Personal Learning Network!

At the beginning of the semester I began brainstorming my personal learning
network PLN)based on what little knowledge I had on the subject. While continuing
through the remainder of the semester I noticed there were things I was missing,
and there were also many more opportunities to expand this personal learning network.
But I started with this original sort of mind map:

To expand on my PLN, I made 10 new connections:

1. Twitter

The first thing I did was creating a professional Twitter to try and connect with
current or past elementary school teachers. I followed several accounts and even
started tweeting at them to ask questions about what it is like to be a elementary
school teacher. Here is a link to my Twitter account (follow me!). I also retweeted
and quoted several things that I thought were amazing tools to use in my future
classroom.

2. Facebook

Much like Twitter, I began making connections on Facebook by joining several groups
of teachers and other educators. I asked questions within these groups to start
getting some insight into what it is like to currently be a teacher, specifically
in the realm of third grade because that is my target grade to teach int he future.

3. Pinterest

I also created a professional Pinterest page. I followed several teachers boards
to get inspiration for classroom organization, material to use, decorations to put
in a classroom that correlates to what the students are learning about, and so much
more. I was happily surprised that these teachers re-pinned some of the things I
found on my own, it was very encouraging that I was looking at the right things
that will be useful in the future.

4. Zoom

I was able to make connections within my own Ed Tech and Design classroom using
Zoom. As a group working on our projects we were able to stay connected while being
in completely different places, as well as connect with Dr. Z to get feedback on our
projects. We were also able to use it as a class to connect with Write Our World
creator Julie Carey to get her story on global collaboration.

5. Ted Talks

Ted Talks are something I always associated with very boring topics that I was
forced to watchin high school but I learned that there is a whole world of purely
educational based Ted Talks.I watched several different ones that weren’t boring
at all because they were all talking about things that are so important to me to
incorporate in my classroom in the future.

6. YouTube

YouTube was something that I didn’t seek to be a part of this PLN it just happened
through pure luck. I tend to spend a lot of time on YouTube watching vlog style
videos, I stumbled across a first-year third grade teacher with the channel
Early EDventures. This teacher brought us along her day as a teacher while giving
advice and tools to use in the classroom. I loved being able to see what it is
actually like fora teacher in between actually teaching, because she never actually
shows her students she just gives updates before and after school and also during
lunch and prep times. I also was able to put my own video on YouTube created in
Ed Tech and Design.I was very surprised that my little video got several views,
I was able to connect with other educators by putting out my own content.

7. Gmail

I was able to connect with a middle school science teacher from my hometown through
Gmail, being a science minor I thought it was a good idea to get that specific
feedback on what it is like to focus on one subject area. She talked about how fun
it is to use experiments, games, and other tasks within the classroom because science
is so hands on. I thought this was such an amazing answer considering we had just
talked about gamification in the classroom in Ed Tech. Unfortunately this teacher
would like to remain anonymous so I am not able to share her email,but I highly
suggest you talk to your old teachers because they are so willingly to talk to you
and have so much amazing advice.

8. Symbaloo

I created my own Symbaloo account to be able to have all my favorite applications
altogether in one place. Something I didn’t realize when making this account is
based on things that you frequently search it will give you suggested apps. Mine
just happened to suggest things like Khan Academy, EDU Games, Google Classroom,
and so many more. These are all things that I had heard of but never used and was
able to explore them and learn just how useful these tools can be for teachers.

9. Ed Puzzle

I was able to discover a application called Ed Puzzle. It is where you can put any
video in and pause it in certain areas to create your own questions, as a quiz,
for your students to answer. I created my own to use in my Interactive Learning
Tool and while making it I though back to all the times that my teacher would play
a video to the entire class and give a paper quiz to go along with it. I was so hard
to keep up with the video while answering the questions. This app is so useful for
students because they are able to go at their own pace.

10. Blogger

Lastly, I created my own blog here on Blogger. I learned very quickly just have fun
it is to share all the things that I am discovering within my class, on the internet,
etc. I seeing that people are actually viewing it because I know they are discovering
these things with me. I also starting following several other education based blogs
to be able to discover what they have. It is a great way to learn new things all
in one place. So if you view my blog please feel free to leave a comment
so we can connect with each other about all things educational!