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Pocket Casts is my podcast platform of choice. I commute roughly an hour each day, if it's a good traffic day, so much of my free time is spent in the car. As a consequence a great deal of my PLN is via podcasts that I listen to in the car.
#EdChat Radio: is a podcast that is a weekly round-up of the highlights from that week's #EdChat on Twitter. I find that I can't devote the time to the twitter chat, but I do have the time to listen to the round-up. This is a great resource for thinking about my pedagogy, new tips and tricks and new people I might want to follow. The Google Teacher Tribe: This podcast is for and about integrating the Google Suite in your daily practice. This podcast is a blend of teacher tips and support and technical applications. I like the way they blend to and focus on a community of learners. Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers: This podcast is by former teacher, Angela Watson and focuses on the teacher. She talks about how to become the teacher you want to be, without sacrificing your personal life and/or all of your time. She focused on simple strategies to streamline your grading, planning, and paperwork so you can work less and achieve more. I find her tips interesting and particularly enjoy her tips for teacher self-care. Out of the Blocks: This podcast isn't specifically about teaching, but it is about Baltimore and the various neighborhoods in the city. The host(s) go block by block through the city interviewing the residents and getting a picture of life in the city. Although this isn't strictly related to my content or the practice of teaching, it is crucial in my relevancy as an educator. It helps me to better see and understand some of the issues that my students are contending with and allows me to be more responsive to their needs. OnEducation: Is a podcast that runs the gamut of topics and techniques. It interviews educators and innovators and also tackles the intersection of pop culture and teaching. I follow a few teacher blogs. Mostly these are of teachers who I stumbled on while looking for a specific tip or trick and then ended up sticking around.
Dave Stuart Jr.: Currently a lot of my thinking and framing of education and my role in it can be traced back to Dave. There are lots of reasons to check his blog out, but thing I like about his blog is that he never just posts about an idea. He explains the germination of the idea and links to all the research and other thinkers on that topic. It makes it easy for me to follow-up on different topics or approaches. Teaching Sam and Scout: Elizabeth does a good job of linking her personal and professional lives in her blog. Although I enjoy her "slice of life" style, I appreciate her links to other resources and bloggers the most. Love, Teach: This blogger has a wonderful "voice" and I enjoy reading her observations. Sometimes you just need someone who understands where you are/how things are and she is that voice for me. Reading her blog, even when she's talking about the devastation of a hurricane, is refreshing and reinvigorating. Mike Godsey: This is a newer blog for me and one I am still looking at and considering. It started as an experiment in using podcasts in the classroom and has expanded to a variety of interesting approaches and reflections. I'm still looking at this one and expect to spend a fair bit of time here over the summer. The Secondary English Coffee Shop: This is a blog that has several different authors, although they all teach high school English. They curate a variety of posts around teaching HS ELA and teaching in general. There are some nice technique-specific tips and tricks here. |
My Personal Learning Network:
My personal learning network is built across a variety of platforms and is very dynamic, changing as my needs and interests change. Below is a snapshot of my current Personal Learning Network.
Twitter, for educators, is a relatively new part of my PLN. I didn't really start connecting with educators on Twitter until Fall of 2016, when I began my Master's program at Loyola University. However, I have found, very quickly, that twitter is great for getting timely responses and specific advice for my questions.
Carol Jago: As the past President of the National Council of Teachers of English, an author, and speaker, I find she is always posting something that makes me think or need to add a new book to my ever-growing reading list. Kelly Gallagher: Kelly is a well-respected teacher who has made a name for himself in his instruction of writing and for his "Article of the Week". I read Kelly's tweets because he is always challenging my perspective in regards to my students and how and why to assess them. I also find he's a great resource when I need to find research to support changes in my pedagogy. Aric Foster: Aric is a high-school English Teacher in Michigan who is a voice of the standards-based and/or feedback only grading styles. I follow him for tips and advice on how to implement feedback only grading and how to convince my stake-holders that this is a more productive and beneficial system. ProjectLit: One of my key tips for educators who are building a PLN is to look for industry experts or organizations as well as people in your educational field. ProjectLit is one of those organizations. ProjectLit is devoted to bringing more diverse books and viewpoints to students to promote a love of reading. As something that was born out of a need in the classroom and student-supported, I love this grassroots movement. They recently published their list of recommendations for the summer and I can't wait to get started. Young Adult Library Services Association: This is another of my "industry" follows. I love seeing the new books and trends in YA Lit and it helps me and my classroom library stay current and engaging for my students. I began using Facebook sometime in 2005 and for a long time, I used it strictly for college-related friends and events. Then, for a time, I didn't use it at all. Somewhere around 2010, I began to sporadically use facebook for my personal and family life as well as my professional life. Due to my own intermittent use of the platform, my PLN on this site isn't quite as robust, but I do have key members that I only access here. I would also say that most of my PLN on this site is people that I personally know and/or have worked with, which is a stark contrast to my other PLN platforms.
Baltimore CEDE (Caucus of Educators for Democracy and Equity): This is a closed group, limited to to employees of the district. This group serves as a hub of information, not just about union and contract concerns, but also about things like curriculum changes, job postings and how to file FMLA requests. I rarely post here, but I find that I often check here first when I have questions. Badass Teachers Association: I follow this organization on Twitter as well, but I find I am much more likely to engage with content on Facebook. This group is national, if not international, and I find that they are pretty good about posting about trends in education. They also have a social justice focus which is meaningful for me and I read a lot of their resources for both self-care and pedagogy. The Daring English Teacher: This is a high school English Teacher who posts about what she is doing in her classroom and the tools she develops to support her students. A fair bit of this is geared towards having people purchase her materials, but I do like to see some of her ideas and in a pinch I can purchase things if I need them. Because Facebook is such a blend of personal and public, I hesitate to link to personal facebook pages here, but I do find that being friends with other teachers on Facebook is beneficial to my practice, especially if we can work together on units or other projects. This is one of the platforms that I use the most often and the one where I curate the most content.
Courtney Snell: I follow her because she does several text-specific boards. I teach the same books, so it's a great way to get ideas and resources when I want to change things up. Robyn McMaster: Robyn has a plethora of Education-based boards, but I particularly follow her board on active secondary learning. I don't feel like I do enough for my bodily-kinesthetic learners and I look for ideas here. Classroom Magic: Although this user is focused on primary grades, I follow them for their board of picture-based writing prompts. I use them as warm-ups in class and for short writing pieces. Debra Pollock: I like several things from this Pinner, but I particularly follow her Poetry and High School English boards. It's always good see what other people are doing and these boards off lots of ideas. Gene Wohlsdorf: This Pinner has a bunch of great boards, both specific to secondary teacher and teaching ELA. I also really enjoy his sense of humour. Teri King: Beyond her ELA and secondary boards, she has some great Media Citizenship and Digital Citizenship resources. |