February reflection - PLN

I find that I do some of my best learning and discovering of new ideas while surfing my favorite sites in the evenings on my couch!  That is the beauty of a PLN and PLE.  It allows my learning to be personal and relevant to what I need in order for my teaching to grow and develop. I am encouraged to hear that SBISD is considering using a teacher's PLN as a way to give credit for professional development. It gives value to the time a teacher spends making connections outside the district, as well as encourages conversations to happen across the district while acknowledging the time commitment.

I have found several places on the world wide web that have connected me to experts, leaders, and innovators in education.

• Pinterest: Here is my Technology board. I have found Pins for so many new websites, apps, and things to try that I need to have more time to actually go back through them and read, dig, and TRY them all!
• Twitter: The person I make sure an read links from on my Twitter feed is John Schu (@MrSchuReads) because he always has a good book to recommend! Two technology twitter feeds I frequent are Cool Mom Tech (@coolmomtech) and edutopia (@edutopia).  Not only do I get information on the most recent trends, but notices of free apps too!
• edmodo: This is a new tool that I have been trying to utilize more often, as there are so many great teachers and communities to connect to.  The problem I have is that it is one more place I have to remember to check, and my student's posts are also in my feed, which makes finding teacher posts a little harder.
• Flipboard: I like using Flipboard because it is a place that I can go to look at Facebook, Twitter, as well as other sources on my iPad or iPhone.  I have tried a couple of other services that pull information into one place, but this is still my favorite because it is just so easy!
• Google+: I am starting to use this as a place to connect, but again it is another place to go to and I have to sort through personnal and professional connections.
• You Tube: I love this as a place to share information of new books, authors, and videos of how to do things! Creating my own channels to save playlists has been my favorite new thing I have added to my toolbox this year!)

I don't know if I can make a visual of my PLN, but in my head, it is all connected.  When I find someone I really like, such as Kathy Schrock or John Schu, I find all the places they post information and add them to my growing PLN in as many places as I can! That way I never miss anything, no matter what I choose to look through that particular day.