Journal 7: My Personal Learning Network

NETS-S 1, 3, 4 & 5

PLN

A PLN is a personal learning network that utilizes technology to connect and grow with like minded individuals. As an educator, my PLN is a series of tools used such as twitter, diigo, blogs and wikis that are accessed to stay connected to the profession. With the use of such tools, I can stay up to date on some of the latest educational topics such as technology in the classroom, implementing current events into the classroom and creative classroom lesson planning. By connecting with a tool such as twitter, I can join chats and access useful information from my peers and leaders in the field of education.


I am finally starting to slow down so I can realize the impact of my PLN. I am always hesitant about putting myself out there on the web. I was hesitant to get a Facebook account, post pictures and videos, but whenever I take the plunge I can’t imagine my life without it. I am from the East Coast originally, so these tools really help me stay connected to my friends and family back East.

As I read in one of the articles, the concept of a PLN is not something that is too unfamiliar. It is not an unchartered territory; rather it is just reshaping a way to network with others. As a student, it took a while to appreciate the value of my PLN, but once I am able to really learn and apply what I am learning through my connections then I believe I will be a very active member of my PLN.

TWITTER

I chose to follow many students in my 422 classes as well as a few educational experts I found through your Twitter. I decided to follow my fellow students because I am curious to see all of our transformations from pre-req students to students in the program to credentialed teachers.  I am following you because you are posting great and wonderful tweets full of engaging and useful information. I found Nancye Blair on your site and I decided to follow her as well because after reading her profile and blogs that she would offer a lot of ideas used in the classroom. I also found weboword because it is just a quick way to learn something new.

I used Tweet Chat to follow a chat for Social Studies teachers on Mondays at 4 PM (7 Eastern Time). At first it was a little confusing to follow, but then I got the hang of it. I was torn between a chat for English teachers and the Social Studies chat, but as I was researching the two I liked the Social Studies topic better. They had changed their topic last minute to discuss a very relevant current event: the death of Osama Bin Laden. They asked questions like how did you bring it up and how did your students find out. As it was going I had to pause it a few times because I started to get dizzy trying to keep up. The grades the teachers taught varied.

They asked questions about morality like was it okay to celebrate someone’s death? They discussed the person that was tweeting as it was all happening. One teacher spoke of the challenges discussing such a sensitive topic with younger students because some of them didn’t know about 9/11 or who Osama Bin Laden was. One thing that was really interesting was if they decided to forego their previous lesson plans to discuss a current topic. Almost all of teachers felt that current events like this take precedence over the planned lesson.

Many decided to show President Obama’s speech in class and that it tactic that I would have taken.  The entire chat made me really think about the many challenges I will face as a teacher and one of those will be how to explain hardships to children.  I think as a teacher, I will walk a fine line if I teach younger students when describing death, evil and destruction because I may not know their beliefs, backgrounds or if the parents have discussed such topics with them. A few people chatted today that students began their responses with “My Mom and Dad said” because depending on the ages they are so impressionable and may not really understand how to grasp such deep feelings.

As far as my participation with the chat, I decided just to limit myself because I didn't really feel I had anything to bring to the table. I just wanted to observe and learn from them. I just thanked them for their information. 

DIIGO

The sites I tagged to my PLN network on Diigo are the English Companion Ning, Classroom 2.0, The Educator’s PLN, Eductopia and educationalwikis.  As a future educator in this class I have learned that we must form our PLN first of all as a great networking tool. However, as I began to explore the sites I was really starting to see the value behind using our fellow educators as a great source for information.

For example, I added and liked the Edutopia Facebook page so that I could connect with other educators. Edutopia is the George Lucas Education Foundation. Since I have visited the page I have already found many resources to access and sites to add to my PLN including Ideas for teachers. I frequent Facebook almost daily so this is an incredible current tool for me to access seemingly without effort.

I have applied to both the Concurrent Multi Subject /Special Education credential and the Middle School Credential Program. If I decide to pursue Middle School I hope to teach English and as an elementary school teacher I would teach every subject so for me the English Companion site is very valuable. There are groups on the site you can join like Poetry or Teaching Writing. I was so excited to come across this site. As an English teacher, it would be a goal of mine to find new and innovative ways to tap into my student’s creativity through writing so this source is a wonderful place to find new ideas.

DIGITAL DISCUSSION FORUM

The Educator’s PLN is an unbelievably resourceful site for educators. You can access videos and blogs, join forums all while connecting with other educators.  I decided to watch the called “The sad legacy under Rhee: A DC community speaks out” video about the former Chancellor DC schools, Michelle Rhee. I chose this video because I read Waiting for Superman in my 364 class and I was really rooting for Michelle Rhee. The video was discussing the consolidation of two schools and the new was principle that was put in place and eventually fired by Rhee.  The three people featured in the video claimed that Rhee did not unite the teachers, community and the students, but rather tried to create a gap between the teachers and their students.

There were some other articles and forums that I wanted to check out, but as of now my membership is pending. As I said, in the future this will be a great source for me as an educator.