Hey everybody! It has been a CRAZY week in a household made up of two profs and one student. Now, Back-to-School madness has settled just a tad and I have several posts to put up today so...if you like blog posts you are in luck!  Continuing on my personal learning network journey from before, here are some GREAT resources I collected which provide excellent How-To's on building your PLN. If you have been toying with the idea and feel overwhelmed, then despair no more! 


1. A Principal's Reflections: Eric Sheninger posted an article on his blog that suggests several tools along with a short description and links to videos demonstrating how these work.

• Link to Article
• Link to Blog
• Follow him on Twitter

2. A Teacher's Thoughts: Ian Snyder, a 2nd grade teacher, has a post on his blog that lays out the process of building a PLN just like one of those diet charts: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Although this post is a year old, it is still timely and organized specifically for newbies.

• Link to Article
• Link to Blog
• Follow him on Twitter

3. Thinking in Mind: Neil Stephenson is a professional development and outreach coordinator at Calgary Science School. This particular blog post collects videos, links to articles and some interesting commentary. 

• Link to Article
• Link to Blog
• Follow him on Twitter

There you go! Three resources on PLNs complete with links to blogs you can add to your own network + plus some folks to follow on Twitter. 

When I first heard the term Personal Learning Network, it seemed like a waste of time...or maybe the name seemed like a waste of time. Wasn't I already reading up on stuff, grabbing ideas, going to conferences? Why did I need to name it or put it all out there?  Then I watched a video by Skip Via and he pointed out that I had a responsibility to SHARE what I had learned with others. You might think this is an obvious idea - after all, we're educators and our main job is to help others learn. Right?  

Then again, I'm not talking about developing a lesson plan or training. I'm talking about the unofficial stuff - like how do you use Twitter or networked blogs? The kind of informal learning that happens almost by accident.  Personal Learning Networks formalize that learning. PLNs grab all the random bits of websites and postings and tutorials and chats and conversations, and videos that you comb through and give OTHERS a chance to travel through your mind map. If you think about it, this is an incredible result!  My colleague, Dr. Repman, sent me a link to an article today (I linked it at the bottom of this post for you too). It ends with this quote: "the best teachers in (students') lives are going to be the ones they find, not the ones given to them." Woa.

So for a while, on this blog, I'm going to take you all on the PLN journey with me. How others do it, what they use, what they've learned. If you have thoughts and ideas to share, please comment and let me know.

Article of the Day (courtesy of Dr. Judi Repman): Students cast wide net for mentoring with PLNs
Awesome Blog for techie questions you don't want to ask your co-workers: AskAdria