Engagement in Learning Communities
I 110% wouldn't be in my current position today as an Instructional Technology Specialist if I hadn't been a part of my extended PLN. Guaranteed! My PLN is EVERYTHING. I've made friends, connections, peers, and so much more via connecting with others through digital learning networks. So often, as educators, we become isolated on islands where we don't even leave our classrooms to talk and collaborate with our campus peers. The BEST decision I ever made was to join Twitter 7 years ago. When I was teaching in Oklahoma City, before moving down to Brenham Texas, I only collaborated with folks in my building. It was very hard to find resources, gather ideas, and talk to people that had my pedagogical ideas and thoughts. So many schools in the OKC district, and no cross-curricular campus to campus conversations, meetings, or collaborative opportunities.
In 2012 I moved to Brenham, TX and started teaching 4th grade (Math, Science, S.S). My principal at the time suggested that I should join Twitter.
My first reaction was, "Heck no, I don't need any more social media in my life, I'm already on Facebook."
He said, "No, no, no... join Twitter and use if for educational purposes. Tweet out the great things you're doing in your classroom. Share your ideas. Follow other educators, admin, specialists, and like-minded teachers."
So, in 2012 I joined Twitter. And I've never looked back. I learned from others in the beginning instead of posting. I was more of a "Peruser" than a "Consumer". But, I learned a great deal in the early days of my PLN. I followed amazing educators, administrators, leaders, and instructional tech specialists. From the excellent ideas I gained from my PLN I was able to implement technology instruction seamlessly into my daily teaching. This caught the eyes of the Instructional Tech Team in my district, which in tern got me the promotion to being a full-time instructional technology specialist in Brenham ISD. So yes... I owe my job, and career to Twitter and my PLN. I then did less and less "gather ideas" and much more providing ideas, strategies, tips, templates, and much more to Twitter. I gained fellow "newbies" to my PLN that were just starting out like me... who wanted great instructional ideas and like-minded collaboration opportunities.
This all led to me joining more PLN's and eventually presenting and keynoting at conferences all over Texas. I joined the TCCA Tech-Sig group. I became the president of Techs4Tex that host the annual Country Girls Code and Texas Google Summit events. I joined Voxer groups with other instructional tech specialist and admin, and I joined GEG's (before Google took most of them away). I'm still a part of one instructional tech group on Google+ that is still going strong. I joined Facebook Groups for educators, Twitter hashtags, and more. I've gone to countless conferences, edcamps, and presentations which has all helped build my PLN even more. I started a weekly "TwitterCast" with my friend Meredith Akers that talks about Fresh Educational Ideas and provides examples of how to build your PLN. Here is our presentation that we've shared at conferences: bit.ly/keepitFRESH (case sensitive)
The point is this: Keep getting out there, keep finding new groups, networks, and PLN's to share your ideas and gain new ones. This is the whole point of having a Growth Mindset. We will NEVER be done learning, and we need to continually grow together. Join me on Twitter @tommyspall and lets collaborate even more!
