Worldwide PLCs

I've decided that it is time to be regularly updating my blog, and not just with summer learning expeditions, but current ones as well.  This evening I spent some time with Steve Hargadon and others on Elluminate via LearnCentral.org, an incredible website that has the potential to create PLCs (professional learning communities) around the world in a virtual capacity.  LearnCentral hosts a sort of social network (i.e. Facebook) for educators, allowing them to connect on a professional level to discuss a topic that needs discussing...for example, middle school Social Studies.  Elluminate has hooked up with LearnCentral to allow members to host virtual sessions based on the topic of choice (it must be open to the public and recorded for archiving).  The potential for leveraging collective knowledge, expertise, and best practices in an easy-to-use forum is amazing.  Now, the mission is just to get the word out.  The idea has gotten me very excited; I've never before seen such a user-friendly, high-functioning piece of easily-accessed technology.

Comments

Mrs. Stanley said…
I am so glad to have found your blog. I, too, have become very excited by all the learning and collaboration available to teachers via PLN such as the Classroom2.0 NING and Seedlings NING among others.
I was also intrigued by the possibility of hosting a virtual session using Elluminate, but I don't even know how to start.
I think your blog posts are very thoughful, though-provoking, and inspiring, and I have passed on the link to one of our 8th grade social studies teachers at our middle school in Connecticut.
9:34 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maslow's Hierarchy of School Needs (Steve Guditus)

Image
The pace of schools today is frantic.  So little time is left in a child's 24 hour-day to play and explore - both in and out of school.  Unintentionally, we may be pushing students to think and learn at high levels when more basic needs are not met.  For a student to be available for learning, basic needs need to be met - in both school and at home.  We need to shift our paradigm from student supports as "extras" and "add-ons" to prerequisites for a student to be available for learning.  I created this Maslow's Hierarchy of School Needs to highlight the need for other pieces to be in place for students to be available to learn (and to learn at high levels, reach their potential, and increase their potential). Any thoughts, feedback, edits, subtractions or additions?
Read more

37 inspirational ideas to kickoff your school year (Steve Guditus @sguditus)

I just participated in a great brainstorming session with some outstanding educational leaders at the MSSAA summer institute , and made note of 37 different ideas to inspire your school and have a successful kickoff to the school year.  The best educators beg, borrow and steal ideas and adapt them to be their own - so I offer this list to be borrowed, stolen and adapted (no need to beg!). Have staff write one fun fact about themselves on a post-it note on their classroom door. Create a scavenger hunt and have folks hunt down items, discover new info about fellow staff members, the school or the community. Create a teacher survival kit: a mini hershey's bar for a pick-me-up, a K-Cup for a jolt of caffeine, some office supplies, etc. Have staff set a personal goal, in addition to their student learning and professional practice goal: make it about personal health, nutrition, work/home balance, family, etc - and have check-ins! Leave a personal note, post-it, memo or quote on
Read more

Educator Evaluation Process: It's About Growth and Reflection @sguditus

Image
When I arrived at my school two years ago, I inherited an outdated and incomplete ed eval system, which included a negative culture and many assumptions around what the ed eval process could be, is and is not. As Massachusetts rolled out an updated and revised system over the past few years, I worked to form relationships with teachers and not just tell them, but show them, that the ed eval process can be a productive and effective tool – not something to be feared or to dread. Over the course of the last two years, I have worked to form relationships with teachers; I have worked to make a required process as positive and productive use of time as possible. Since this is something that needs to get done as per Massachusetts state law, why not make the best of it and use the time and tools to improve student learning and teacher instruction? This is, after all, a teacher's educator evaluation - so I find it imperative to engage educators in their evaluation process to ensure owners
Read more