Developing your PLN

Without having specific assignments related to our PLN due each week, this article gives great ideas to keep up with your PLN so that we can use it to our advantage when we really need it. It is most important to interact with other people, and to do so often. Without this, your PLN does not exist. Get involved!! The more involved you are, the more involved the people on the other end of your PLN will want to be. It is a give and take process, and it only works if both ends take the time to help the other grow. Use Twitter, blog often, and keep organized!

Remember that people are busy. It may not take 5 minutes for someone to answer your question or comment. If possible, ask multiple people so that you are able to get an answer quickly. However, be patient! Nobody likes a nagging person, and it is almost impossible to communicate with someone who does not have patience with you. Be real with your PLN. Putting on a face will only throw people off when they realize who you truly are. Take the time to get to know the people in your PLN. This will only bring advantages to your life.

Bottom line: PARTICIPATE!

Blog it up!

Now that we are at the end of the semester, I have taken some time to reflect on what will and what will not work in my classroom when I finally become a teacher. I enjoyed writing blogs each week because it was a way to have us begin our PLN journey and to get other peoples' insights to our profession. I have found countless blogs that I have added to my Evernote so that I can keep up with them. I have bookmarked many specific articles that I want to use in my classroom, and having this opportunity makes me excited rather than scared to begin my teaching career. In the beginning of the semester, we were told that we would have to incorporate technology into our classrooms 1,000 times more than it was incorporated into our's when we were in school. Then, I was stubborn and afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep up with all of the new technology. With this course, through projects, blogging, Twitter, and my PLN, I now know that I have other places to turn to when things start to get rough. I will be able to use technology to find ways to incorporate technology into my classroom! Technology seems to be a win-win for teachers, as it is where I will be looking to enhance my classroom and my students will be excited to use technology to learn.