NETS 5. I created a network with those who share my interest of incorporating technology into teaching using my blog, TWitter, and Diigo. Through this network I will contribute to the vitality effectiveness, and self renewal of the teaching profession and my school and community.
I have been learning and utilizing my PLN, or Personal Learning Network, throughout the semester to help me build my foundation as teacher. A PLN is a network used to gather and share new information so that we can learn with people around the world. My PLN consists of a Blog, my Twitter account, and my Diigio. My blog is my personal journal on the web that is centered around my goal of becoming a teacher and documents and shares the steps that I have made along the way. Through my blog I can share my learning experiences and utilize others blogs for my own learning. A Twitter account is a form of microblogging that I have used throughout the semester to share and learn from others with a more fast paced and "at your finger tips" tool. This tool allows me to quickly gain access to others interested in the same topics through typing subjects with hashtags and immediately gaining access to countless people interested in the same subject. This network allows us to share interesting links like videos, blogs, websites, and just about anything we can share with others on the topic. I utilize this tool to get access to what others share. My Diigio is a social networking account used to bookmark and make notes on different web pages that I may want to access in the future. Through this network I can also follow people much like on Twitter that may share the same interests as me and have constant access to the information they come across and share.
I participated in the #K12Media education chat through TweetChat. This tool allows participants to easily sign in through their Twitter account, and from there simply type the hashtag of the scheduled chat you want to participate in. It brings you immediately to the chat and you can join at any time during the scheduled interval. Participants just type their thread and press update to partake in this chat. I joined the chat on Monday April 2, 2012. The topic for discussion was a continuation of the previous weeks discussion on "The Hunger Games" and racism and sexism in schools, but participants were open to any topic. This particular chat is designed as a media chat for all grade levels, and topics are pretty much open regarding classroom issues. The chat consisted of mostly current k-12 teachers who shared issues such as students not wanting to learn about sexism and how to address this in the class. Teachers gave different scenarios they use in their classroom as well as tweeted links to useful articles to have students read on the subject as well as videos and articles about the issues of racism and sexism in the classroom.
I am following Brian on twitter because he tweets on all things education. His emphasis is on social media in the school, and tweets articles on both sides of the spectrum. He also shares information about anything interesting involving education. I am also following A. Mercer because she is an elementary teacher, my focus of interest, as well as a tech enthusiast and shares valuable information on incorporating technology into elementary teaching. I chose to follow Nancy Flanagan for her interest in education advocacy. As a future educator I want to be informed about what is going on with our government regarding our schools and I think this could be an interesting way to do so. I am following Shaun Upchurch, and equality advocate to compliment my culture and diversity in learning course. This semester I have been studying equality and am struggling with ideas as to how to ensure equality in innovative ways. I hope to learn new ideas from Shawn and benefit from his interests. I am following Tom Whitby, the founder of #Edchat so that I could follow other interesting resources he maintains such as his blog My Island View and shares valuable resources.
Diigio allows users to follow others that may share similar interests and therefore allows a network of research tools to be shared among the community. I am following Brenda Muench, an elementary school teacher and tech specialist. Glynda Plieger a technology in K through 12 advocate. Jeanne bp, a user interested in technology and the different tools to utilize in teaching. Nedra Isenberg, a 26 year veteran teacher who is trying to keep up with the changing technology in school, which is something all teachers should concentrate on. I tagged three additional resources in my Diigio. The Wiki Walkthrough is a how to website that I can access as a guide to how to use Wikis throughout my teaching career. Presentations and Thoughts is a source I can go to if I need ideas and examples for presentations. There is a page on my blog that contains my Diigio tagroll that I've been using throughout the semester to have the resources that I continuously acquire in a quick and accessible place. The Tech Saavy Educator as a resource for integrating technology into the classroom categorized into different subjects.
After navigating through the Classroom2.0 website, I came across a blog post Small Changes: Big returns. This post comes from a 30 year veteran teacher in Canada who is developing a math course for students in an unfamiliar country. This endeavor has forced this veteran to seek out teaching skills that will help her convince students on the verge of giving up on math or dropping out, how to be successful math students. She shares important insight from Ben Chun, a teacher and blogger who believes that making errors is the key to success, and that we must allow students to be comfortable with making mistakes so long as they make the effort to learn from these mistakes and fix them. He also firmly believes that we cannot just tell students that they must learn math because it will benefit in the future, but that it must be an intrinsic interest or relate issues in their everyday life. These are key issues for teachers to understand and apply to teaching. If we allow for student errors and use them as a tool for teaching, I think we can take away some of the fear of learning that can be detrimental to learning experiences. If we apply the lessons we teach in every subject to the lives of students we can hopefully uncover an intrinsic interest in the students that is key to truly learning.
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