Making Time to build Your PLN.

When we are starting out to build a PLN the idea and task can be a little daunting.  It did to me at the beginning.  And really I still am at the beginning!  It does take time, but it doesn't need to be a lot of time.

In the most recent Edublogs PLN challenge Sarah Poling mentions the idea of spending 15 minutes a day, which will over a period of time make you very competent at what you are learning. For myself I then take this and say well I will spend some time most days.  Sometimes it will be more and sometimes less.

photo © 2010 Eric Lockheart | more info (via: Wylio)
I started out in a small way and joined the classroom Edublogs blogging challenges run by Sue Wyatt, for the last few years.  I didn't realise at the time that I was beginning to build a PLN.  I thought I was just getting into the world of classroom blogging and it was away to connect with other teachers and classes. My eyes were opened to the learning going on in other classrooms and I wanted that for my class too.  At this time I was introduced to the use of Google reader, firstly to follow blogs in the challenge, then my student blogs and finally I now use it to follow teachers who I want to learn along with.

Earlier this year I joined the Edublogs Teacher blogging challenge and through that I found more teachers, learned along with them, or was amazed at what some of them were doing far beyond where I was.  Through that I became aware of some of the webinars that were available from such sources as Techtalk Tuesdays and I have joined in occasionally with those.  Recently I could not be at the live webinar but I connected in later to listen to an Evernote webinar.  Afterwards I spent some time setting up Evernote to track my students, as I had seen suggested my Richard Lambert on his blog.  He had presented a webinar on Digital Storytelling, I attended that, have since bought his book and want to start out on that particular journey.

During the Teacher Blogging challenge I decided to join Twitter.  This came as a result of seeing how teachers in the blogging challenge were using it.  I have started very small.  I usually link into it quickly a couple of times per day.  I am still learning the conventions of Twitter.  I was working with a student recently, and was having to remind her about putting in full stops.  During our last session she said, "Right now I put in a full stop." Then  had to be reminded again later.  I thought to myself why can't she do this all the time.  However I was reminded of that little thought later in the evening when I sent off a tweet without the hash-tags it needed. I had used them properly in another tweet, but forgot again.  I then understood where we both were in our learning steps!  It helped me be far more compassionate towards both of us.  Today I have been learning about the Structured Overview of Learning Outcomes (SOLO) and the experience made even more sense to me.

As you may be able to see, I think I am building a PLN in a way that is particular to me.  I am finding that as I  participate in something I am meeting up with people I have met up before so I am deepening links with some people.  It is then leading to something new, joining up with something new.  And so the journey goes on.  One thing leads to another. I want quality rather than quantity. So my goals for building my PLN are:

1.   Spend some time on it each day.
2.   Comment on people's blogs that I follow.
3.   Spend a little time surfing through the latest updates on Twitter.
4.   Click on links that interest me in a tweet.
5.   Connect with others on Twitter as I see the opportunity.
6.   Each day spend time with one idea gleaned.  Explore it and decide it I am going to depth it.
7.   Recognise when I have a sense of fullness, small bites will be enough.
9.   Track how gradually my PLN and my own skills and knowledge is growing.
      (For example my New Zealand contacts have grown as I have consciously set about to develop this.)

photo © 2010 Hartwig HKD | more info (via: Wylio)

So what about actual time?  Sometimes in the morning I spend a little time glancing at my Google reader or Twitter. In the afternoon/evening  I might read on Twitter or engage in blogging. The weekend sometimes gives me some time as does school holidays as well. However I have less time for reading, watching TV, chores, and in person people time. It’s rather like budgeting with money, if you buy this then you can’t buy that..

To some extent what I choose is governed by what is going on around me or within me.  However I find that whatever I am passionate about time isn't a big factor.  I just need to remember I can't have it all.  We are time bound creatures!  However we have the gift of choice.   

