Teaching in isolation, sequestered within the confines of our
classrooms is dangerous. It breeds mistrust of others, often pitting colleagues
against one another. The us against them mentality is negative and harmful to everyone,
especially to the teacher-student relationship. What we believe in our hearts
is what the students pick up on without being told. They see more than people
give them credit for seeing. So, how do you remedy this lone educator type of
teaching? You grow your PLN every chance you get.
Having a strong PLN is synonymous with good teaching. With
our network, we are stronger, braver, and more confident. If nothing else, our
PLN builds us up and gives us permission to celebrate ourselves more; it is our
own personal cheerleading squad. And, who doesn’t need that? Let’s face it, the
better we feel about ourselves, the better we teach, and the more kids learn. Sage
advice from Dr. Rita F. Pierson, “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.”
How can kids like us, if we don’t like ourselves? Feeling down? Need a pick-me-up?
Want to be that teacher who the kids can’t get enough of learning from? Then,
grow your PLN in three easy steps.
First, start your PLN by opening the door to your classroom.
Eat in the teachers’ lounge. Go to faculty functions. Connect, connect, connect
with colleagues in your building. Now, don’t get me wrong. Everyone needs time, now
and again, to recharge alone. I am not suggesting you jump in full extrovert 24/7
and go crazy here. What I am suggesting is that you try a little bit every day
to make that connection with someone you haven’t connected with before.
Eventually, these little interactions will build a strong basis for trust to
grow. We need to build trust before we can work together successfully, and
purposefully creating positive interactions with others is a good way to start.
If you find one day that the interactions in your building aren’t all that you
need, then you know it’s time to dive in and take step two, connecting with
educators and professionals globally.
Your PLN should not only consist of educators within your
building. It should also extend outside of your school. Start with one social
media tool and work at connecting with professionals and educators from all
over the world. Why? Because coming together via Twitter, Voxer, chat rooms,
and such helps us develop a global perspective, a must for authentic teaching. Life
happens outside the classroom, and so we must be prepared to teach real-world
problems and encourage our students to be critical and creative thinkers.
Learning cannot take place in a vacuum. The days of rote memorization and
tied-to-the-book mentality are gone. We live on an ever-changing planet where
communications happen in microseconds. Therefore, we need to develop a global
PLN that will sustain and nurture a global world view that will empower us and
our students to become a strong, diverse, connected community of learners.
Finally, attending conferences is the final step toward
growing a global PLN. Conferences help us grow, bring about new ideas, and
reignite the fire within. Perhaps you are new to the scene of conferencing and
do not know where to start, as I was only a year ago. Try your hand at attending
professional development sessions run by your county after school. These are
often advertised by county offices, or on flyers in the teachers’ lounge. If
that doesn’t cut it, then attend a local EdCamp, the unconference that brings
together excited educators itching to share what they know. Click here for more info about EdCamps and what
they provide. If you are still nervous about attending a conference in person,
then jump online and attend some unconventional
conferences like EdCamp Voice, #HiveSummit, or #NotatISTE.
Now that I’ve participated via Twitter in #NotatISTE, I am ready to participate
in EdCamp Voice and HiveSummit, too, later this summer.
What did participating in #NotatISTE do for me? How could an
online conference help you? For one, my PLN grew by leaps and bounds by
Tweeting about #NotatISTE this week. In fact, I gained a host of followers, and
followed others in return, who are tweeting about educational technology.
Finally, I feel as if I have found my tribe of supportive, creative educators
who get me. It’s phenomenal. Then, there’s the limitless resources I gained.
Google docs galore with tips and tricks came rolling through my Twitter feed
and now I’m #googsmacked!
I even learned how to publish my school announcements to the web with Google
and SeeSaw, so that they are interactive PDFs, and not just boring old
type-set. I could go on and on about what I learned at #NotatISTE, but the
icing on the top of the cake was watching edtechies sing karaoke via PasstheScopeEDU. These educators
really know how to have fun!
So, I challenge those of you who still teach with your door
shut to open it to a world of possibilities by growing your PLN. Start by collaborating
with other educators within your building. Then, connect with educators in
networks outside of your building, as well as with professionals in the field.
Finally, attend conferences and learn, recharge, and grow, grow, grow, so that
you can ride off into the sunset with your PLN, instead of by yourself.
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