Day 22 of my 30-Day Blogging Challenge for teachers from teachthought.com

Here is the link to the site with the 30-day challenge. 

http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/reflective-teaching-30-day-blogging-challenge-teachers/

Day 22

What does your PLN look like, and what does it to for your teaching?

By PLN I am assuming that Teachthought is referring to Personal Learning Network.

My PLN at Buffalo Grove/District 214 is pretty amazing. I have the amazing opportunity to be a part of a team of ITFs (Innovative Technology Facilitators) across my district where we work and collaborate on a daily basis. I also have the opportunity to have 3 DTCs (Division Technology Coaches), whom I work with directly, in my school and carry the load for me when I am busy running around, or need to be out of the building. 

Below is a great blog/article on PLNs and how to build your own.

http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-challenge-1-what-the-heck-is-a-pln/

One of my favorite part of the article is where the author says: 

Best of a PLN is it’s personal!

You make all the choices:

1. What tools you use!
2. Who you connect with!
3. How you want to learn!
4. When you want to learn!

I think those 4 elements are incredibly important to stress to people about building their own PLN and showing that the power of the PLN is that it is completely up to the user how much they put in or get out of it. 

 Also, setting up a Personal Learning Network is really not as hard as one may think. Honestly, it is just a place for someone to gather information and collaborate with others. 

I also think that one important part of developing your own PLN is having the understanding that it does NOT HAVE TO BE SOLELY FOCUSED ON TECHNOLOGY! Although, we use technology to connect with others outside our buildings, that does not mean that every conversation has to be focused on technology. In fact, I would actually push people the other way. 

The classroom should never be about the technology. The classroom should be about the students and doing what is best for them. We need to remember that the technology is just a vehicle that is used to get our points across. When the focus of the classroom becomes about the tech and NOT the students, we lose sight of why we go into this profession in the first place.