Currently, I am in a few professional online groups, but I admit that lately my participation has been passive. I belong to three district-based MS Teams (intermediate and secondary literacy, career education, and Social Studies) for resource sharing, professional development, and mentorship. I find that participating in these groups helps me get new ideas and support from my colleagues- it is easy to post and ask for help and feedback. One down side of all three groups is that they are limited to the school district, so we do not benefit from connecting or sharing with colleagues outside of our district. Another online group that I am a part of is the IB Educators Professional Communities- within this, there are many subgroups where teachers from around the world share resources and offer one another support. To refresh my current PLN, I think I need to be more active in participating, especially in the IB community, as I think I could benefit from a greater international perspective on teaching and learning. Recently, I have also started using the Wakelet app to curate resource materials, articles, and ideas- it is like Pinterest, but I like it better because it allows one to save videos, plain text, and pdfs in addition to images and links. It also has better functionality for organizing the boards. I find it works better for me in a professional capacity, whereas Pinterest works more for my personal life.
Friday, April 15, 2022
Focused PLN
Three steps to creating a focused PLN as a teacher librarian:
1. What areas or skills do I need to develop the most? As teacher librarians, our time is limited. We cannot be experts at everything all the time, so this question is meant to help me pinpoint the area of my practice in greatest need of a refresh.
2. What is my end goal? These sub-questions will help me determine the end goal: Do I want to gain a specific skillset and refine it or am I looking to explore a broad educational topic? Do I want to actively participate in engaging with many colleagues over the long term or do I want to learn a lot about a specific skillset, master it, and move on?
3. How can I measure the impact of the PLN on the success of my goal?
Cook, Rebecca J., et al. “Online Professional Learning Networks: A Viable Solution to the Professional Development Dilemma.” Journal of Special Education Technology, vol. 32, no. 2, June 2017, pp. 109–118, doi:10.1177/0162643417696930.
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Scarlet
ReplyDeleteHi, Sarah! I love how you added a detail from your own experience for this assignment. I think I can understand what PLN is better by reading what you wrote for this assignment. Thank you :)
I wonder if we can measure the impact of the PLN on the success of your goal through a survey or just my formative assessment or reflection for students/staff? :)
Christy
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah! I love that you already have a PLN that you are learning from. It is great that you have realized through self reflection that your involvement in the groups needs to once again be more active in order to get the most out of your PLN. I was excited to see that you have started using Wakelet. I started using Wakelet when taking TL Part 1 and I too really like the way it allows educators to organize resources. I also really liked the questions that you came up with for reflecting on how to create your PLN. In particular, I liked your question "What is my end goal?". It is always good to begin with the end in mind. I wonder if you might also word it a different way and ask "What is the end goal that I want for my students?". What do you want them to achieve and how will you learn what is needed to teach them this through your PLN? All the best to you!
Chelsey:
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah,
Thanks so much for sharing the PLN that you've developed and the tools that you are already using to do so. Those all sound like very rich sources of collaboration and information within your district. I appreciate your reflection that your current PLN is generally limited to your district and that to really begin to grow it, you may want to join groups or networks that reach beyond that space.
I also really appreciate you noticing that it is important that we consider what specific skills we need to grow the most. I think when I was looking at this, I was thinking of goals that may have been too broad originally and your post was a good reminder that I likley won't have the time or energy to truly do justice to those more broad thinking ideas within my PLN. As you've wisely noted, time is valuable and limited so we need to be discerning in choosing what to refresh or explore.
I agree that assessing the impact of your PLN on the success of your goals is potentially difficult. I wonder if you created some sort of ongoing PLN journal of learnings if that might help you to look back and reflect on progress from time to time as needed.
Thanks for sharing,
Chelsey