PLN

It's not the destination that matters its the journey; and what a journey it has been. I went into this course not knowing what to expect, when I found out we had to design a site, I was both excited and a little intimidated. I had tried to learn to code in the past but never had the attention span or the drive to master the art. I remember first logging into blogger and being instantly relieved, the site is a breeze to use and offers users a lot of control over layout and design.

I have learned a lot of invaluable skills that will help me become a better educator once I take the plunge and step into the classroom. Having just completed my bachelors in December, I have yet to enter the world of teaching. This class and the others in the program have given me more confidence in my abilities and after my son is born I'm going to start subbing to gain experience before I eventually pursue a position within a district.

But I will have developed one heck of a Personal Learning Network by the time I'm ready to stand in front of the whiteboard (or the digital whiteboard). PLN's were a foreign concept to me before taking this class, but once I understood just how indispensable they were, I was bought in. As I talked about in an earlier post I was happy to find that the teaching community is so warm and welcoming. Our insructor Ed Warkentin encouraged us to participate in twitter chats and follow other Tech Ed leaders in order to grow our PLN. It was through my PLN that I was able to connect with Jimmy Casas one of the authors of What Connected Educators Do Differently, I interviewed Jimmy on the benefits of being a connected educator and what we can expect for the future of education (link to interview).

One of my biggest challenges is going to be pushing myself to continue blogging and growing my PLN, but I'm ready to take on that challenge. I've set reminders on my iPhone to write a post weekly on my blog, and to send daily tweets. I've learned so much in this course and its bittersweet that its ending so soon but I'm stoked about how much I've grown in these six weeks. To my fellow ET735 classmates thank you for the constructive feedback! I look forward to seeing your blogs blossom and stealing from your PLN's ;-P.