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In Growing my PLN, one of my challenges was using twitter. I did not want another Social Media app. What I love about Twitter is that for me it is strictly professional. The closest thing I have had for a teaching resource is Pinterest. Pinterest is great when I am hunting for something specific. With Twitter, those in my PLN post amazing ideas that maybe I wouldn’t think of. Twitter makes me more aware of what apps, tools, lessons are out there and how they are being used. Now that it is summer, I find excitement in starting the next school year by looking for ideas and projects. I can connect directly with someone on Twitter about their tweet. I have found engaging read aloud books for may class, PD books for myself, Blogs, apps, and people to follow on twitter. Over all it has been such a positive experience. I even found my connected educator to follow on Twitter, Debra Campbell.
Recently I purchased a book by Dave Burgess, Teach Like a Pirate. This was the first time I had purchased a professional book to read that was not part of a course. I am reading it and enjoying it. I learned about this fantastic book and the author on Twitter, and began following Dave Burgess as well. He tweeted about a book called Start. Right. Now., he was planning on being part of that chat. Because I was enjoying his book, I purchased Start. Right. Now. and decided to participate in that chat. This was something I did not even know existed, and it was so exciting. I began following some of the participants on twitter because they teach the same grade level. I am looking forward to looking at their tweets and sharing mine to connect with classroom ideas. My website and blogging has helped me grow as an educator. Finding ideas to use in my class, or to help me be a better teacher is what this journey is about, being a lifelong learner. Blogging with intention is important. Knowing your audience, revising, creating something worth reading, and publishing to the website-blog, has become a favorite pastime in the evenings for me. I know publishing something on my site is a placeholder for me as well, saving the ideas and sites where great things are happening. Then as I share maybe someone will come along and say, “ Hey! I could totally use that! ”. I think I really like the potential for connecting with anyone- teacher, students, student teachers, boggers, people in education- anyone. In creating and maintaining the blogging website, I realized it was not the right platform for me. I needed more than what the New Google Sites could offer. Moving sites was tedious, but ultimately I am happier with the result of the Weebly site I created. I can now link my Twitter account to my Homepage and I can add tags-labels to posts. It was frustrating knowing that there were things I wanted to do with my site and I couldn’t, not because I didn't know how, but because those features were not there at all. New Google Site would be great for someone just starting a website that doesn’t want to add twitter or does not have a twitter account. Thank goodness for YouTube, without its how-to videos, I would be lost. YouTube taught me how to link my twitter, add tags, use Twitter, and participate in a Twitter chat with TweetDeck. In continuing to grow my PLN, I will continue to follow like minded individuals on Twitter. I look for teacher who teach 5th grade, and those who teach ELA and Social Studies. When I find a 5th grade teacher with likes to get techy and share their ideas, I just love it. I will continue to follow great Blogs, and add to my site. In doing that I will ensure that I am continuously inspired to learn new things. Inspiration is contagious and I love to inspire my students to write about their ideas, appropriately blog with their classmates, fearlessly try new apps and create on new sites. One of my favorite blogs to follow right now is Cult of Pedagogy, this site has amazing ideas I plan on using her idea about Student Made e-books, I love turning pencil-paper projects into something online that is creative and different that meets the standards I am teaching. While looking at other 5th grade teachers' blogs, I came across Draw a Stickman. I clicked on the picture link, and the site asked me to draw a stickman. It was kind of perfect.. my drawing abilities are limited. Then the program animates my little stick man. It has me draw to help the little story along. I defeat a dragon, escape hungry sharks, and retrieve the prize box from a floating balloon with my thunder cloud that i also draw. It was easy and so fun! The process took about 20 min. Debbie Campbell is a connected educator I interviewed on May 29th. She is the author of The Curious Educator-Blog. She is serving as the Communications Director and Instructional Technologist at a comprehensive high school in Texas. We had a great time connecting and discussing how she became a connected educator, and her advice for educators looking to be more connected. Wow! That was so much fun! What a great learning experience! I watched several YouTube videos on how to be part of a chat successfully. I chose a book chat for Start. Right. Now. by Todd Whitaker, Jeffrey Zoul, Jimmy Casas. They also wrote What Connected Educators Do Differently. Promptly at 5:00 I logged onto TweetDeck - #startrightnow. I was so nervous, I was sure I was not going to remember all the tips from the YouTube videos. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I answered every question, and I remembered to paste in #startrightnow at the end of every tweet. I even retweeted others exceptional tweets with positive note. To have a few of my thoughts validated with a like or a retweet was exciting. When Jeff Zoul replied to a tweet of mine, I was like, WOW! I ran with my computer to my husband and tried to explain how exciting this was. I will most definitely be part of a chat again. LOVE!
