Expanding my PLN

Creating my visual representation of my growing PLN was very eye opening and fun. It is hard to believe that over these past seven weeks my professional learning network has grown so much. I have been able to add three new tools to my professional development tool box and add countless resources to my existing programs. It has been insightful to spend time just looking back and reflecting on all the things I have learned.

I think I am most excited about of my Twitter growth. I went from having absolutely no experience in the Twitter department to tweeting more than 80 times, participating in two chats, following more than 40 people, and having 20 people follow me! I have been able to learn about new teaching strategies and new technology tools to take back to my classroom. Meeting other educators has also been a huge plus of joining the Twitter world. I look forward to continuing to learn from other Twitter  educators and staying current on technology tools that are available to me.

Skype was also a new tool I was introduced to in last few weeks. It has allowed me to connect to other educators. It is always nice to have multiple ways to connect to other besides just through email. I have also been able to see ways that I can use this tool in my class! I am excited to explore Skype in my classroom soon.

Besides Twitter and Skype, I found a new use for Facebook. Looking outside of my friends list, I was able to find Pages that fit with my educational needs. I love the middle school sites! They have real teachers that are going through the same things I am, and it nice to know there are people I can connect with. I have also found another reason to search on Pinterest more often. I am in the process of creating School Boards that house ideas and activities I can use in my classroom. I have already created multiple activities that I found through Pinterest. It is a wonderful resource!

Diigo was a tool that I had already had experience with but over past several weeks, I have been able to a ton of new sites! It is great to have a place where I can save websites I found useful or helpful.

As I reflect over the past 7 weeks, I have realized how much my professional learning network has grown. I can't wait to see how much it can grow in another 7 weeks. The wonderful thing about these tools is that they can only grow. It is not just a weekend conference, but they are tools that allow me to have "dyi-professional development" plan.

(Be sure to follow some of the links in the Piktochart below to see some of my PLNs, just hover over some of the popular icons!)

Chatting on Twitter

    I feel like I have so much to say about my first two Twitter chats! Before getting into the chats, I want to try to explain how nervous I was about being in a Twitter chat. Just a few weeks ago, I was not even on Twitter, but I was getting ready to participate in chats with people I did not even know in a program that was still new to me. It took me several days to even decide which chat to first participate in. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to keep up or even know that to do. I was afraid the other participants in the Twitter chat would think I was dumb or know that I did not know what I was doing! Would they talk with me? Would they care about what I had to say? Would I have any good ideas to share? Would I be able to follow along? Oh and I kept telling my self, do not forget the hashtag! These were all questions and concerns that were swimming around in my head.

   After trying to push it off, I knew it time to choose a chat and jump in! After deciding on a project-based learning chat, I knew it was finally time to just join and chat. My first Twitter chat was through #Edtechbridge, and the topic was project-based learning. I was familiar with the idea of project-based learning, so that made me feel better. It was a quick-moving chat, but I was able to keep up. Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming! I was able to learn more about what project-based learning was, technology's role in it, and which technology tools were helpful when planning those types of lessons/units. I took away so many great resources, and I felt as though I was favoriting everything so that I could explore the resources more. I really enjoyed seeing what other teachers were using to carry our their project based learning activities. I ended up following one or two people from this particular chat. While I enjoyed my first Twitter experience, there were a few challenges. It moved fast a first, and I think it seemed faster at first because this was my first time doing anything like this. I have participated in chats, but never with people I did not know. Remembering to put the hashtag for the chat was difficult for me at first. I was just focused on staying up with the conversation that I would move too quickly. One of the chat leaders saw that it was my first time, and he explained that they do archive their chats, so if I missed anything I could go back and look at our chat. This allowed me to really calm down and just enjoy the chat. After the introductions, I could feel the confidence building. It became just like a conversation between colleagues. It went from being stressful to being fun! I couldn't believe that an hour could by so quickly.

    Because the first Twitter chat went so well, I felt a little better going into the second Twitter chat. I wanted to choose a chat where I would be able to learn something completely new! I chose to participate in a #Edtechchat about the SAMR model. I had briefly heard of this, but I knew very little about it. This chat moved almost twice as fast as my first one,  and there were almost twice as many people. While I liked there were more people, it was almost too overwhelming to have that many people communicating at once. It became difficult to keep up and process the questions. The one thing I did really enjoy about this particular chat was how helpful and encouraging people were. At first, I was very confused with the SAMR model, but after talking to a few others in the chat, my questions were cleared up, and I had a better direction at where I was going with this model. They did not make me feel dumb or put me down because I didn't know things, instead they encouraged and helped me understand it. I did end up following several people through this chat as well. I was able to take away some great tools and ideas to use in my classroom. I think my experience may have been a little better if I would have had a little more knowledge about the topic. Going in with little to no knowledge was difficult. I wasn't familiar with some of the language that went with this particular model, and I think it would have been beneficial. It would have cut down on some of the confusion and stress I had trying to follow along.

