Virtual Backyard

So, yesterday I told you a little about my own physical backyard. Today, I’ll take you into my virtual backyard. I suppose you could try to explore this on your own by strolling through my blogroll; however, I’m not sure that would tell you the true story. Many of us have blogrolls and bloglines that go on forever, but what are the five sites or blogs that you consider to be the backbone of your online life or learning. Here’s mine.

National Writing Project website www.nwp.org As as National Writing Project teacher and leader, and the professional development coordinator for my local writing project site, the Western Massachusetts Writing Project www.umass.edu/wmwp I visit both of these site pretty much on a daily basis for communicating with colleagues, finding resources and building new programs aimed at building teacher learning and leadership to improve learning in our nation’s classrooms.

Kevin’s Meandering Mind www.dogtrax@edublogs.org Kevin is a colleague of mind who remains one of my best online mentors. I go to Kevin’s blog to learn about new technologies, the ways technology can be used in the classroom, neat tools, interesting educational reflections and conversations, and inspiration from his writing, poetry and music. And Kevin is who brought me into the blogging world. A huge resource for me.

Author! Author! http://www.annemini.com/ When I’m looking to learn about the writing and publishing world (which I always am) I go to the no nonsense blog of Anne Mini. So, if it is information and guidance about agents, manuscripts, queries, or the synopsis your looking for, here’s my number one resource. She’s helped me write a great query and synopsis–or say the agents! Still waiting for the same response to the writing in my novel!

Planet Esme http://www.planetesme.com/ is the place I go to learn about new books for my reading world.  Since I write for children, I spend a lot of time reading children’s books, especially middle grade novels.  But this great resource also points me in the direction of great resources to share with the hundreds of teachers I work with.  Check out her Book a Day blog http://planetesme.blogspot.com/  And don’t forget about The Fire Escape by author Mitali Perkins, a great resource and exploration of children’s multi-cultural literature.

CISA (Communities Involved in Sustainable Agriculture) is my online resource for buying local, for food festivals in my area, and for linking to my own CSA farm Simple Gifts where my purchased share brings local, organic food right to my table every week during the late spring, all summer long and right into the fall.  Be a hero, buy local.

So, there it is, my online backyard that supports and sustains my online world.

Cheers!