PLN: You Make Me Want to Be a Better Person
January 31, 2011
My 2nd year educon reflection starts with my thought of how education has truly evolved! Here I was last January 2010 paying my admission fee for my first ever educon experience per Bill Brannick and signing up for this “twitter” account not really sure of what in the h e double hockey stick I was getting in to! Let’s just say as far as my first ever weekend spent at the Science Leadership Academy via educon I’m not sure when my jaw was lifted back up from the floor in my amazement, but the twitter thing eh, not so much! I could describe myself to the shy kid in the room last year at SLA, not sure when to contribute with the fear of being laughed at or eyes rolling! When all was said and done and my last session complete that last Sunday in January 2010 I couldn’t wait to go back! Where would I use all of this new ideas and information? How would I connect my fellow faculty and administration members to this wonderful “conversation” I had just experienced? All the future possibilities that could come from it seemed endless! Where to begin was the question! I remember sharing with one of my administrators who seemed thrilled that I would go out and sign up on my own time and tab for such a thing but did he follow up…? Did he seem proud? I can answer yes to the nod with a smile of affirmation but no to any follow up and was that my fault or his?
It’s amazing to reflect upon this great experience with the age-old Venn diagram model in my mind amongst the first educon experience of 2010 compared to the second 2.3 in 2011. What’s in the middle of this Venn diagram you ask that can be considered the similarities, well that’s easy. Similarities include the incredible educators who share the same passion, web 2.0 tools for dummies, innovation, SLA, the coolest HS students around, and lastly the simple fact of connecting! I’m sure this list could go on but I would like to keep this short, as one more parallel from my list above is definitely the exhaustion you feel by the end of educon, healthy exhaustion Of course!
The opposite circles when comparing 2010 educon to 2011 include the new faces, Canadians:), more confidence, risk taking, ability to share more, more fun (is that possible!?) and my new obsession with twitter! All of these examples I just listed are in the 2011 circle of course! Last and my first educon would have include fear, general conversation, I get to be a city girl for the weekend (YAY!), twitter #newbie, and the word astonished! I was still impressed and wowed this year but in a different aspect! I now wonder if I am making sense as I listed that healthy exhaustion earlier, but one thing I do know for sure, I grew just a little bit or a whole lot more in my path to continue my title as a “life long learner”! As I end this blog which I hope has expressed my enthusiasm and passion in this journey in education my PLN makes me want to be better!;) Sharing this passion w @coachb0066 is a joy and as he has always and obviously will continue to make me want to me better how bout I got my PLN on this journey too! As the saying goes, “how bout them apples!?”. Thanks #PLN! Thanks #Educon! Thanks #SLA! Thanks Chris Lehmann! One more shout out especially since I was a little mushy with her last night at the Field House thanks Shannon Miller! I’m really enjoying this ride! What’s next?
PS: Did I mention I went from 163 followers on twitter to over 200 in three days?. pretty cool to me at least!:)
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (6)6 Responses to “PLN: You Make Me Want to Be a Better Person”
Great post! And like you, it’s my PLN that directly and indirectly pushes me to be better in many ways. Even on the simplest level, I am constantly amazed by how hard so many people work and how very passionate they are about what it is they are doing. It’s this very transparent passion-in-action that challenges me to make a difference where I am planted. Thanks for sharing! This was my first Educon so I am still reeling with too many ideas and very little sleep but I hope to get some reflections up soon. I am sure our paths crossed at some point over the weekend, but through the Twitter and discovering your blog, I now have a bit more of a connection with you and hope to share in this crazy journey.
@jrichardson30
Thanks for sharing Dana.
I’m struck by your question about whose fault it was that there was no follow-up.
I have to think this all means nothing if we, as the people who were lucky enough to attend PD like this, don’t go back and try to build capacity with our faculty. If I don’t help someone else get better because of what I learned, it’s the equivalent of being the best teacher in the building, but never opening your door. I feel like when I learn something new and amazing that I may tell someone I’m doing it, but do I really help them to learn and implement it? No. I’m to blame when that happens.
So while I need administrators to be super-supportive of this kind of PD and what we’ve learned, we need to act, teach, talk, regardless if anyone is going to support us.
We need to build that PLN beyond twitter, and in our schools.
Dana, I love how you thought of your reflection in the context of a Venn diagram! It shows how much of an elementary teacher you still are (hehe). But it also shows how much you wanted to convey that things had in fact changed.
This was my first year at #educon, so I can’t do the same. What I can say is that I felt the same way much of the time. This is my 4th official conference since April last year and the things I learned now versus the first one because of my own courage to step up and join the conversation (not that this has ever really been a problem for me, but doing it with some “big” names from Twitter and in the edublogger world – it is). It’s amazing how things can change when you do this! You look at things differently and more than anything, you process them differently when you converse and synthesize the information among people.
I’m thankful for #educon because I got to meet you and can now call you a friend (off-line)!
Thanks Jeff! So glad you could relate and REALLY glad you had your first EDUCON experience!:) I look forward to connecting and learning from you!:)
So very true Pete!! I went back to school today and attempted to start the brainstorm of how I am going to act on this idea of sharing! All feedback and ideas are greatly appreciated! Keep the adorable pics of Gia coming!!:)
Thanks for being an awesome new member of my PLN!!
Ok, was that suppose to bring a tear to the eyes Kristina.. if not it did! haha! I am grateful as well for the opportunity to meet and connect with you this weekend! One thing I would like to say in reference to you and the many others in the clan this past weekend is “it’s NOT learning if it isn’t FUN!!”. We laughed, learned and connected in different ways. Sadly, I feel more complaining, negativity and less connection with my current teaching situation and more positivity from my PLN, those outside of my building. I plan and have the ultimate goal of changing that so that I can be as giddy, excited and PASSIONATE about this career as I was this past weekend with people who some were complete strangers before Friday!
You ROCK! Thanks for your kind words!:)