    Over all, both Twitter chats went very well! I learned so much and took away so many useful ideas. I followed great people, and I was even followed by a few fellow chatters. Both chats had such useful and relevant content I could immediately use in my classroom. I already have several new ideas I plan on trying in the near future. The people in my chats were helpful and very nice. I felt so comfortable with people that I had never met.

     I do need to mention how thankful I am that I had set up my TweetDeck account. I was able to follow the chat in one easy column. I loved it! I am looking forward to participating in more chats in the near future. It really is a wonderful to expand my PLN and participate in professional development.

Adding Social Media Networks To My PLN

Oh Pinterest! This social media tool can be used for so much more than DIY home projects and recipes. It is a great place to find ideas for the classroom. I have just recently begun to see how much potential Pinterest has and what a great professional learning network it can truly be. There are so many resources at the click of a search button. I can find resources for my literature/language class, my social studies class, and remedial and enrichment activities for a wide range of learners. One of the things I love about Pinterest is that you can find something that meets your search and when you click on the link, it takes you into another world. I have found some great resources from following my Pinterest path. It was much more than just a picture with information. I have started following blogs and found many helpful websites by clicking on a pin. 

This week while I was exploring Pinterest, I searched ESOL/ELL activities. I found an English Language Arts activity that helped students whose language is not primarily English. It used pictures of different objects and asked students to find the main idea. The students then found the connection between the items. When I clicked on the pin, it took me to a wonderful teacher's website. The ESOL Odyssey is a great website designed and run by a ESOL specialist! There a wonderful, interactive ideas and strategies to work with students who may not be as comfortable with English as others. I could spend hours looking at the site because of all the information. I was able to add this blog to my Feedly account and get updates from this page. Through this site and other available sites, I am able to grow my professional learning network. 

While I have students who struggle with language barriers in my ELA class, I also have students in my social studies class who exceed the material in our textbook. They quickly read and comprehend the material and finish the assigned activities in just minutes. I was feeling as though they were bored and needed to be challenged. Because this is my first year teaching social studies, I was not really sure how to spice up my material to enrich these students. When I searched on Pinterest, a great pin came up explaining the ABCs of Challenging Gifted and Talented Kids. This article was mainly for parents, but as I was reading, I was able to click on another link on the site. This lead me to an even better website. 50 Resources For The Parents and Teachers of Gifted and Talented Students has even more information to help me. This is one of the reasons I love Pinterest so much! You can click on one link and in minutes, you have two more resources to use. 

The other thing I love about Pinterest is how easy it is to save my pins. Sometimes I do not have time to search for an hour, but I can pin it and come back to it later. Pinterest offers such a great way to connect to other teachers, learn about new activities, and get great, helpful resources. Because Pinterest allows you to see how pinned things, I can check out some of their other pins if they are visible. This leads me to even more professional learning possibilities!

In addition to exploring Pinterest, I also examined Google + a little bit. My school relies heavily on Google. We use many elements of Google, such as Google Docs, the shared drive, and email. Each of our students also has an account, so I was intrigued to see what Google Plus had offer. 

Google Plus offers a place to grow you PLN. I was able to join communities that fit my professional interests. I could then see post from other educators and people that had the same interests and questions as I did. It reminded me show much of Twitter. I could follow, respond, comment, and chat with the other professionals in these communities. Through some of my explorations, I was able to find some very helpful communities to join. Some of the communities I found were very helpful in helping me find information on working with diverse learners. The communities included links blog posts, articles, and web resources. In a quick search, I was able to find a great communities and people by searching differenitating instruction. The list of resources available for my search seemed endless. I was even able to find an article "Differentiating with Technology". This combined my need to help diverse learners and my desire to use technology to help. I had no idea that Google Plus has so many followers or resources. For people that like Twitter, Google Plus is a great resource to use to build your PLN. 

Finally thoughts.....I loved when our text from this week said, "Humans are social creatures, and educators as well as students want to communicate with others" (p. 81). I thought the line was so accurate! Students are not the only ones who find social media useful. Teachers want to communicate and learn from each other! These two social media platforms are just a few ways we can do that. I look forward to discovering more!