Technology

Do you ever stop to reflect and be amazed at the ICT  that we have available to us today?  I do!  I was reminded of it again this weekend as I introduced my 86 year old Dad to the Ipod Nano, 6th generation.  I am not sure who was more stressed, him or me.  Dad because this was so new and amazing to him, me because I had bought it for him and I wasn't sure if he would love it as much as I do! Dad said his Grandmother would roll over in her grave at the thought of such a thing!

photo © 2011 Jason Bache | more info (via: Wylio)
It is so small, and there it was dangling at the end of his headphones.  No ear buds for him!  He was worried he was going to lose it, because of its size.  I thought, keep an eye on the headphones and there at the end will be the iPod.  He loves to listen to music and was amazed that we could put a whole lot of his CD's on it and still have huge space left.  I have put a few audio books on as well hoping he will get hooked into them.  We shall see.  He wakes in the night a lot and I am hoping that the iPod will be good company.  I think he is getting the hang of it, I will check in for the next few days.  I laugh at my own experience with this iPod, last year my 5th generation made awful noises and never went again.  I got the 6th generation.  For awhile I couldn't work out that I had to take the sticker of the front that showed the apps! And Dad is worried!!

I think back to the early and mid nineties when we had Apple Macs in my classroom and the one next door.  The teacher next door, Vanessa and I, attended a course in Multimedia in Education at Wellington College of Education.  Towards the end we had to present our own multimedia work.  The two of us were using Hyperstudio, I had spent hours putting my presentation together, with cords everywhere linking to the TV etc. I finally finished it.  But how were we to show it to the others?  We had no way of getting it there.  Think today of all the ways, there would be so  many easy ways.  We had to bundle up the monitor and hard drive and take the whole Mac Performa into Wellington.  Believe me it was heavy. I think too of our school intranet.  It rarely worked and I often ran down the corridor to jiggle a connection.  The internet?  Well that was very odd and I believed I'd need to be highly educated to understand how to log on to it!  How technology has moved on!

I enjoyed watching a recent TV series, Downton Abbey.  In the last episode the telephone had just arrived at the Abbey in England.  The butler was practising answering it, and he wasn't very sure of it. It was very humorous. A little like Dad and the iPod Nano.  I've told him about the iPad and I must show it to him some time.  In another twenty years I wonder what the world will be using for ICT.  Probably something not even imaged as yet.

What memories do you have of the early days?!

Twitter! Why Not?

photo © 2010 Steve Garfield | more info (via: Wylio)
When I mention to others around me that Twitter is great for teachers they say, "No way!" and to some extent I can understand that.  We already have very busy lives, get caught up in Twitter and there goes more time.  I held out against Twitter for quite awhile.  Turned a deaf ear.

However in January when I participated in the Edublogs Teacher Blogging Challenge I decided to dip my tootsies in.  It wasn't that bad!  Actually it was very good. A Twitter user only uses it as it suits them.  You might just follow others and pick up ideas.  That's one thing I do, I now have a number of people I follow who share great websites and ideas.  I test the ones I like the sound of.  Sometimes I click further onto the web site they are sharing.  Imagine my surprise today when I clicked on a website and found a face staring up at me that I knew. I couldn't believe my eyes.  I had taught with this Principal back in the days when he was a Deputy Principal at our school and I have a lot of respect for him.  So now I have the link to his blog on my blogroll.

One of the reasons I followed the link was because I follow mainly Australian and American educationalists.  They are great, yet I need a little more New Zealand in my diet, for the very reasons that TraintheTeacher shares.

Occasionally I share my own comments and thoughts on Twitter.  Not often, I am still getting used to it.  I occasionally retweet. Tweeting is like mini blogging.  Ideas are shared very succinctly.  You call in when you have time.  Learn a little more about it when you have time.  At present I am learning about #tags.  I haven't got into any of the'live' chats because the overseas ones are on at a time when I am working or asleep.  If you read this and have ideas on any good New Zealand Twitter people to follow let me know.  Maybe if I Twitter about it I may get a response as well.

If you are not a Twitter user I encourage you to try it.  Just small.  Don't even tell others you are trying it. Find a few people to follow.  See who they follow. Follow them. Start here and read Kathleen Morris' post about Twitter.

I Deleted my PLN!

photo © 2009 Sarah | more info (via: Wylio)
With one swipe of my finger (accidental you understand) I deleted a number of blogs that I follow.  These blogs I discovered while doing the Teacher Blogging Challenge earlier in the year.  All I intended to do was some tidying up, as I begin a new challenge about PLN's.  Memo to self, do not use my ipad2 to work on my blog. I can end up doing something I don't want!!

