Personal Learning Networks- Shinese Anderson

video File:Placeholder
**Personal Learning Networks**
Personal Learning Networks (PLN), are an informal learning network that consists of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a personal learning environment. In a PLN, a person makes a connection with another person with the specific intent that some type of learning will occur because of that connection. To establish a PLN there are several steps needed to effectively obtain a PLN.

## Establish Personal Learning Goals

My personal learning goals are:

° Obtain a teacher position for the upcoming school year.

I have many reasons why I want this so bad mainly because, I feel that I am ready to become a teacher, I have so many ideas of how I want to run an effective 21st century classroom. I love working with kids and I feel like I am a strong teacher already, I just wish I could find a way to show it to everyone, not just through my work ethic but also, through interviews. I also, want to make a better life for my son and I.

° Complete my teacher certification with Teach Now.

I want to complete my certification because this would open up many doors for me and give me that foot hold I need to be the best teacher I can be. This would also, help me learn the things I need to know to be the best teacher.

° Center my classroom to be a 21st Century Classroom.

As I stated before, I have so many ideas of how I want to run a smooth and effective 21st century classroom. I know that the kids today need a strong, fun and safe classroom and I want to be the one to give it to them.

° Obtain a Master's degree in teaching.

I am one that believes that a person can never have too much education which is why I want to pursue my master's in teaching very soon.

° Complete professional development that helps me grow and learn to become an effective teacher.

Just like education, training is important as well, the teacher world is always changing with new ideas and practices. It is important to stay up-to-date, so that you can offer a quality education for students. I want to make sure that I am always current so that I can give my students the best teaching practices and professional development will aide in that.

I added these to in my research of groups to add my self to on Twitter.

Getting more involved in best developmental practices made for children.

I want to help be a change maker for students and become more understanding of their developmental growth and needs. Specifically, I would like to focus on early childhood, I currently work with early childhood students and I love it! But, I want to understand them better, so that I can teach them better. I realize with my own 3 year old son, I know a lot about little minds and how they work, but I do not understand and know everything. To aide in this, I would read more books, a month, that gear to child development. First book, I would to try, is What’s Going on in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life by Lise Eliot and the other would be Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Really Learn--and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek. Also, I want to join more organizations, on Twitter, that focus on child development and also become members, if possible, of those groups. A few that I am following now are NEA@NEAToday, US Dept of Education @useedgov, STEM ED Coalition @ STemEdCoalition. I will also continue more search as I run across it.

Next, is To be an effective 21st Century Teacher

I know I talked about the classroom but I am very interested and eager to learn about 21st Century teaching. I understand that the teacher has to be the first to make the switch before the classroom can make the switch. My goal is to follow as many groups on social media and through their own website. One group, I have already started following, is P21 @P21Learning. I also, want to do as much research as I can in 21st century teaching. DC Public Schools, offers a lot of different professional development courses that focus on this such thing and I plan to attend as often as I can.

## **Research Groups and Organizations that Interest You**

I went through Twitter, and searched for educational groups and I found several that caught my interest. They include:

1. NEA @NEAToday
This group the nation's largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education.

2. US Dept of Education @usedgov
This group gives news and information from the U.S. Department of Education.

3. STEM Ed Coalition @ STemEdCoalition
This group is a broad alliance of business, education, and professional organizations advocating to improve STEM education at every level.

4. P21 @P21Learning
This group is P21: the leading education advocacy organization working with others to fuse the 3Rs + 4Cs: communication, collaboration, critical thinking & creativity.

5. Edutopia @edutopia
This group gives inspiration and information for what works in education.

6. Project Hope @projecthopeorg
This group is a global humanitarian assistance and health education organization.

There are many more groups that are out it is just a matter of sifting through them all.

## **Follow Groups Interested In on Social Media**

After, you have found the groups that have interested you then follow them on join their groups on social media to get exposure to every aspect of their goals and focus for their company. The groups I now follow are:

1. NEA @NEAToday

2. US Dept of Education @usedgov

3. STEM Ed Coalition @ STemEdCoalition

4. P21 @P21Learning

5. Edutopia @edutopia

6. Project Hope @projecthopeorg

## **Additional Social Media Groups**

Educate @Educate.org
Educate! develops young #leaders and #entrepreneurs in #Uganda. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Educate/56919169894?ref=hl …

EdWeek Teacher @ED Week Teacher
Education Week Teacher: a leading source for K-12 teacher leaders covering instruction, school environment, classroom technology, curriculum, and more.

Digital Educ. Group @digeduc
We help K-12 schools successfully plan, choose and implement the best instructional and digital technology solutions for their classrooms.

Created by Shinese Anderson