Musings from a middle school reading specialist. I encourage my students to read, talk, write, and have fun!
I parent two amazing young-adult daughters with my husband of 30+ years.

May 26, 2011

Thankful for my Twitter PLN

I think it's the first time in my 10 years of teaching (how did that happen?) that I'm not ready for the school year to end.  I'm usually the one who sneakily manages the countdown calendar in the teacher's lounge.  This year, I've been completely consumed by my Twitter PLN (personal learning network).  I haven't even counted the days we have left.

I'm not ready for the year to end! I still have lots of books and instruction to share with my students!

How does a Twitter PLN connect to my reading instruction?  Well, because of my PLN, I've done the following this year:
  • follow & tweet with nearly 100 authors, teachers, librarians, and other book-minded people
  • participate in a monthly #titletalk to hear about books I should be reading.  Then I post them...
  • on my Goodreads account (in 2011 I've read and rated 40 books)
  • tweeted with authors about their books and how much my students enjoyed them
  • started KidBlogs for my 3rd, 4th and 5th graders (with additional encouragement from Michelle)
  • follow a bunch of book-centered blogs
  • created this blog to reflect on my teaching and books I love
WOW!  I plan to continue sharing and receiving ideas for books, using technology and planning great instruction throughout the summer for next year.  Thanks to Twitter, I can tap into the minds of resourceful people around the world anytime.

3 comments:

  1. Wow! Isn't this awesome?!?! Now I have three goals for the summer: read more books, prezi, and Twitter!

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  2. Chris, Michelle just shared your prezi in her Tuesday slice, and I wondered if I could share it with my staff? I think it's such a great idea that I want to pass it on before the end of school. Thanks for doing such a terrific job with it.

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  3. Teacherdance - share away! It's not my original idea, but other schools have had success! Please tell your staff the "first Prezi ever" disclaimer, too! :)

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