Developing your own ICT Skills & Pedagogy: It's more than simply saying, "I'm a lifelong learner"

When I started teaching, I taught grades 3 - 5 in a school with about 60 students in grades K - 7 and there were just 3 other teachers.  My best professional development came from stopping by the gr. 1 - 2 teacher's classroom everyday to discuss our days - I learned an unbelievable amount of things from her that I still use in my practice today!  Working from home can be an isolating experience.  I connect with other staff from our school almost entirely by email and then once per month at our online staff meeting.

Last year, at our June staff conference, the topic of developing personal learning groups came up - how great would it be to get together and chat every week online?  When our assistant vice principals invited me to be part of a personal learning community (PLC) that would meet once a week in a Google hangout, I thought, "Sure!  I'd love to do that."  Unfortunately, the night that was chosen to meet on coincided with another weekly engagement so I never did connect with this group.  Did I do anything about that?  No.  After reading about PLNs on Jen McLean's blog today, I was reminded of this PLC that I never did join. She posted an excellent clip of Will Richardson talking about PLNs which I am going to repost (thanks, Jen!):

Video: Richardson, Will. Personal Learning Networks. (7 December 2007). [Video file]  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mghGV37TeK8 18 October 2015

Will Richardson suggests that teachers can best teacher students to develop their PLNs by creating our OWN personal learning network.  "We have to understand how these types of networks can have a profound impact on the way we learn."(Richarson)  While I DO understand my desire to learn from my peers and connect more, I don't think that I have done much to facilitate or develop this.  I want to take this opportunity of being given this assignment to make some tangible advances right away!

Beginning and maintaining my explorations and development

(1) I have already expressed in previous posts that I would like to learn more about how to maximize my use of Twitter as a tool in my own learning.  I admit, I do not yet understand how Twitter really works.  BUT I have now downloaded it to my phone instead of just using it on my laptop.  Haha.  I found this article about the Teacher's Guide to Twitter and took these two tips.  (actually, 3: I followed @edudemic !)  I signed up for a TweetDeck account to better organize my Twitter account.  I also added a Twitter feed to my blog.

Personal goal: Tweet something related to my personal practice once per week.

Image from Edudemic

However, a good thought to note in regards to Twitter is that, "Social platforms like Twitter don't provide the PD.  Social platforms provide the opportunity to build strong relationships with people, which, in turn, provide the opportunity for real professional growth to occur.  Twitter is the gateway to find articles, blogs, have discussions, build relationships with other professionals with like (or unlike) views on similar topics." -- Andrew Mead in Five Ways for Teachers to Take Control of Their Own Learning

(2) I emailed my assistant VP to ask about setting up the PLC again for this year or re-joining if they are still going.  

Personal goal: be in a PLC with other educators from my school before the end of term 1.

Some of the ways that educators and professionals are connecting and sharing their learning

Image from EdSurge

I found this excellent article about how teachers are learning and edSurge breaks the Professional Development learning cycle into 4 parts: engage, learn, support, and measure.  They give links to websites and tools that we can use for each of these stages in our own professional development.  

Personal goal: spend more time looking into at least one of tool listed in each of the 4 parts of the learning cycle. 

Bibliography:

Edsurge.com (2014) "How Teachers Are Learning: Professional Development Remix". Edsurge.com Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/how-teachers-are-learning-professional-development-remix 18, Oct. 2015

Edudemic.com (2015) "The Teacher's Guide to Twitter".  Edudemic: Connecting education and technology.  Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/guides/guide-to-twitter/ 18, Oct. 2015

Mead, Andrew. (2015, Mar. 16) "Five Ways For Teachers to Take Control of Their Own Learning."  Canadian Education Association Blog. Retrieved from http://www.cea-ace.ca/blog/andrew-mead/2015/03/1/five-ways-teachers-take-charge-their-own-learning 18, Oct. 2015

Richardson, Will. Personal Learning Networks. (7 December 2007). [Video file]  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mghGV37TeK8 18 October 2015