what is a professional learning network?
A PLN, otherwise known as a professional learning network, focuses on social media and technology that includes connecting and communicating with other teachers around the world in a timely manner. Establishing a professional learning network is important in this day and age because many careers depend on having a knowledge on how to communicate with those in similar fields and many people in the education field value the importance of connecting with other teachers and sharing ideas and strategies on how to successfully teach content to students in new and improved methods. I have really enjoyed furthering my PLN through twitter chats because I had the opportunity to have conversations with other teachers about memories and experience that they had when in the pre-service stage of teaching and it was really awesome to hear them reflect and be able to notice similar patterns between what they learned when they were in my level of education. The teachers that I connected with through twitter were very supportive in my pursuit of being and educator and very much furthered my passion in going into the education field.
Professional learning network future goals
There are so many benefits in having a presence online and being able to communicate with other educators around the world and I see myself doing everything in my power to maintain a positive and beneficial existence with other professional. In many situations this is easier said than done but planning specific goals will make my pursuit of a presence much easier. As a pre-service teacher, I believe that it would be very useful for me to keep participating in twitter chats that clearly discuss my level of certification and engage in more conversation than just answering the given questions. It is important to be questioning other educators in things they are doing in their classroom and how they adapted the certain ideas they are practicing. In the future when I have my own established classroom, I think it would be fun and informative to be able to be certified to lead a twitter chat. By that point in my network, I would need to have an established presence and respect from other educators that I have communicated with but it could be something very beneficial and educational to further my knowledge in education strategies.
Twitter feed
Professional Pinterest
Danielson, C. (2007). Enhancing professional practice a framework for teaching (2nd ed.). Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.