Paula Naugle’s Blog

 Monday – PBWorks Summer Camp offically started. Got my homework.

Tuesday – Attend PBWorks Summer Camp webinar and work on homework.

Wednesday – Start getting things ready for the trip north. Submit materials electonically for August presentation.

Thursady – Pack for my trip. Finish my PBWorks Summer Camp homework.

Friday – Be at the airport for 6:00 a.m. for flight to BWI (Baltimore/Washington International)

Saturday – Attend DEN Extravaganza in Silver Springs, MD. I can’t wait to meet the other STARS.

                    Then travel to D.C. for NECC.

Okay. I spent this past school year learning how to set up my classroom website and blog. My integration of technology improved each month. I learned how to use many Web 2.0 tools such as Skype, Ning, and Jing. Now I need to conquer wikis. 

I just signed up for a free, online course offered by PBWorks. PBWorks Summer Camp is a four week course that I am going to complete so that I can learn how to set up and use a wiki with my class. Check it out and join us.

Today I received an email from Lance that made my day. Here is a part of it:

“Thank you so much for your interest in the DEN Leadership Councils (LC) for 2009-2010.  We are very excited about the community’s response to the LC election process this year and look forward to working with you.

The Louisiana LC for 2009-2010:

Susan Tompkins – Chair
Susan Gauthier – Blog Coordinator
Cindy Wallace – Events Coordinator
Paula Naugle – Blog Team ”

I am so excited that I did a happy dance. I am happy to be on the team with Susan T., Susan G., and Cindy W. and look forward to collabrating with them. We need to come up with a cheer, a mascot, team colors, ……

I can’t wait to get started. Go LA LC!

image – http://www.jcsd.k12.ms.us/jctc/DancingSnoopy.jpg

http://aquaculturepda.edublogs.org/files/2008/12/plntool.jpg

I kid my friends in the field of education that PLN aren’t just my initials (Paula L. Naugle) anymore. But I have been struggling with the idea of whether my PLN is my personal learning network or my professional learning network. Even though it is true that my PLN helps me grow professionally I feel very personally connected to these people.  

I began growing my PLN after visiting Sue Waters’ wiki on the topic. I started a blog, joined several Nings, started one for fourth grade teachers in my school system, and set up my Google reader to receive RSS feeds from other educators’ blogs. Then I joined FaceBook and Twitter. I connected with friends from high school and college on FB, but wasn’t sure Twitter was for me. Did I really want updates on the mundane events in other people’s lives? 

Luckily I did some more research and found Tomaz Lasic’s Twitter Handbook for Teachers. I revisited Twitter determined this microblogging platform was truly going to help me grow my PLN. At first I just “listened” to the stream of tweets going by, then I found people to follow, and finally I got brave enough to post some tweets. Boy did my first impression of Twitter change! In a few short months I had over 200 followers, was following about 200 educators, and had tweeted about 500 updates.  

I now begin every morning by making my coffee and logging into my Twitter account. My PLN points me to articles and blog posts I should read, videos I should view, websites I should check out, and webinars that are being offered for free professional development. We laugh together, cry together, and cheer each other successes. That makes it very personal to me.