However it isn't as bad as it seems. You see I have other links to a number of these educators.  I have some of them in my Google Reader, where I quickly can see there latest posts.  On my iGoogle home page I have some more.  And my final port of call will be Twitter.  Well, actually there is one more.  I can go to the Edublogs Teacher Challenges and pick up some there.  So all is not lost.  I can probably restore the ones I want to keep over the weekend.  However one swipe of my finger on the ipad2 will take a little more time restoring on my laptop.

I want to continue developing my PLN.  I like the idea of small is good.  I find if I get too large I can't interact.  How does  a busy teacher get the time to follow what's happening on Twitter?  There is so much excellent material being shared.  I think this is a place I need to work on.  I still haven't got a handle on the hashtags so that needs to be mastered.  I don't use Tweetdeck and I am not sure that it would be of extra value to me.  However I am prepared to be open about that.  I don't use a mobile phone much. However soon I will need to upgrade because I have quite an old phone.  I am thinking maybe wait to the iphone5 comes out. That may keep me more connected.

I enjoy learning from teachers around the globe.  I can learn things that otherwise may never cross my path. I am a person who gets easily lulled to a state of boredom attending professional development that is not engaging for me.  Yes I do attend engaging PD as well, but not all the time.  What I like about a PLN is that I can engage with the ideas and learning that are relevant to me at the time. I may not know I want to learn about it until I see someone share about it.  I love that I don't have to 'leave home' to do it.  No travel!  Now that's a bonus.  I am presented with a lot of quality information, guidance, and good practice.  It makes me want to strive to lift my teaching practice, it opens up doors and possibilities.  Through the blogging challenge I began to keep an eye out for webinars that might give me new ways of seeing things.

So, blogging, Twitter, Google reader and iGoogle have been my main ways of developing my PLN.  I look forward to this challenge as a way of becoming more active within it.  I need to be realistic.  I only have a little time and so I want to build the most effective PLN for me.  I am also aware that I need to make time to contribute as well as learn.

Attribution:
Image from the Daring Librarian.
Image: 'PLN_DimSum' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43666171@N07/4806404770

Bullying in Schools.

photo © 2008 Pimkie | more info (via: Wylio)
Last week the issue of Bullying seemed to stand up and confront me.  A parent came to me to report an issue of bullying that her child had come to her with.  That day Mrs S online asked for comments for a post on bullying that a student of hers had posted.  At a Board meeting last week we read a letter by Anne Tolley our Minister for Education about bullying.  On Friday I began investigating a bullying incident.  Then on Friday evening I caught the end of an interview with a very articulate 13 year old on Close up. How proud she can be of herself.  How proud her parents and teachers must be. The interview is worth watching, and you can link to it from here.  It is Number 3 on the line up.

As I began to think about the issue of bullying that I am dealing with at present, I thought of the very serious incidents that have been bought to our attention in New Zealand schools.  Surely it is an issue that needs to be addressed.  It is easy to pay lip service to it.  Why do schools do that?  I personally think it is because they actually don't know how to handle it.  We are educators, and like it or not, we need to educate our students to deal with bullying behaviour, whether they are the bully or the one bullied.

Schools of course can't do it by themselves.  They need the support of parents, and sometimes services such as counsellors and youth aid officers.  They need to support those bullied, help them to cope and take steps to prevent bullying happening to them.  The school has to take steps as well to keep students safe.  Schools also need to support the bully, letting them know they are accepted but their behaviour is not acceptable.  This all sounds reasonably straightforward but of course issues like this are rarely straightforward.  As I deal with the specific issue confronting me at present, I ask myself how do I best deal with this?  How can I help get change in this situation?

Their often is a strange code of silence around bullying.  The bullied of course often remains silent.  What concerns me is that often others who witness the bullying do not stand up for this person, and I am coming to believe these people need to be awakened and faced with how they need to respond.  Be they students or Principals and senior staff of schools.  Giving lip service to the issue of bullying is not enough.  Bullying is violence, be it verbal or physical.

Some websites that deal with bullying are:
Stop Bullying.
Bullying Prevention at the elementary level.
Bullying No Way an Australian resource.
No Bully.  Resource from NZ police.
What's Bullying.

