Journal 7: My Personal Learning Network (PLN)

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My PLN is a variety of resources and tools that I have access to that consists of individuals, articles, videos, blogs, discussions, and wikis. My PLN will help me as a classroom teacher because I will be able to ask questions and find information that will help me to build my curriculum, stay updated, and get advice from mentors.

I am currently exploring Twitter and adding several organizations and people to my network. I followed Education Week Teacher, which is a leading source for K-12 teacher leaders that offers information about instruction, school environment, classroom technology, and curriculum. I also am following Teachers20.com. This is a place I can go and connect with a collection of teachers sharing resources to help us prepare students for the digital age. After exploring Twitter for helpful resources for information for students studying to become future educatiors, I found TES New Teachers. This is a useful resource for advice and support for all new teachers

I participated in the educational chat Ecosys#: Exploring the Future of K-12 Education. The chat took place on Wednesday 5/4/11 at 7pm. The topic focus was the “Next Steps to “Challenges” framework.” My experience was mostly observations. It took me a while to figure out the time difference for other tweeters. I realized that when joining a chat it is very beneficial to go to the front page for the chat group and read the context of the discussions. I was warmly welcomed by several members. I found it challenging to keep my tweets to a minimum letter capacity. One of the topics discussed was related to require reading “classics” that might be fruitless to the learning of the students. I am glad that I had this experience because I am now not afraid of the unknown world of Tweetchat.

I use Diigo as a networking tool. I share important information that I find about schools, teaching, and students with other teacher professionals around the world. I can easily access information on topics that I am researching and implementing in my own classroom through tagging and bookmarking. I tagged three sites PLN. First, Twitter4Teachers is a wiki that has great resources to other professionals in the teaching field and gives users access to great resources for all educators. Second, I tagged the EducatorsPLN, in which I am a member. This is a ning site that focuses on encouraging developed personal learning network for educators! Lastly, I bookmarked an article titled “Personal Learning Network 101.” This resource gives digital users access to information about how to create a Personal Learning Network online. The multiple authors have a variety of experiences in education with great advice.

After I was approved as a member of The Educator's PLN I began exploring this ning site. I watched the video Rhee the reformer, a creative fiction story narrating the current challenges that educators are faced with today. This six minute video highlighted the problems with the school systems emphasis on testing scores. The motto of the story was, “When you live by the Data, you die by it too!”

Cybersafety Website

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I created a page for a collaborative website on Google Sites. I then used Embedit.in to place a preview and linked URL to my blog!

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This is a video that I made using iMovie. I used this software to create a PSA about CSUSM. Enjoy!

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Warlick, D. (2009). Grow your personal learning networks. Learning and Leading with Technology, 36(6).

The article that described personal learning networks was essential to my understanding about the complexity of PLNs. I believe that it is very important to be up to date on the information and communication technologies. The article detailed the three different types of PLNs. Sychronous PLNs are very traditional network tools. Tools such as iChat or skype can be used to communicate with individuals for work meetings in locations across the world and bridge the gap between different cultures and distance. Semisynchronous PLN’s refer to tools that can be used for communication with various professionals across the world over longer time periods. Google Docs, Twitter, and Blogs are great examples of PLN tools that can be useful to individuals to collect information from many sources. The last type of PLN’s are asynchronous . This was the first time that I was introduced to RSS aggregators. Subscribing to RSS feeds is an easy and effortless way of being linked to information that a digital user is interested in. I have personally seen the benefit of using Diigo to bookmark pages and tagging topics of interest to be sent further information recommended by other professionals.

Q1: How would I utilize asynchronous tools such as Diigo to help me create my class curriculum?

A1: Each summer I would tag topics of interest for the next school year. I would get new ideas and effective teaching strategies from other teachers who find useful information or have past experience with the age groups and topics I will be dealing with in my own classroom

Q2: How could I promote the semisynchronous tool Google Docs in my classroom to support collaborative learning?

A2: For credit points, I would have my students share documents to work on peer reviews of rough drafts for papers.  I would have students leave comments and I would also post feedback for students to improve their clarity and writing skills.

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"Teaching Green” Waters, J. (2011). Teaching green. THE Journal , Retrieved from http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/1105/journal_201104/#/12

            I really enjoyed this article. In my upper division coursework, I took a class on human impacts on environment. This article had some great resources that could be utilized in classrooms for all age groups. I agree with the author that teaching children about environmental issues in grades K-12 is vital to maintaining a healthy living environment. “Teaching Green,” details several websites that are available to teachers and students that are fun and informative. Websites such as “A Walk in the Woods,” give students opportunities to take virtual trips on a computer through woodland areas that usually require field trips and money that many schools today do have funds to support. I was impressed with the PowerUp game that promotes community service and digital user’s collaboration to fix wind turbines or build solar towers to help the planet. Many of the websites that were discussed by the author have teacher lesson plans that cover a variety of topics that encourage US Environmental protection.

Q1: How would I aid in the movement of “Green Schools” alongside the other entire required curriculum?

A1: As extra credit opportunities, I would encourage my students to explore several websites that educate the community about environmental issues. I would have my students use the Diigo artifact to tag five websites and explain how their findings can help preserve the environment!

Q2: How would I incorporate environmental education into a biology class?

A2: I would utilize the Classroom Earth website. I would design a lesson plan that gave students the tools to discuss energy and climate changes around the world. I would have my students navigate pages and websites to gather their information.

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Bogacz, R., & Gordillo, M.G. (2011). Should schools be held responsible for cyberbullying?j Learning and Leading with Technology, 38(6), 6-7.

The article centered on cyberbullying is very informative. The author gave two very different opinions related to who should be held responsible for cyberbullying. I truly felt that the supporters of schools taking responsibility for cyberbullying had strong arguments.  Renee Bogacz explained how the whole community needs to come together and fight cyberbullying. School administrators and teachers need to stay informed and enforce consequences. Parents and students need to get involved and report any events of this issue. Miguel Gomez Gordillo strongly argues that the responsibility of cyberbullying needs to fall back on the family. He suggests that if consistent family love and support existed in every home, children would be provided with that “vaccine” against bullying. Gordillo advises schools to work closely with the parents and help them to become their children’s primary educators. If healthy family environments become more prevalent, our society’s overall well-being can be improved and schools can contribute to the cause.

Q1: How would I try to promote parental involvement in a socioeconomically disadvantaged school where I am employed?

A1: I really like the idea of meetings once a month with student’s parents. I would make sure to have an assistant available who was bilingual if I had a large number of ELL students. I would also ask students to take home weekly progress reports to have their parents sign. This would create a closer communication plan that would bridge the gap between teachers and parents.

Q2: How would I as a teacher get my students aware of cyberbullying and how to fight it?

A2: I would probably give my students example videos of cyberbullying. The visuals would help the students understand the “big idea” concepts. Also I would engage my class in an interactive activity that would suggest ideas for fighting against this issue they may encounter on the internet. This role playing game will help my students practice how to be assertive and how to take initiative as a bystander or victim.