My PLN Reflection

I've have created a PLN throughout this course.  (I made a mistake on the graphic, it should of course have PLNs instead of PLCs.)  I have created my PLN mostly on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinetrist.  I have used others, but not to the same extent as these three.  My favorite is Pinetrist!  I switched content areas this school year from Physics to Math, so I needed some ideas one how to get started.  I had taught math previously but by getting on Pinetrist I was able to get a lot of quick ideas, and as a teacher anything I can do that saves time helps!  I love that Pinetrist has a picture highlighting the information and then you can go to the website.  I feel that is by far the easiest to use.  I love how I can easily organize my information and follow others who have similar interests.

I have used Facebook for years.  I have continued to add to the number of  pages that I follow, most of those are physics related.  I plan on adding more math pages throughout the school year on my Facebook account to give me additional ideas.  The great part about Facebook is because I already spend a decent amount of time on it, so I can be looking at what friends are doing and links for teaching will pop up.  I think this is great because I'm not always thinking about teaching outside of the work day,  This encourages me to continually engage in professional growth without spending tons of additional time.

I don't particularly like Twitter.  Although I will continue to give it time to see if it is something I may eventually like.  It may be that I am still getting to know a new program.  I did however like the Twitter Chat and added more to my PLN through the chat.  I was not a fan of Google Plus either, again that may change over time.

It is great to communicate with others throughout the United States and even on the world on how to best teach.  The encouragement from others is extremely beneficial.  Prior to this course I did not think about using social media to help me to be a better teacher, but now... how did I teach without it!