Looking Back and Moving Forward

For me, one of the key topics from the past few has been the topic of PLNs.  I was unfamiliar as to what a PLN was and have now gained the knowledge to proceed in developing one in more depth.  With a PLN, you are connecting with others and bringing new knowledge and ideas back into your library.  

Twitter is a great social networking tool to connect with other educators and help in developing a PLN.  This past weekend, we hosted our annual Oscar party.  Granted the conversation revolved mostly around movies but there was some talk about technology and what technology we used and for what reason.  One of my friends is on Twitter a lot. In fact, she couldn’t help herself but check her tweets while she was here.  There was some puzzlement from others and questions like,  “Why are you on Twitter?  Who are you tweeting with? What are you tweeting about?  Do you actually know these people?”  I, too, would have been one of those asking the same questions a few weeks ago. 

For one, I had no clue as to the use of hashtags or that you could only include 140 characters in your tweets.   I have noted some suggestions from my peers on hashtags to check out in the future.  I started a small list here; please feel free to add any other recommendations.

Like Leisbet (Feb. 10^th, 2014), I recognize that I am not an early adaptor and need to challenge myself and take the plunge on learning something new.   I am finding some technology easier to figure out now compared to a couple of years ago when I first started in the program.  I’m not sure if the technology is becoming user-friendlier or if it is me, who is becoming more skilled.  I’d like to think that I have become more skilled, but I’m doubtful.  

While it is great to have many different avenues to investigate when trying to develop a PLN, I recognize it is important to have specific goals in mind and choose networks that support these goals. 

Emily (Feb. 10^th, 2014) shared an important point on her blog about asking the question, “how do my relationships make me a better teacher?”   I will ask myself this question often so as to stay focused on a specific goal and not get sidetracked.

These past few weeks forced me to realize now that I am a teacher-librarian, I don’t have the same connections I did when I was a teacher so that makes it it even more important to reach out to the wider community and develop my own PLN.  As the info graphic Kimberly (Feb. 18th, 2014) posted on her blog points out that teacher librarians are in a unique position and taking professional development into our own hands is key.  And as Kacy (Feb. 9^th, 2014) says, I will continue to be a "social media explorer".  

Resources:

Beaudry, L. (2014, Feb. 10th). Continued ICT learning. A Library Journey, [web log] Retrieved from: http://beaudrylibrary.blogspot.ca/2014/02/conntinued-ict-learning.html [Accessed: 7 Mar 2014].

Birkland, K. (2014, Feb. 18). The journey to developing my ICT skills. Ms. K Birkland's UBC Blog, [web log] Retrieved from: http://mskbirkland.blogspot.ca/2014/02/find-more-education-infographics-on-e.html [Accessed: 7 Mar 2014].

Hugh. (n.d.). If you are not creating trouble, you are not creating much. [image online] Available at: http://anakegoodall.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/if-youre-not-creating-trouble-hughgapingvoid-com/ [Accessed: 7 Mar 2014].

Lafferty, J. (2013). A closer look at hashtags. [image online] Available at: www.insidefacebook.com/2013/06/17/a-closer-look-at-facebooks-hashtags/ [Accessed: 7 Mar 2014].

Morgan, K. (2014, Feb.9). Follow me- 21st century learning tools. Kacey Morgan LIBE Teacher Librarian, [web log] Retrieved from: http://kacymorganlibe.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/follow-me-21st-century-learning-tools-in-the-classroom-inquiry-blog-post-2/ [Accessed: 7 Mar 2014].

Learning and Sharing with Others

I was fortunate to find Kate Klingensmith’s blog at the beginning of this week while exploring PLNs.  It is a good starting point as it clearly explains what a PLN is and gives examples as to how to get started, in a straightforward and easy manner for people new to PLNs.

Click here to view.

Photo taken from Creative Commons.

I was also fortunate to have my principal lend me the book, Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach. This is an informative book full of ideas on how to connect with other educators and adopt a “do-it-yourself mentality.”(Nussbaum-Beach, 2012).

I also subscribe to LM_NET, which is a terrific discussion forum for librarians.  As described on their website, “ an excellent way to network with other school library professionals, connect to new ideas in school library practice, seek advice, and ask library related questions.” (LM_NET, 2008). The book suggestions and lesson ideas have been most helpful being new to the library.   I subscribe to the digest version. 

I had heard quite a bit about Pinterest, a site full of visual ideas on different topics, so I went ahead and joined earlier in the week.  I have much to explore on the site but did subscribe to some of their educational boards.  Here is one on PLNs. Click here.

 Through Aaron’s suggestion, I joined Feedly; a news aggregator, which allows you to keep your news feeds all in one place.  It is such a timesaving tool as it allows me to check who has posted in their blogs and comment easily without having to check each one directly. 

I am not there yet but from what I have read Twitter is definitely one of the more useful tools in developing your PLN.  I am now starting to use the favorites for saving tweets and exploring with more confidence the hash tag symbol.

I had an aha moment when during our Google chat, Aaron talked about how he had connected with other educators through Twitter at a conference he had attended.  Earlier in the day on Wednesday, I had been following #sd36learn and noticed a number of people tweeting about the dinner series they were at with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beech, the author of the     Connected Educator.                                                                           

You can check out her presentation here.                                                     

Twitter Photo taken from Creative Commons

I had just thought they were tweeting out to inform others who were not there as to what was going on.  It had never dawned on me that they were connecting with each other.  I was trying to figure out a way of becoming more active with Twitter and I can see myself participating in something. 

The link to the blog below shows the power of connecting through Twitter.  I happened to stumble upon this blog while exploring PLNs and surprisingly, it involved some teachers from my district, Surrey!

(http://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/category/connecting/)

I have also signed up for Discovery Education Network group with another teacher from my school.  I hope to make some new connections through this opportunity.  It starts next week but I believe it might be the same sessions that Emily took.

Attending our local teacher-librarian association meetings and checking out our district’s teacher-librarian discussion board continue to be good ways of developing my library skills and connecting with other teacher-librarians in my district.  I also try to take advantage of any workshops offered in our area.

I am also a French Immersion teacher-librarian.  One of the ways I try to stay current with the French Immersion community is through ACPI (L’Association canadienne des professeurs). One great feature of their website is the fact that anyone can view past presentations/workshops from their annual conference @ https://www.acpi.ca If you go to évènement- congrès annuel- archives, you will be able to view several of the presentations presented at this year’s conference in Calgary.  I was fortunate to go but only wish I knew what I know now and had actively tweeted while there.  Missed opportunity!

References:

Klingensmith, K. PLN: Your Personal Network Made Easy. Retrieved from http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/pln-your-personal-learning-network-made-easy/

Nussbaum-Beach, S., (2014, February 12).  Light a Fire in your Learning Communities[Video Streaming].  Retrieved from (http://www.alivestreaming.com/broadcasts/4273)

Nussbaum-Beach, S., & Ritter, L. (2012). The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree