{"id":150,"date":"2016-06-21T06:00:16","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T10:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/?p=150"},"modified":"2019-04-05T10:21:45","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T14:21:45","slug":"growing-your-personal-learning-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/growing-your-personal-learning-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Your Personal Learning Network"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Growing<\/a>Summertime is here. It’s every teacher\u2019s favorite season. In addition to\u00a0having time to relax, summer is the perfect time for learning something new professionally – without the daily pressure of school work. A\u00a0wonderful thing about the Internet is that makes it\u00a0easy to learn new skills and connect with like-minded individuals. Many educators embrace this concept wholeheartedly and have used\u00a0some online, interactive tools to grow their own personal learning networks.<\/p>\n

A personal learning network (PLN) has always existed through our workplaces. A PLN is a way to share ideas and collaborate with others. The learner interacts with other professionals to share and acquire new information and skills. We still have our traditional places to share information: the teacher\u2019s workrooms, professional development sessions\u00a0provided by our schools, and other opportunities such as workshops, conferences, and grad courses. \u00a0Now, however, the virtual world is beginning to overtake traditional methods by offering\u00a0many different types of online experiences where educators can learn and collaborate. Best of all, a lot\u00a0of it is free. Our PLNS become our own personal flipped classrooms. So grab a cold beverage, a device of your choosing, and find a comfy spot on your porch or patio to explore some virtual learning this summer.<\/p>\n

Email and Listservs<\/b><\/p>\n

This may seem like an old-timer\u2019s method to Millennials<\/span> and Generation Z, but it is the \u201cquick and dirty\u201d method of having interesting posts delivered to your inbox. You probably already belong to a\u00a0professional organization that hosts a listserv or elist of like-minded educators, or that at least sends out periodic newsletters of interest. If the shared information is not helpful or interesting, don\u2019t be afraid to scroll to the bottom of the message and look for the \u201cunsubscribe\u201d button. Some\u00a0lists have their own rules for unsubscribing, based on twenty-year-old pre-graphical interface software, so be sure to save the first welcome message to the list that will tell you how to unsubscribe. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You may need to learn\u00a0how to control and organize this mail. Gmail has a wonderful \u201cmute\u201d button that\u00a0automatically archives\u00a0additional comments of a particular discussion. Gmail and other mail applications such as Outlook have many ways to filter, organize, and save messages, making it easier to keep up and glean the best.<\/span><\/p>\n

Free Educational Communities<\/b><\/p>\n

Teachers love to share knowledge about their profession and how to enhance teaching and learning. Fortuitously, there are so many sites organized just to do that.<\/p>\n

TeachersFirst<\/b><\/a>: <\/b>Of course, our number one favorite is TeachersFirst. \u201cTeachersFirst is an online community for teachers by teachers. With thousands of lessons, units, and reviewed web resources for K-12 classroom teachers, our website is designed to enrich teaching and learning for both teachers and their students.\u201d Besides an amazing collection of online resources and ideas for the classroom, TeachersFirst offers <\/span>Ok2<\/b>A<\/span>sk<\/b><\/a>, <\/b>\u00a0<\/b>a series of live, online hands-on virtual workshops for teacher professional development. OK2Ask sessions are free and provide certificates of participation which may be used towards professional development credits at your school. Be sure to<\/span> join <\/span><\/a>TeachersFirst so that you can take advantage of member benefits such as saving resources and creating a customized start page, just a small part of what TeachersFirst offers.<\/span><\/p>\n

EdWeb.net<\/a>:<\/strong> This incredible\u00a0free, robust site<\/span>\u00a0offers a professional social and learning network for just about any educator. Two activities make this the main base of many PLNs: sharing by members in a special interest group called a \u201cCommunity,\u201d and webinars given by educational leaders and innovators. Join and choose a \u201cCommunity\u201d to belong. Register for webinars, watch recordings, earn CE certificates, and read posts by other members.<\/span><\/p>\n

Social Media Tools<\/strong><\/p>\n

Twitter<\/span><\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0has become one of the most powerful tools for PLNs, providing immediate sharing and feedback for teachers. Watch this Ok2Ask webinar for getting started on Twitter<\/a><\/span>. Watch this <\/span>Ok2Ask’\u00ae: Tech it Out: Twitter for Teachers (and the classroom)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for more helpful tips. Jerry Blumengarten\u2019s <\/span>Cybraryman<\/span><\/a> has some of the best suggestions for educational hashtags and Twitter chats<\/a> <\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Check out this TeachersFirst Ok2Ask session for more ideas on using social media for your PLN<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Blogs<\/strong> might seem a bit old school now, too, but they can\u00a0be the best places to learn from thoughtful, innovative teachers. Find a blog to follow at this site,\u00a0<\/span>Teach 100, A Daily Ranking of Education Blogs<\/a>.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Whatever you decide to include in your personal learning network, make sure that it is fun, stimulating and enjoyable, just as\u00a0all meaningful learning should be. Remember even in the summer, you should\u00a0“learn something new every day.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summertime is here. It’s every teacher\u2019s favorite season. In addition to\u00a0having time to relax, summer is the perfect time for learning something new professionally – without the daily pressure of school work. A\u00a0wonderful thing about the Internet is that makes it\u00a0easy to learn new skills and connect with like-minded individuals. Many educators embrace this concept … read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[7,5,10,6],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-professional-learning","tag-communities","tag-pln","tag-professional-learning","tag-summer"],"modified_by":"Karen Streeter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}