Personal Learning Network

Best Websites to Expand Your Professional Learning Network.

Over the course of the semester, I have been creating and expanding my PLN or Professional Learning Network. What is a PLN? A PLN is a place where you interact with people around the world in order to gain knowledge. It is important to utilize the resources around you including peers, friends, employers, and even strangers. This can help you interact with people by communication, collaboration, and creation with other people of your profession.

For a teacher, this means expanding your network of fellow educators and resources to create a new and exciting classroom experience for your students. This not only helps you find new methods of teaching, new internet based tools, and new classroom projects, this also helps your students perform to the best of their abilities using new and creative tools.

Here is my Professional Learning Network. I include resources from Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Blogs, Symballo, Crash Corse, and Podcasts. My PLN has been growing over the past few months, and predict to see a large growth after the first few years of my teaching career. This has prepared me for the future by providing me a base of resources and fellow educators to benefit my students and me in the classroom.


The start of my PLN experience:

Twitter

Who knew Twitter could be a great source for teachers? I sure didn't! After doing some research and connecting with educators. I have found a whole world of them out there. Hashtags are an amazing tool for educators. Type in the hashtag #EdTech for example. This will bring up tweets, photos, videos, people, and news that all have the tag #EdTech. You can connect with others by replying, following, or even personal messaging.                               Check out my Twitter! 

Pinterest 

Pinterest has always been one of my favorite websites. You can literally find anything there. From home decor to recipes and even workouts. I believe everyone should have a Pinterest to expand their knowledge, including teachers. There are thousands of ideas, crafts, and even printable worksheets. You can find online resources to help your students better understand a certain subject or concept. There are plenty of online games to help your students practice their skills to become the best they can be. They have tips for classroom management, tips for a growth mindset, and new ways of thinking you, as a teacher, may have never thought of.  

Facebook

Facebook is also an amazing tool all teachers should be using. This is just another way teacher can connect with each other to learn new skills and methods of teaching.We all know teaching isn't always the most glamorous job, but other teachers around the world know what you are going, though. This is a great way to connect with them and share your funny and even horror stories together. You can connect with other educators by friending other teachers, joining a teacher group, liking a facebook page, or even just messaging another teacher to ask for their ideas on something. 

Instagram

Instagram is another one of my favorite websites. There are thousands of people using Instagram daily. As a teacher, with permission from the parents, you can make your account private and post pictures of your classroom and your students, while only allowing the parents of your students to follow you. This lets the parents know the kids are learning, but having fun at the same time. Parents like to be updated, there is no better way to update the parents than sending out a picture of their kids. You can also connect with other educators on Instagram. You can make a separate account for crafts you do in your classroom, maybe another teacher sees what you're doing, and wants to follow in your footsteps. You can connect with another educator by liking, commenting, following and even personal messaging.

Linkedin 

Linkedin is a social network to connect other professionals. It is for everyone who is interested in growing their professional lives by connecting with other professionals and finding new opportunities. You can have your profile full with all of your achievements for others to see and admire. Linkedin is another website perfect for teachers who are looking to connect with other educators around the world. Facebook and Linkedin are very similar. On Facebook you "friend" other people while on Linkedin you "connect" with others. My LinkedIn is quite small right now but once I start connecting with other educators this resource will continue to grow and help me as a teacher. 

Blogs 

There are thousands of blogs all over the internet. One specifically I found for teachers is called "PBS Teachers' Lounge".  There are hundreds of different blogs targeted for teachers. This can help teachers understand they are not alone. This blog is great for teachers to learn new ideas and methods of teaching or thinking about new ideas. This is just one website of many where everyone especially educators can learn new things. 

Symbaloo

Symbaloo is a new resource for me. This is a virtual bookmarking tool to help you stay organized. This is also another great resource for teachers. Teachers bookmark hundreds of resources to come back to later for their students. This is a great tool to help teachers stay organized while bookmarking. Bookmarks can get lost though out the years but by keeping them all in one safe place, and not just one long list, teachers can see what they are looking for. 

Crash Course

Crash Course provides videos to educate students in a particular subject or area they might be struggling with. This is a great resource for teachers who love videos in the classroom. Students can get bored listening to the same teacher all day. Videos can provide an escape to listening to one person. Most of these videos are about 10 minutes long. This is great for students and teachers because the videos won't take up the entire class time, but are long enough to provide meaningful information to the students.

Podcasts

While face to face conversations are great, there isn't one teacher, in the world, able to hear every other teacher's ideas. Podcasts are another great way for educators to learn and understand different ways of thinking. As a teacher or even just an individual wanting to learn, podcasts can be listened to literally anywhere, including that long drive to work.  I discovered this amazing website for teachers. This website is full of education discussions that could be useful to every teacher in different areas. This is a great example, "Are Report Cards Obsolete? Is There a Better Way?" Getting rid of report cards is something that hadn't crossed my mind. New ideas of teaching and thinking come up all the time, and this is a wonderful resource where people can express their ideas. 

Crayola for Educators 

Crayola for Educators is an online resource full of lesson plans for every grade level. This resource provides teachers with printable coloring pages, DIY (Do it Yourself) crafts, and even a play zone where you can interact with games online. This is a great resource for teachers. When I was in elementary school I loved when my teachers would create a new craft or game for us to play. I feel students learn more hands-on than being lectured. You can even shop online for all of the best Crayola items including clay, art kits, and silly putty. 

By utilizing all of the free resources above your Professional Network will continue to grow and you, as a teacher, will grow too. Just imagine what your classroom will look like when you use all of these resources.