Twitter:
This week I created a twitter account for the first time. I have never really ever thought about creating a twitter account before. I don't have enough time to keep up with facebook or email, so why would I add another thing to my plate. After signing up and participating in a chat on November 29, 2015 at 8pm (#caedtech), I can definitely see its value. I tweeted about a California Missions brainstorming project that I have started with my class. As I said I am new to Twitter so this was only my first post but I can see myself becoming more of a Twitter follower as opposed to a Twitter poster. I hope to get to a place in my career where I can continuously follow people on Twitter that will contribute to my classroom in a relevant way. There is a lot of useful information about teaching in today's world and helpful resources that I can use in my own classroom.
PLN:
PLN stands for personal learning network. A PLN is a place I can keep the important information such as, educators blogs, educators tweets and resources all in one convenient place. Having a place to be able to add things I find important and relevant makes life so much easier to follow and read blogs. I added to my PLN other educators, colleges, and friends. I think having my own PLN will help me in my career as a teacher, by providing me with a place to store my resources and refer back to them at any time. As a teacher it is our responsibility to never stop learning and striving to be the best teachers we can be.
Twitter Chat:
The chat I participated in was #caedtech on Sunday November 29, 2015 at 8:00 pm. The topic was "Programing with Elementary Students" teaching students to code. This is something I have little to no experience with, let alone teach it. After hanging back and "lurking" for a bit I decided to jump in with both feet and make a comment to someones reply to a question. I never knew how coding could be utilized in the classroom environment in elementary education. I always thought of coding as something to be utilized in middle school and above, but I was pleasantly surprised. There are lot's of teachers out there in the elementary setting that are incorporating coding into their classrooms. I added quite a few interesting resources to my PLN, for later use. I found my first experience with Twitter chat to be both daunting and surprising. It was daunting at first because of the subject of the chat and my limited knowledge about coding. After "lurking" for a while and then jumping in I found the experience surprising. I say surprising, because of how much I actually enjoyed it. I could see myself participating in another one, when I have time of course, but I think that I will find the time in the future. After this experience I can see the value in Twitter that I didn't see before.
Pinterest:
I already had a Pinterest account and a board for education. This is my preferred form of PLN. I like to use it to help me find lesson ideas and projects to use in my classroom. I only have two boards, a personal on and an education one. I think Pinterest is a great networking tool because the people I follow pin things that I find useful or relevant to what I am doing in my own classroom. Pinterest is also very easy to use. I can search through fellow educators boards and just pin them to my board, I love it, the easier the better. That's why it is my preferred PLN.