Personal Learning Network - Amanda Patterson

PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORK - AMANDA PATTERSON

This entire process is new to me so it can be both good and bad to sit for a 

long time and reflect on my goals; eventually I needed to sit down and  

''start typing. Aside from teaching High School English and teaching in a''

21st Century classroom, I’m not entirely sure about all of my long terms 

''goals. So I'll start with a few and keep working on them in the coming ''

months:  continue studying TEACH-NOW learning processes and English studies
 * My first personal goal is to complete the TEACH-NOW certification and

while I wait for practice-teaching to begin in a few months. I had been 

thinking about teaching for several years as my mother and grandmother 

were both were teachers and it was a career I aspired to…so after careful 

consideration I made the the decision about a year ago and started looking for 

programs for teaching certifications that seemed to suit me.
 * I’d like to show my 21st Century English Learner students that I am there to guide them in 21st Century Learning and how we all can become more passionate about 21st Century Technology by using our literature, writing and journaling and vocabulary words in computer games and other technological pieces.. Teaching them how to produce things like Podcasts and radio commercials are fun ways to interact with them but mostly I just want to bring more technology into the classroom so I can keep my students completely engaged and excited about my class. This is probably the most exciting part of becoming a teacher, I believe, in this day and age.  Even though I know there will be challenges to overcome with every school  (I’ve seen it happening at my own son’s school) I hope to be able to teach as close as I can to the 21st Century Technology framework.

 
 * Eventually, I’d like to teach English in high school and during that time, form a network of like-minded teachers who want to share information about their classes, curriculum and learning methods (including 21st Century teaching methods). I believe I’ll only grow stronger as a teacher if I have a network of teachers (new and experienced) that are growing with me.
 * By working in an industry of Marketing, Advertising and Creativity, I hope to bring and blend the right amount of lessons and styles I learned those years of my career into the classroom, yet not leaning too much on my old career.  I want to break out of the mold with my own educational ideas instead of finding and recycling them from other sites or relating all of them to creativity in advertising and marketing.  This is one of my biggest challenges.  My goal is to find fresh, new ideas for the students and not recycle creative ideas from my years as an ad executive.

Personal Learning Network: Edit
In my research to discover what PLNs would work best for me, I discovered some educators using their PLNs in ways that spoke to me in a goal-oriented way and helped to explain better the PLNs to me:

–    Professional development – learn from content-area specialists

–    Get lesson plan ideas from master teachers

–    Learn about new technology and how to integrate it into your teaching

–    Find collaborative solutions

–    Find interesting links to educational new

Students can also reap the benefits of tapping into their PLNs (example:  The You Tube Video : The Networked Student)

Building my Own PLN  Edit
Immediately, within the next 3 months, I would start studying the following:

www.webenglishteacher.com

www.thefutureofeducation.com

This is a collection of 10 English teacher-based websites written for mostly the high school English teacher with some sites very technology-driven, and some based on veteran school teachers giving their insights on teaching English. A few examples:

Bud the Teacher: Bud Hunt's blog (emphasis on Technology Integration within the classroom)

Cyber English: Ted Nellen (articles on cyber English, professional development in a web-based classroom)

Gladly Would I Teach: Veteran High School Teacher, Edie Parrott and her insights on teaching over the years

I will also follow the English Language Arts section of Edutopia as well as www.weareteachers.com.

I will also spend the next 3 months reading as many eduction blogs as I can, especially these that I found from the list of the Top 25 High School Teacher Blogs, with these three focused on High School English Teachers:

Blog:  The Nerdy Teacher

Blog: Teach Moore

Blog: Walking to School 

Even though I'm not sure where Twitter is going with popularity, I know that a vast majority of the population is still using it, so I will follow education organizations through Twitter, but I do have an Instagram account which I know is more popular now than Twitter (or it seems to be with teenagers), as is SnapChat, Klick or Periscope (which streams video to Twitter). There is not much information to be learned with some of these mediums but studying the trends and looking for the next big Facebook or Instagram will be helpful in staying relevant with the high school students. Sidenote:  One way I would use Twitter is to backchannel large conferences on the main information that came from the conferences like SXSW  and 'NECC' and others by hashtagging them during the conference like' SXSWi' and getting the latest information on their technology week.

I have always used Pinterest as I am an art-influenced individual. I'm a visual learner and also love to paint, draw, sculpt, teach art, interior decorate, etc...so Pinterest will never bore me unless the app shuts down. I believe I'll continue to use this throughout my studies and teaching career as a form of storyboarding for my students. Showing them the tone of a story, or storyboarding the book they've just read are just a couple of ideas off the top of my head. I use it frequently.

6 Month Plan Edit
I would like to seek out other professionals in my field via Facebook, Linke In (which is largely a huge resume bank now, but I still get daily requests in my mailbox so I'm going to use it), and other social media.

I will seek out community-monitored sites for educators for group organization and sharing of ideas and projects, especially in my specialty.

I'd like to use the Wikispaces for educators and webinars hosted in this area as I feel I'm not informed in this arena and definitely want to get a grasp on it before I'm in a classroom. It's a tool I'd like to use with my students, and since I've not used it in the past, and I do think the platform can be useful, I'd like to study it more in the coming months.

I will sign up for an RSS Reader - Real Simple Syndication (an RSS reader is a tool that allows you to keep up with many of your favorite blogs, all in once place), as well as Google Reader.

Long Term Plan:

Ning is something I would use after experience teaching in the classroom as it's a social medial tool (to create your own social media site). I might use it to create my own site for teachers like myself who wanted to network and collect and share information. It would be an undertaking that I realistically might not have time for until I've had the chance to undertake many challenges before that.

My finaly long term plan is to be teaching in a 21st Century, flipped classroom setting. I know there will be challenges and resistance to this in many schools, but I believe that the students need to be equipped with the skills to succeed when they graduate. I want to help them get to that place