Another PLN I love using is Pinterest! I've been a member for not too long and found out about Pinterest from my cousin who is a college professor. He told me not only could I plan my life out haha but also connect with other teachers thorough their blogs, pins, and crafting ideas. I find Pinterest to not just be a crafting and dream world site but an actual asset to educators. I follow Teachers Notebook and they share so many resources to use in the classroom for all ages. I follow other teacher friends who are always posting things for their classrooms which can sometimes help me in my classroom. I follow We Are Teachers for when I need those inspirational quotes! Those are just a few. It is so easy to search and locate other teachers who are doing the same things you are. I had a professor in my Undergrad always tell the class do not reinvent the wheel! I had no idea what he was really saying until I started teaching and tired my first year to do it all myself and not get a lot of ideas or pro tables from the internet... Needles to say I never slept and that next year used Pinterest, TeachersPayTeachers and started to follow a ton of blogs to get more ideas.
I signed up for edweb. After taking the survey that ask you take after signing you up, it was fairly easy to navigate around the site. I'm still leaning my way around and how to properly use it. I will post back later when I can really review the site better! Well I'm back and Edweb is excellent! I love how there are articles, workshops being posted and well other educators on there who share in the same things I do! It's an excellent tool right up there with Edmodo which I equally like due to some of the things edweb offers! There is a Mobil app for the site too, but you need to really use the full site inorder to see the full benefits of the site!
I signed up for edweb. After taking the survey that ask you take after signing you up, it was fairly easy to navigate around the site. I'm still leaning my way around and how to properly use it. I will post back later when I can really review the site better! Well I'm back and Edweb is excellent! I love how there are articles, workshops being posted and well other educators on there who share in the same things I do! It's an excellent tool right up there with Edmodo which I equally like due to some of the things edweb offers! There is a Mobil app for the site too, but you need to really use the full site inorder to see the full benefits of the site!
Thanks for sharing the boards, Teachers Notebook and We Are Teachers. I love Pinterest too. I have not come across those boards yet, but I will definitely explore them. I signed up for edweb also. I have navigated around some but I have a lot more exploring to do to reap the benefits of the PLN. Facebook....I have mainly used Facebook to promote and advertise my skincare business until now. I still use it for my business, however, I have "Liked" several educational pages and I have received a ton of resources over the last week.
ReplyDeleteTami I would agree about edweb there is just so much it offers! I know I have learned many things this week by signing up for this new PLN and can't wait to see what else in the coming weeks it will continue to offer!
DeleteI previously hadn't explored Facebook professionally or personally, so for this assignment I did look at it. Although I read a Facebook Guide for Educators (http://www.ednfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/Facebookguideforeducators.pdf) I still will likely not use Facebook. One of the problems I have with it involves teaching middle school students who shouldn't have Facebook accounts yet, although many have them anyway. Instead of Facebook, I use Edmodo for my classroom. My students really enjoy it and comment it is set up just like Facebook. In Edmodo, I feel like I can keep the students safer and monitor how they are using it while still enjoying the features of Facebook. Professionally, I think I will continue to use Feedly to monitor my favorite blogs and TweetDeck to track tweets. Once I master those, maybe I'll have to add more. I just don't want to overwhelm myself. :)
ReplyDeleteDeb I kinda feel the same over whelmed by all the new things being thrown out there. I have used many of these tools in the past but am finding new application tools which go along with these tools i love using.
DeleteMelissa,
ReplyDeleteI know some schools have utilized Facebook as a way to communicate with parents. My son's preschool has a page to share photos and classroom news. I personally don't view Facebook as a professional network.
Thank you for the Pinterest connections. I will have to check them out. I learned the same lesson of checking out Pinterest first for new ideas. I agree with other's comments that Edmodo is a great choice for students to make personal learning networks. I have had great success using Edmodo with my elementary students and hope to increase it next year.
As far as safety issues I would Edmodo in the classroom over Facebook any day! I think Edmodo can be monitored better.
ReplyDelete