EDU 5506 Action Plan

 EDU 5506 Action Plan

Question 1:

Reflect on how your personal learning network has changed and grown during the course of this workshop.  Discuss your plans for how you plan to continue to grow your learning network and how you hope to contribute to the professional learning of your administrative colleagues. 

My personal learning network (PLN) has drastically changed throughout the duration of this course.  I knew a professional learning network consisted of like-minded people of similar interests, but until enrolling in this course, I often thought those like minded individuals came from your own school district.  My eyes have been opened to all of the various methods PLNs can be utilized.  Since the beginning of this course, I have learned how to build and implement a blog, podcast, and have reached out to new people to follow on my twitter handle.  Some people on Twitter followed me back as well.  

Although I completed the requirements for each weekly assignment, I also began to dabble in other methods of establishing a PLN that I have found to be very insightful.  Based on some of the people I now follow, I noticed various twitter chats that were going to be taking place, such as #chemchat, #ALEdChat, and #CultureEd, to name a few.  I have participated in the three chats listed above.  From this, I was able to contribute to the discussions and allow others to like or provide feedback.  I also gleaned new ideas and insights to the various topics being discussed in the chats.  There are so many new and innovative things taking place in other schools, and creating a PLN on twitter is one easy way to locate these individuals and not have to recreate the wheel when attempting to design and implement a new idea for your classroom or school.  Throughout the Twitter chat processes, I gained ideas, followed new individuals based on conversations and interests, and had individuals request to follow me as well.  

I plan to use twitter in order to highlights things going on at Oxford High School.  Since I am currently in the classroom, I plan to have a larger focus on what my students are involved in (athletics, show choir, theatre, etc).  I want to highlight all students, but I really want to brag on "my kids", so they know I care and see everything they are involved in outside of my classroom.  Our school always says "Go Big O", so I plan to use that hashtag in order to establish the school brand, but I am also going to create a hashtag that is specific for me and my classroom.

Blogging is another great way to build your PLN and communicate with all stakeholders of your school.  While I am currently still in the classroom, I believe blogging would have a large impact on the students, parents, and any community members that wanted to stay connected with things happening at Oxford High School.  I plan on continuing to blog about things going on at school and in the classroom, as well as highlights or showcases of students and teachers doing great things at Oxford High School.  I will plan to upload a weekly blog post that has the weekly agenda, upcoming events, as well as highlights and shoutouts.  

I will post the link to my blog on each of my classes Schoology class page.  I will also upload the link to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, using the personal hashtag I create, along with the #GoBigO to reference the school.  The blog will be public, but if someone is unable to locate it, they can simply type in the hashtag in order to see posted containing it, one of them being the link to the blog.  The weekly blogs will be archived in the previous posts, so anyone has the ability to go back and view previous posts or see changes that have taken place.  Creating and maintaining a blog is an easy and efficient method of keeping all stakeholders informed and involved with successes, and various activities that are taking place.  I would also like to locate other like minded teacher leaders or school administrative leaders to see how various blogs look and act.  I would be able to gain ideas from others, as I continue to develop and engage in stakeholders through blogging.  My hope is that I can also be of assistance to others as they create their blog or are looking for new ideas or insight into communicating with their stakeholders.  

I have throughly enjoyed this course.  I have learned many new things that I plan on implementing in my classroom, and hopefully one day in a school that I am leading.