I conducted a Twitter search for Connected Educators, then I read the brief description choosing those that seemed most relevant to me. I chose Dave Burgess, Pernille Ripp, Dr. Alec Couros, Jerry Blumengarten, Tom Whitby. They are in education, are speakers, writers, bloggers and vloggers, and participate and edchats. I have begun following them and can’t wait to see their feeds. During my interview with Debbie Campbell mentioned that she uses Voxer as part of her PLN. I will be adding this resource to my Resource Page on my Site. For another resource I Google search apps for teachers. I found an app called Nearpod. It is a whole class presentation app. It is a different way to present lessons. Instead of students sitting at their seat while you are presenting a lesson or presentation, they each have it on their device. Teachers can create lessons or teachers can download lessons. There is a yearly fee. With school ending in three and a half days, I will create a school hashtag. I’m thinking #oakgroverocks sounds pretty great for Oak Grove. As I strive to be a more connected educator, I realize just how important my Twitter, Facebook, Goggle Reader as my personal leaning networks. Participating in learning communities is a shift I have made to being sharing my insights, questions, ideas, and to learn. And participate we must, if we are to fully understand the implications of these shifts at the curriculum, classroom, school, or systems level (Richardson & Mancabelli, 2011). It is important or me as a teacher to have these PLNs to help them better navigate their online activity. Encouraging students o have learning communities they can be apart of for their education and later their professional career is essential.
Safe Ethical effective tools for PLNs (Richardson & Mancabelli, 2011)
Great People who share on Twitter for me are:
Being a Connected Educator is about finding those who share ideas about topics you are interested in, areas you need more information about, or you are looking for a new perspective on something you've been teaching for 15 years. Seeking people out in your PLNs that share the same curriculum is a great start. You have the great wide world to share and collaborate with. Jump in! On Mozilla, in the Web Literacy wheel, I clicked on the read section. At the beginning of the year when my students begin researching their explorers, I would have them do the activity Kraken the Code to learn about search terms, and how to assess the validity and relevance of web sources. Students research and decide if the mythical creature the Kraken was in fact real or myth. During our explorer research and state report research Kraken the Code can help prepare them to question more about the validity of their finding. Activity Sheet Media Literacy Lesson Plan
Lesson Modified from readwritethink Purpose: In this lesson, students examine elements of holidays/events, invent their own original holiday, and examine and create holiday/event cards based on those chosen. Through reflection, students realize that good communication doesn’t just “happen.” Good communication is purposely constructed to achieve a particular effect. Resources:
Lesson Ask writers to think of a holiday that is celebrated or observed in their family or culture. It doesn’t have to be a major holiday—any observance will do for this activity. After students have chosen their individual holiday, give them the Holiday Celebrations handout and have the students free write a list of all the elements associated with that holiday, including, but not limited to the following:
For this writing, writers should assume an audience who is unfamiliar with the holiday in order to elicit an appropriate level of detail. Writers could also be encouraged to write about a particular holiday remembrance to share as part of this step.After students are finished writing, have someone volunteer a holiday, and that student and others who chose the same holiday can list its elements on the board or overhead, just to have a group example. After the discussion, give the writers a few more minutes to add anything new to their lists that they may have forgotten. If students wrote of a specific remembrance, ask for volunteers to share. Examine The next part of the lesson involves examining different holiday cards. Divide writers into groups of 4 or 5 and pass out collections of holiday/event cards (both traditional paper cards and online greeting cards that have been printed). Have the groups examine the colors, images, and sentiments written on the cards.As a whole class, let each group present their findings on commonalities of the cards. Help writers discuss how the rhetorical elements are appropriate for the audience and the occasion as well as how effective they think the cards are. For example, a group with St. Patrick’s Day cards will probably note the predominance of the color green and the use of shamrocks, which are appropriate elements for the occasion. Discussion Through the discussion, reinforce the idea that the messages are constructed with the audience and occasion in mind. This discussion helps students think critically about the messages received through the cards and listen to each other’s perspectives and points of view. Chapter 10 Recognize Contributions
Knowing expectations ensures the success of the project. If you want people to succeed in projects and be successful at work they need to know what the expectations are. Having high expectations that are attainable leads to positive experiences and teachers feel like they matter to the school. They are making a difference in a positive way. Everyone wants to feel they are doing a great job. And knowing the expectations is key. What I love most about my school site is that my principal stops by every single day, without fail. Its his chance to touch base with us, ask how our weekend was, answer questions, help with a potential behavior problem, and be seen by the students. I have had principals who are contactable through email only. It is difficult when the students do not know what the principal even looks like. Mr. Davis is the head of our school. He is out talking to parents in the morning, In the classrooms every single day, and at every function that happens with our school. Its is knowing he is available if and when we need him. |
AuthorI am a 5th grade teacher for Visalia Unified School District. I teach at Oak Grove, we are a k-8 school site. Archives
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