How do you deal with bullying in your school.  What in your opinion is successful when it comes to dealing with this issue?

Loving My Ipad2

photo © 2011 inUse Consulting | more info (via: Wylio)
Yes I am just loving the iPad2.  It is a personal item, so thus far I have refrained from taking it to school.  Well I did take it once.  I have a student in my class, an eleven year old who is in the earlier stages of learning to read.  I encouraged her by saying when she had a number of ticks  for chunking through words, using the sounds and not making big, fat guesses, I would reward her with a story on my iPad.  She worked hard and I gave her my iPad and she followed the story of Cinderella.  Of course I sat along side her guarding my precious piece of hardware!  The Cinderella app was not a fantastic app but we enjoyed the story and I already have another app waiting there for her when we make another page of ticks for meeting her goal.  She is buying into it. I love it, because of course as a teacher I have a hidden motive. It passes more text past her eyes!

I love the way I can sit in my armchair, open the cover and there it is.  No slow waiting for it to boot up.  I barely got the cover off tonight when it started playing the video I had closed on the night before.  Now there is a problem.  I find my bedtime is getting later as I explore blogs, twitter etc on the iPad.

There are a wonderful array of apps to be explored.  Some excellent ones for children.  So far I have ignored games.  Evidently Angry Birds is the in game!  Where do people find the time?

As I read student blogs, it is easy to leave comments.  I have tried writing a post on Edublogs with it.  Didn't work but a plea for help to Sue Waters solved the problem.  Write in the HTML tab and works perfectly.  However probably the laptop is a lot easier for writing posts.

Watching videos on the iPad2 is a dream.  What am I watching?  Well, actually videos on phones!!!!!  Yes I have decided now I want to buy a phone that will work for me in the classroom.  After participating in a webinar on Tech Talk Tuesday, presented this week by Richard Lambert, I tracked down his blog.  There he talks about the use of phones in classrooms.  I'm sold!!  I can't justify an iphone. Yes, I'd love one.  However I splurged on the iPad2, so that's enough.

photo © 2010 George Kelly | more info (via: Wylio)
So android phones are my area of research at present.  I have decided it willl be either a Motorola flip out, or a Motorola Milestone.  I want something with a keyboard, (note-taking), a reasonable camera and video, a good internet processor.  These two fit the criteria.

And while I was attending the webinar, the topic was digital storytelling.  Now I am all fired up to go with that. I have ordered his book.  Now.... what gadgets will I need for digital storytelling!!

An Ipad2 Initiation.

Recently I received my Ipad2 that I ordered a few weeks back.  I am not sure if I really needed it, but I did want one!  I already have a Kindle and Kobo ereader and the Kindle3 is a great ereader and I would go no further than it.  So I didn't need the ipad as an ereader.

However in the last year I have started to get The Reading Teacher magazine online and downloading articles as PDFs. I like the idea more, not so many magazines piled up on the bookcase!  I have bought the PDF Pro Reader Editon app and this is perfect for reading these articles, the screen is not too bright and I can highlight etc.  Possibly a little expensive as an app, but now that I have become skilled at using it I don't regret it.  To show how green I am with an ipad I spent about 12 hours wondering how I could enlarge the print.  The penny then dropped and I remembered how to make it larger.  The downside of this, is now I am touching and swiping and expecting my Kindle ereader to act in the same way!  Of course it doesn't!!

A free app that I have downloaded is Flipboard.  That makes blog reading and other favourite places like flipping through a magazine.  Fun.  I have had a go at logging onto Twitter with the ipad.  I found myself a little at sea there, finding myself doing things I just don't want.  My favourite quote has accidentally changed and I have been in danger of retweeting tweets I didn't want to do.

To see what an upmarket magazine looks like on the ipad2 I tried the most recent Austalian Women's Weekly.  Interesting but don't think I will repeat.  It took awhile to download, and while the photos were sharp, there wasn't that much reading really in it for me.

I have noticed the finger marks quickly build up and the dust, even though I do have a cover. However all in all I know that I am going to build up my use of this interesting piece of technology.

As a teacher I will be wanting to know what apps are really good for education.  I hope to be able to use it in class with a link to my projector.  If you read this post and have used the ipad2 in education, please let me know what has worked well (or not!) for you.