“Online communities of practice and personal learning networks are grassroots phenomena. Through them, educators are taking charge of their professional learning, and research suggests the value is real and wide ranging,” says Dr. Darren Cambridge, American Institutes for Research (AIR).

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers we are joined by an amazing group of educators as we help to kick off Connected Educator Month http://connectededucators.org/cem/ in our own way—with a conversation about what it all means to us, especially when we think about how important it is to be connected locally and physically as it is to be connected nationally or globally and virtually.  Paul Allison, Monika Hardy and Chris Sloan host this conversation about Connected Educator Month (CEM). This special show focus on online communities of practice and includes guests such as:

• Darren Cambridge - http://ncepr.org/darren/, director of the Connected Educator Month project
• Karen Fasimpaur - http://www.k12opened.com/blog/about, founder and organizer of P2PU’s School of Education https://p2pu.org/en/schools/school-of-ed-pilot/
• Kevin Hodgson - http://dogtrax.edublogs.org of the Western Massachusetts Writing Project http://www.umass.edu/wmwp/
• Pamela Moran - http://schoolcenter.k12albemarle.org/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=97282&, Superintendent of Albemarle County Public Schools and a teacher-consultant at the Central Virginia Writing Project http://curry.virginia.edu/community-programs/professional-development/cvwp/
• Paul Oh - National Writing Project http://dcomposing.com (http://www.nwp.org) Program Associate
• Valerie Burton - http://about.me/VRBurton English teacher and new member of the Greater New Orleans Writing Project http://gnowp.org/

Let’s connect the rest of August and beyond!

On this episode of TTT, meet teachers +Denise VanBriggle, +Kym Sheehan, and filmmaker +Daniel Glick who tell us more about a film project called "A Place to Stand,” which Daniel is making. The three of them are using Kickstarter: http://kck.st/NsBX8g to raise money to finish a feature-length documentary about the life and poetry of Jimmy Santiago Baca http://www.jimmysantiagobaca.com

On a recent post on the National Writing Project's Connect http://connect.nwp.org/national/blog/16429/join-us-support-place-stand-documentary Denise and Kym write:

A Place to Stand is a documentary film (http://kck.st/NsBX8g) about New Mexico poet Jimmy Santiago Baca and his transformation in the 1970s from an illiterate convict to a celebrated poet. Since his release, Jimmy has become one of the foremost Mexican American poets in America.

We're not viewing this as just a film. For us, this is about service. Jimmy’s memoir and poetry have inspired prisoners to leave gangs, drug addicts to stay clean, and countless others to dramatically shift the course of their lives. A Place to Stand will make his inspiring story and poetry available to many who would never find it otherwise. Free copies will be given to detention centers, prisons and schools for at-risk youth, coupled with programming designed to help people find in themselves what Jimmy found through his poetry: a place to stand in life, a sense of self-worth, and a reason to live.

Learn more about Jimmy Santiago Baca's life and poetry and consider contributing to the Kickstarter Project, A Place to Stand - Finishing Production. “This project will only be funded if at least $50,000 is pledged by Wednesday Aug 1, 12:00am EDT.” Join us in supporting this effort if you can.

Welcome to our first video festival. On this episode of TTT, we screen two-and-a-half student documentaries by middle school students in George Mayo's classes and two by high school students in Joel Malley's classes. Monika Hardy and Paul Allison were joined by Troy Hicks, Rebecca Warner, and Eric Taddei.