A Visual Representation of my PLN

Twitter Chat

Just finished up my second Twitter Chat this morning. What a difference the second one was compared to the first, both were fantastic ! The two I participated in were : #web20tools and #nt2t . #web20tools was a great starter for chatting. It was slower paced and had a couple of classmates in the chat. I was able to really be an active participant and directly connect with some of the participants. The main focus of this chat was to share ideas on what web2.0 tools are being utilized int the classroom. We all shared several that we use ourselves and got some great article links. I really felt great about chatting after this and looked forward to the next. I got a tip to participate in #nt2t in this chat, which is where I ended up for the second chat. This was a chat room for teachers new to Twitter, however it seemed most were veterans and wow, was it different than the first! As soon as I entered the room and stated I was new and a student, my feed blew up!!! I was hardly able to keep up with the responses to my questions or the questions being asked to me. Within just a few minutes I had 20 messages! Of course I had my phone and ipad next to me and they were constantly dinging with messages from someone! I never thought I would get the responses I got! I think this was the most challenging part. My TweetChat was not working correctly so I had to change over to Hootsuite in the middle of the chat and try to catch up, not good!! The great thing about it though was I was able to go back and re-read all the comments and really absorb the material after the chat was over. I also was able to keep chatting with those I connected with during the chat, which is awesome! After both chat sessions I was able to make several new connections. I got several new followers as well as started following some great educators from across the country. I feel so much better about Twitter than I used to . I actually see the value in it now, where as before THIS class I really didn't get the whole concept about being on Twitter. Before when I was given the assignment of starting a Twitter account, I wasn't given direction or advice on WHAT to do or HOW to do it. This class has really made a difference in my PLN and has opened my eyes as to what is available to us, not just as a student, but as an educator. There is so much more out there than what I could ever find without it. The only thing I would do to improve upon my experience is to participate more so I get more used to the flow. I think with time, chats will become less overwhelming, especially when there are so many people on the room! Overall, this has been a great experience and I will continue to participate in chats!

#METC14 !!!

I was lucky enough to be able to participate in METC 2014 today! I want to know who was teaching all the kids in the state of MO today, because I think every teacher in the state was there! Or so it seemed! I was amazed at the turnout and at the number of "devices" accompanying them, it's no wonder the wifi wouldn't hold up to the demand. I absolutely loved the keynote speaker today. Lodge McCammon, singer, songwriter, dancer, actor and classroom flipper were his specialties. He was able to engage the audience like no other speaker of the day . Flipping is one of the subjects of the days lectures that I was most interested in, and he did not disapoint. It was obvious he is passionate about his career and helping others achieve their goals. He encouraged the most simple ideas and actually embraced the simple more than complex when it comes to presenting to , although he does get pretty fancy in his in home recording studio. I facilitated three lectures today. Two were good , one I wish I would not have had to sit through. It felt more like a sales pitch than an educational session. I will tell you about the good ones and save you from the torture, lol The lecture entitled " Excel-lent Classroom and Assessment uses for Excel" by Sarah Spaunhorst, was very interesting, as I am an Excel master . Even though this presentation was meant to teach kids how to master Excel I leaned some tricks myself . Did you know you could change the background on your file to a picture? Me either!! Going to try that one tomorrow! She also gave some very good assignment ideas for students and showed here flipped classroom model. Great presentation! My third lecture I facilitated was " On The Flipped Side" by April Burton, a High school French teacher. She shared , from beginning to end, how to flip a classroom and gave us all the tools to do it with. This was my favorite lecture of the day! She was able to break down each aspect of flipping into easy an easy to follow plan 1. Sell the idea 2. Create the videos 3. Publish plus all the steps in between on how to do each step. Some of the resources she uses were: Prezi.com, polleverywhere.com ( super cool free anywhere polling) , lifehacker.com ( http://lifehacker.com/125400/cornell-notetaking-method) for better note taking, google docs for collaboration, screencast-o-matic.com , smart notebook iPad app, camtasia, ink2go.org , and educreations.com for video making . She also shared her website that is full of information for flipping www. Flipmrsburton.com/index.htlm Even though I did not facilitate this lecture "30 Google App uses in 50 Minutes" by Amanda Brueggman and Kim Rosenbloom offered some great google apps for kids and adults . The link to their handout is here Overall,this opportunity was fantastic! I got a chance to meet educators from around the state, all gathered for the same purpose and sharing ideas. Couldn't ask for a better opportunity or assignment!

Social Networking

Social networks.. Where do I begin!? I grew up in a time of no computer or Internet. When we wanted to network with each other we wrote a letter and passed in through class hoping the teacher wouldn't see it and hope the wrong person didn't read it . I was afraid on "networking" when Facebook started , thinking I don't want people seeing everything I do and why would they? I can say now, I don't know what I would do without Facebook or technology for that matter. I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about technology, teaching myself most everything I now through trial and error. Not until I started the MET program did I realize how much I was still missing out on, and not until this class did I know how much I didn't know about social networking. I have belonged to google+, Facebook, twitter, Pinterest for a while, but never did I even think about using them for education. I had no idea what I was missing! I had never heard the term "Ning" until reading chapter 5 in our text...wow. I love them. I joined two different nings yeaterday and have already found more information than ever. I have a difficult time finding social venues for my specific program, radiology. Everything I seem to find is clinical or hospital based, not educator based, but I' m keeping my hopes up that there is something out there for us!! I joined Flipped Learning Network Ning and Edweb.net. I have already participated in a webinar on the flipped leaning network that was very beneficial! I am wanted to flip my cross-sectional anatomy class and don't know any educators in my area that have done this, so I was very excited to find this network. I also participated in my first Twitter chat lat night, I didn't think I would like it at first, figured I didn't have enough background to be an asset to the conversation, but I really enjoyed being able to network with strangers and not feel intimidated at all! It was actually fun! What!? An assignment that was fun! Don't anyone tell my students! I look forward to more networking now!