As educators, how many of us have searched tirelessly for educational resources in numerous locations such as massive search engines, through word of mouth, printed lists from in-services, emails, wikis, etc?  Also, how many of us are constantly on social networks in the hopes of catching that valuable resource before it slides off the bottom of the page into the depths of the abyss?  Regardless, as locations for resources continue to expand it spreads our time even more thin as we search for ideas in order to meet the needs of our precious students.  Getting your hands on those resources when you most need them has always been the greatest challenge.

Looking for effective resources and support materials should not be an ongoing game of treasure hunt.  As a teacher I can speak for all of us when I say that the motive behind this exhaustive search is to simply meet the needs of our valuable diverse learners.  However, as educators, our time is valuable and best spent in front of our kids, not searching the world for resources. It was because of this premise that Cube for Teachers was created.

As educators ourselves, we understand the importance and necessity for collaboration. The Cube’s philosophy was to create a platform for teachers to collectively share their favourite educational resource links into a central, organized and efficient hub. There are thousands of sites out there with amazing resources, we simply point to them from one location thanks to the ongoing collaboration of teachers like you. Providing teachers with a platform to house all of their favourite links in one location is paramount with Cube for Teachers.

Cube for Teachers is Ontario’s only curriculum-based bookmarking community made exclusively for K-12 educators – and it’s free!

As well, not only can teachers share, search and save educational links to resources, they can also create their own personal teacher “Groups” (professional learning communities) for resource sharing and ongoing discussions for ideas, support and professional development.  Collaboration and Communication: two essential skills that define 21^st Century learners.

Although there are already several thousand links inside The Cube, imagine the power if educators from across Ontario were to each share just one their most favourite educational resources!  Three minutes of work could result in a few hundred thousand links – not a bad trade-off you might say.

So what could you do as an educator?

1)   Add a link to one of your favourites resources (i.e. a lesson, video, interactive, activity, worksheet, web 2.0 tool, etc.)
2)   Spread the word amongst colleagues.

If you want to learn more about how to use The Cube, click here to visit our YouTube page.

We wish you all a successful and rewarding 2013.

Sincerely,

Susan Kwiecien,
Cube for Teachers