Aug 02 2009
Summer of Learning
So I was just brushing my teeth, about to go to bed (it’s 1am here) when this blog post popped into my head. It’s strange how that happens.
Have you ever been in a workshop and thought to yourself “I could teach this topic better than this guy!”? I’ve been a computer teacher for almost 20 years and I’m running out of places to find really good PD courses/workshops. It’s pretty frustrating when you want someone, anyone, to teach you something new and exciting to take back to the classroom but can’t find it. OK, the last two workshops I went to at Rutgers University were really good. This past spring I attended an all day Podcasting & Digital Storytelling workshop and an all day Google Educators Workshop (thanks again @lthumann et al). Both were excellent and were all about the direction I want myself and my teachers to head in. Aside from those two workshops, I had been feeling discouraged and stuck in a rut at school, teaching the same old things. I have no problem researching and trying out new ideas. The problem is that I am a “one woman show” at work, so to speak. I’m a specialist and there is only 1 of me at school. Unlike the rest of the staff who have grade level colleagues, I really have no one to bounce ideas off of. Sure, I can email the other Edtechs in the district but they’re teaching the same thing I am, the same way.
Enter Twitter and my PLN. It’s simple. Ask a question, receive answers from all over the globe. It’s pretty amazing! The sharing is unbelievable! My head is spinning from all the tweets just in the past month. I had been following #NECC09 and now #BLC09 which have both produced an amazing amount of information! It’s all right there for me, links to slideshare presentations, Diigo/Delicious bookmarks, blogs, live streaming, chats etc. Every current 21st Century learning topic has been covered. The best part is that I can save all the information and come back to it when I have time to think and digest (without the 6 year old whining at me every 5 minutes). Not that I need the hours, but it’s too bad I won’t get PD credit or hours for all the time I’ve spent in front of this computer so far. Until I got involved with this PLN of mine, I was the expert in my field in my little corner of the world. People come to me for advice, curriculum suggestions, training etc. I’m also the head teacher in my school so that means vice-principal type duties and a lot of people coming to me for help. I now have instant PD at my fingertips. Just in the past month, I have gathered enough resources to keep me busy for the whole year.
Here are two of the basics I’ve learned so far this summer:
1. Twitter: Surround yourself with a strong PLN. Follow back those educators that follow you. Participate in conversations via hashtags, retweets, mentions. Mark favorite tweets to come back to later.
2. Blogs: Read others, make comments. Start simple, don’t be afraid to share what you know. Write about what you know. Share ideas. Give credit to other bloggers and link to other blog sites.
3. Nings: Great for networking. Great for finding educators in specific fields. They focus the larger community by separating topics of discussion. This is where I go to get fresh, quick ideas for my classroom. I got a great bulletin board idea from someone at Classroom 2.0 last summer. We’re all teachers looking for great ideas!
To me these three things are some of the central tools of a strong PLN. Right now I’m bookmarking, saving files, gathering resources, asking questions, participating in discussions and soaking it all in. I still have about a month before school starts so my next plan is to synthesize the information and choose the topics I want to focus in on for the start of the school year. Isn’t this what we as teachers train our students to do??
I completely agree with you. In recent years, traditional workshops have not helped my professional development as much as my PLN community has in the past 6 months. In addition to my PLN through twitter & blogs that I have found (most often through twitter), the most dynamic PD I have been involved in is peer coaching. Before the peer coaching training, I was like you a “one woman show” at my school. I passed on the info to everyone else but I didn’t experience true collaboration. In February, I was trained as a facilitator through Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. This summer, I trained 16 teachers as coaches. We have created a dynamic PLN as school that will help everyone collaborate and develop more innovative lessons.
I liked your tips regarding building your PLN. To truly become collaborative teachers should follow back the teacher who chose to follow them.
Thanks for your post!
Thanks Kelli. I agree with you about peer coaching. I was recently selected to be on a school based PD committee. Hopefully I can bring the idea of a PLN down to the school level. We already have PLCs (professional learning community) in place. This would be a natural progression. I just added you to my Twitter PLN.
Thanks for adding me to your Twitter PLN! I have added you as well and I appreciate you already conversing with me via twitter. It can be lonely when you are the tech leader at your school, but being able to converse with others about their experiences is so refreshing. Most of the teachers I follow don’t converse with me so I truly appreciate the conversation! If I can help you in any way, please call on me
Great post! I did the same this summer… using twitter, blogs, and nings to expand my awareness of what’s “out there”. I learned loads and came across people I wish I worked with in real life.
Prior to this summer, I had already been blogging (personally) and using some tech. in my classroom (what was allowed.) Before school closed, there was a huge announcement that folks were to “get ready” to move forward in tech., and so I was excited to do so. I planned to either blog or ning w’ my 4th graders, do podcasts, and online collab w’ class in other states and countries, etc. I’d also given and taken workshops in Web 2.0 during my vacation.
Long story short – went to school to set up my classroom yesterday and was told we would not be allowed to do ANY of the above. The district is “not ready” to move in that direction.
As you can imagine, I’m extremely frustrated. I feel that the urban/ELL/poor/access-challenged kids in my district are being cheated.
How to get an entire school district to move ahead and keep up with the times?
Hi Cassy,
Thanks for the reply. I’m sure it’s pretty disheartening to spend time learning new tools to use in the classroom only to be told you are not allowed to use them. I’m really surprised at your school district. You are in NJ correct? They’re going to have to step it up eventually because technology, web 2.0 and digital learning are all over the new standards, especially the updated Science, Technology and Math standards. I think it’s a matter of education on the administration’s part. We still have a lot of sites blocked and are not allowed to publish podcasts or any student work on the internet but at least we are not restricted in terms of videoconferencing, Skype, web 2.0 apps. etc. Good luck this year, hopefully some of it will work out!