PLN Reflection

http://jenn6462.edu.glogster.com/pln/

Before this class, I really didn't know what a PLN was, or how much I needed one to be a more successful teacher.  We try to share with our colleagues as much as possible, but often that's just not enough.  Everyone has families, commitments, their own crazy schedule, etc.  It's hard to find that vital time to share resources and ideas.  With an online PLN we can have that support and collaboration that we need, at any time that is convenient for us.  We can use resources like Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Blogger and more to keep in touch, share lesson plans, resources, apps, and so much more.  I feel like I have learned more about enhancing my teaching since I have established my PLN.  I have always been obsessed with Pinterest, so I have to say my new favorite tool is Twitter.  Of course I could not use it to its full potential without Hootsuite to organize my posts.  I look forward to continuing to use the valuable tools that we have learned about.  

Twitter Chats

I participated in 2 Twitter Chats today.  I had some difficulty finding one at first, and I also struggled with not letting life get in the way of participating in the chats.  I can't imagine participating in one without a tool like Hootsuite or one of the other apps.  

The first chat I participated in was #Web20tools.  When I logged in to participate there was no moderator, and the only participants were from our class.  So, we did what all teachers do, and we improvised.  We had our own discussion about what Web 2.0 tools we like and use often in our classrooms.  I am so thankful that this was my first experience with Twitter chats because it moved at much slower pace.  However, I did find myself struggling to keep up with who was talking about what.

The second chat I participated in was super overwhelming because there was such a large number of participants.  Even though I am not a 1:1 teacher, I hope to be in the near future so I joined in for the #1to1techat.  Through most of the chat I found that I struggled to keep up.  If I stopped to post, I got farther and farther behind on what was going on.  At one point I have to give up and skip a whole chunk of posts.  However, while it was hard to keep up, that meant that there were so many more people sharing ideas.  I am looking forward to going back tonight and re-reading what I missed.  

Overall I enjoyed this experience.  It is a great way to expand your PLN, and chat in real time with others who share a common interest.  I found 5-10 new people that I am very excited to start following every day.  

METC

I am so thankful to have had to opportunity to attend the METC conference on Tuesday.  It was really inspiring to be around so many people who are already doing such great things in their classrooms and are willing to share their ideas.  The presenters were so knowledgable and gave a lot of opportunities for others to share their ideas and experiences.

I attended 4 sessions (one was a two hour session).  The first session I attended was Exploring the Wide World of Web 2.0 with Julie Tonsing-Meyer from McKendree University.  She shared with us tools like Poll anywhere, Glogster, Voki, Class Dojo, Screencast o Matic, and Remind 101.  Through the MET program I feel like we have already learned about most of these tools, but it was nice to have a quick refresher on them.  I am going to look into using Remind 101.  I have tried in the past to get my parents to sign up for Twitter with little success.  This would give me another way to send them reminders (without giving out my phone number!).  

The second session I attended/facilitated was 10 apps, 4 students, 1 teacher with Beth Phillips and her students at Francis Howell.  In this presentation most of the apps that were suggested were better suited for secondary education but I was able to think of a few ways to use them in my elementary classroom. The one I am the most excited about is Explain Everything.  We use Making Meaning as our core Com Arts curriculum.  Unfortunately if the students are absent, they may miss out on hearing a part of a story.  With Explain Everything you can upload a story, document, or presentation and record your voice with it.  I would love to be able to record our Making Meaning stories for our lower readers to use during intervention times.  Some of the other apps the students suggested were Evernote, My Homework, Notability, Task, Flashcard +, Pic Stitch, Voice Thread, and Sound Cloud.

The third session I facilitated/attended was Reading, Responding, and Researching using tablets with the Reluctant Reader with Julie Otey, Melissa Biehl, and Tom Swoboda.  In this session they explained how them implemented the use of Nook Tablets in a second grade classroom to increase student engagement, motivation, and vocabulary.  Legitimately it makes a ton of sense using a program like Nook and eReaders.  I have found that my students are not honest with themselves about what words they do not know when they are reading.  With Nook the students can highlight a word and look up its meaning or search it to get an image.  While I think that it would take a lot of training and trust with the students I think they would really benefit from using eReaders like this.  Julie also explained to us how she uses Edmodo with her students every day to do a stop and jot.  She showed us many features that I didn't realize you could use in Edmodo.  I am going to set up my class as soon as I finish with this blog post so that we can start using it tomorrow!

The final session I attended was Develop Meaningful iPad Creation-Based Experiences for Students with Jennifer Panganiban and Chrissie Edwards from the Decatur School District.  These were probably two of the most passionate women that I saw all day.  They were so excited about what they do, and full of good ideas it was amazing!  I finally know what the SAMR model is and that we need to moving towards the M and R in this model.  We want to be redefining what we are doing in our classrooms, not just using technology as a babysitting tool.  The most important thing they shared with us was that when working with technology you need to use backwards design.  Decide on what it is the students need to learn and then decide on which tool would best be used.  Don't go to your technology facilitator and say I want to use______ (whatever app) and hope for the best.  Some of the great Apps they shared with us included Popplet (like inspiration), Educreations, Splice, Skitch, and Poll Anywhere.  

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to attend and be a part of this incredible day.  I have already told our technology facilitator that I want to go back next year!!!

Personal Learning Networks and Social Networking

I "grew up" as part of the Facebook generation.  I remember when it first started, and was limited to college students ONLY and it took time to even add all of the colleges across the country.  We used Facebook as a way to connect with long lost friends, and keep in touch with new ones.  That being said, you would think that I would have more experience with social networking.  As we work through the MET program I am discovering that there is so much more to social networking than I ever imagined.  When I started as a first year teacher I relied on the veteran teachers for resources and ideas. As time went on, I discovered that there were educators all over the country who wanted to share their ideas and collaborate with other teachers.  So often I have an idea in mind that I want to do or make for my students that I have never done before.  Now thanks to all of the personal learning networks out there, I have learned not to re-create the wheel and go searching online before I set out to create on my own.

One of my all time favorite components to my PLN is Pinterest.  One day I was on Pinterest looking for some new ideas to use with the Daily 5 in my classroom.  It was still a new resource we were using at our school and I needed some help and ideas.  I did a quick search on Pinterest and found all of these great ideas that people had posted on their blogs.  Those blogs linked me to other blogs that had great ideas.  Before long I had 15 blogs on google that I followed with Google Reader.  I checked it anxiously each day with excitement for what these master teachers were sharing with us (yes, I know I'm a little bit of a nerd).  If anyone needs some great elementary blogs to follow let me know!

I decided to try out edWeb this week.  I was pleasantly surprised at how user friendly it is.  Once you answer a few questions you are logged in and ready to go.  With a  quick search I found groups that were of interest to me.  The two I have become a member of for now are, iPads in the Classroom and Tech Tools for the Classroom.  I am always looking for new apps and programs to try out.  I like that each group is a little different.  The tech tools group contains more webinars you can join whereas the iPad group has blogs, discussion boards, and resources.  No matter what you are interested in, there was something for everyone!