advantage of students’ technological savvy, and the Internet’s capacity to provide everyone with fast-breaking news from our cities, countries, and world.  In the end, if we can convince our young people that reading the newspaper is a worthwhile endeavor, they will improve their reading and thinking skills, as well as becoming engaged citizens of the world.

Though I am the principal at my school, I insist on teaching one or two classes every year to keep in closer contact with the students, but mostly because I just like teaching.  While teaching a World History course to eighth graders, we just happened to be studying the “Age of Revolution” while Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, and other Middle Eastern countries were undergoing their own revolutions.  After exploring the British, French, American and Industrial revolutions of the 18th Century, as well as the causes and effects of revolutions in general, we were then able to apply our new skills and knowledge to the revolutions taking place in our world at this very moment. Though this is not common, my students have become enthralled with the history being made in their lives today. 

My work with TeachHUB and eLearn has made this kind of engagement much easier for me as an educator and much more effective in connecting with my students. Thanks to eLearn’s daily articles on the Egypt revolution, my students have completed fact-based and higher-order thinking questions on the topic. These readings have also launched class discussions, journaling, compare and contrast activities, drama presentations, puppet shows, short story writing, essay writing, and Project Based Learning all revolving around the big idea of revolution, and the much more focused idea of revolution in Egypt in 2011. 

I want my students to become life-long readers--not just people who read because someone tells them they have to.  I also want them to be interested in, and hold opinions about, world issues.  Luckily for me, eLearn has really helped me do this.  I now have a classroom full of kids who not only understand the historical idea of revolution, but can apply those ideas to the history being made today.

WE: Please share with us your favorite teacher recommended sites for international education...

AC: We are really passionate about the work our partner site, eLearn, is doing to engage students in the news of the world around them, and improve their thinking and learning skills. 

Some other favorites include:

Purdue University Online Writing Lab:  Great for essay writing, avoiding plagiarism, citations and end notes, and a number of other educational tools.

Aero International Curriculum: This project was developed to create a framework of voluntary academic standards in English language arts, social studies, mathematics, and science appropriate for American schools overseas. The standards are based on CBE's Standards for Excellence in Education (SEE), a condensed compilation of the national standards. (http://www.nais.org)

International Baccalaureate Program: Website for information on the International Baccalaureate Program.  In my opinion, this is the best curriculum out there. (http://www.ibo.org/)

The Buck Institute:  Project Based Learning: Website give information about project based learning, and the various documents needed to install a PBL program at your school. (www.bie.org)

Big Ideas Website: Website explains and gives examples of teaching with the Big Ideas in mind.  I shifted a lot of my teaching around Big Ideas (especially in History), and it has made a tremendous difference in students’ ability to apply their knowledge and understanding to new situations and ideas. (http://www.authenticeducation.org)

WE: Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?

AC: Simply, TeachHUB becomes more valuable and internationally-relevant as more international teachers visit and interact on the site, so please visit TeachHUB and let us know how we can make teachers lives easier around the globe.

WE: Thanks so much, Annie, for sharing TeachHub and so many fantastic resources with us!