One thing that has been fun is to see the Twitter education community begin to embrace some of the people in the class. From the beginning, we've talked about how long of a process it is to grow your PLN and it's been fun to see that growth starting. What makes me more excited for future semesters of this class is I think with a little bit of tweaking the order we may be able to grow their PLN a little faster. As with everything, it sometimes takes the right person at the right time to stumble across a tweet or a blog post to crank up the interest.
More than anything, I hope that those in the class will use their new blogs and Twitter accounts to reflect more on what their doing and open themselves up to continued professional (and personal, I suppose) growth. Twitter and blogging isn't for everyone...I get that...but you have to learn somewhere. Anywhere. Understand there is a caring and supportive educational community out there. Creating new lessons is kind of like when you go shopping for new clothes - sometimes you need someone else to give an opinion. Sometimes your wife just does it for you...sorry, different blog post entirely. Below are the links to everyone's blogs. I encourage you to check them out and give them a follow. They come from a wide variety of backgrounds and teaching assignments. It's a great variety. I'm very lucky to have had this group. They've given honest feedback, which is huge for me to make this class successful.
Along the Way - secondary instrumental music
The Stuff I've Seen - secondary science
TKSparks3 - general elementary
That Crazy Art Teacher - elementary art
Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks - secondary ELL/ESL
Fantastic Scholastic - secondary language arts
A Musing - secondary language arts
One last thing - if you were teaching a class that explored the online education community (no, not online classes), what types of things should be included? I would really love some feedback.
