November Blogging Challenge: Connectedness

Day 16

What is the most powerful aspect of being a connected educator?  What are you grateful for?

I am not much of a connected educator, I must admit.  I am a spotty tweeter...and I don't check it that often.  I do use Facebook, but I must admit I use it more to keep caught up with friends and family than for connecting with other educators.  I mean, I do use it for that sometimes, but I don't know if that counts enough to make me a "connected educator." I am grateful, though, for these social media outlets that allow me to be as connected as I am, and for the promise of more.  I felt welcomed by the other bloggers doing this challenge, and that is something I do feel grateful for.

November Challenge: What I'm proud of...

Day 3

What are you most proud of to date in your teaching career?

This may sound weird, but the thing I'm most proud of are the number of students who "friend" me on Facebook after they graduate from high school.  To add to that "weirdness" is that sometimes the students who wish to stay in contact with me are not the ones I would have thought might want to do so.  

The students I get friend requests from are often the students who talked back or claimed they didn't like English or didn't get the highest grades.  I find this knowledge to be extremely gratifying because that means I succeeded in creating a rapport with my students, even if they didn't make the best grades.  

So, that saying I have pictured here is true.

Connecting with my students in some way that makes the ones who didn't even like my content area want to befriend me after high school, that is what I'm most proud of in my teaching career.  I get to see pictures of their kids.  I get to see statuses (even those non-grammatical ones which make my English teacher heart and soul cringe) about their lives.  And all of that makes this teacher's heart and soul puff out with pride; I made a difference.

Reflective Teaching: Day 22, My PLN

Day 22--What does your PLN look like, and what does it to for your teaching?

I hate to admit it, but I had to look up "PLN" to see what it meant...and then I did the whole "face-palm" thing because, while I didn't recognize the acronym for a "Professional Learning Network" (PLN), I do have several.

Our school as been part of a Professional Learning Community for many years. That means that we get into groups like our Content Teams to share ideas and give help. We have Content Teams, Vertical Teams, and Lead Teams. All these teams form our League of Professional Teachers. We work together to make decisions that shape our curriculum, focus, and plans for the year.

Another network I use for professional wisdom and help would be Pinterest and Facebook. I know those don't normally sound like places to network, but they really do have ways to connect. On Pinterest I follow boards and people when I see that they have Pins that I could use in my own classrooms, and the network grows when I see that they follow me, too.

Facebook, too, is a networking place for me since I can connect with former colleagues and teachers and, if I need to, ask questions and get advice.  I am on Twitter and follow various blogs, but I know I don't use them to my advantage in this area. I am still new to the technology, but I am learning how to use it more and more.