Welcome to my blog! Over the last year or two I have been reading several teacher blogs. They have inspired me to try new ideas in my classroom, given me the support I needed when things aren't going so well, and provided a place for me to find like-minded educators sharing their thoughts and ideas. This all happened without any of these teachers knowing I was there.
One of the ideas I starting reading about was Twitter. Several bloggers urged their readers to use Twitter to create a PLN. What is a PLN? It stands for Personal Learning Network. (You know how we teachers like educational terms and acronyms.) I couldn't imagine ever using Twitter. Wasn't Twitter for Kim Kardashian and other celebrities? How could Twitter help me, a mere second grade teacher? A celebrity in her students eyes only. But one day, this summer, while reading another blog post about the value of Twitter I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to see what this what all about! I went to Twitter and signed up. I was nervous. Who would I follow? I decided to start by following a few authors of professional books and some of the bloggers I had been reading. I think the first person I followed was Cathy Mere, author of More Than Guided Reading. She also has a blog, http://reflectandrefine.blogspot.com/. Before you know it, I was following several people. And I was giddy with delight when Cathy and others followed me back! But of course, I had decided I would just follow and read. There would be no tweeting from me. Absolutely not! Of course, like most teacher, you know I couldn't stay tweet-free for long. I joined Twitter in July, and by the end of August I had been involved in the best professional development I have had in many years.
My PLN has taught me about Edmodo and inspired me to blog with my second graders. By using Twitter I have learned how to use VoiceThread and joined a group of teachers around the world in the Global Classroom project. I have been able to connect with other educators that use reading and writing workshop in their classrooms too. Each day that I log into my Twitter account I learn something new or get inspiration from other teachers!
So, I decided to start my own blog. I hope it will be a place where I can reflect on my teaching, improve my writing, and hopefully share and interact with other teachers around the world.
