Welcome to the final step in our free professional learning series on building your PLN.

Now you know what a PLN is, and how people build one, we’re going to discuss ways of making time for your PLN.

In this step you will explore:

  1. How to find time to develop your PLN and embed simple practices into your routine
  2. Tips for building your PLN

Overview

Throughout this series, we’ve looked at different ways that educators enjoy building a PLN and connecting with their networks.

While we mainly focused on Twitter, blogs, and curation tools, remember, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

There are many other ways that educators connect with others and we encourage you to explore anything that looks interesting to you.

Popular ways educators are learning with their PLN Edublogs Teacher Challenge

Whatever tools you use, you want it to be sustainable. The real benefits of having a PLN emerge once you get to know people and as we’ve said throughout this series, the more you put in, the more you’ll get back.

Tips For Building Your PLN

Here are some tips for building your PLN and making the time to be a ‘connected educator’ without feeling overwhelmed.

Do what works best for you

How do you like to learn and connect best? Do you prefer reading and text based materials? Are you a keen writer? Maybe you like audio and enjoy learning via podcasts. Videos are also a popular way for people to learn and share information.

Follow your natural learning style and think about ways you can become a connected educator by doing what you’re comfortable with. Not every tool or service is for everyone!

Start small

Put your blinkers on. You really don’t need to use all the tools that are out there. Trying to keep up with many people and many tools is a recipe for feeling overwhelmed.

Some educators have built up a great network just by reading a handful of blogs and following a small number of people on Twitter. Remember, it’s quality over quantity.

Set a goal and commit

Set yourself one goal of something you’re going to commit to trying.

Maybe your goal will be to join Twitter and find 10 people to follow. Then challenge yourself to check in every day for a month and see what your followers are tweeting about. If this works for you, you can build on it. If not, you can always try something new!

Set a routine

You probably already have a number of online routines in place. Maybe you’re in the routine of checking your emails in the morning, or perhaps browsing Facebook when you sit down after dinner.

Create a routine for your PLN too.

This doesn’t have to involve a big chunk of time. A few minutes here and there to read a blog post, browse through Feedly or Flipboard, or scroll through Twitter can be all you need to get on your way.

Consider becoming more productive

We all know how easy it is for time to whittle away while browsing online. Whether it’s YouTube videos or Instagram photos, maybe some of your online browsing experiences can be redirected to building your PLN.

Of course, we all need downtime but this is something for you to ponder!

Don’t be shy

Most people in the educational community are remarkably friendly. Don’t be shy about following people you don’t know, leaving a stranger a comment, or responding to someone’s tweet.

You’ll probably be glad you did and you never know where one small interaction can take you!

Don’t give up

It’s so common to try something new and feel a great sense of discomfort. You might feel confused and overwhelmed but don’t give up! Once you get over the initial learning curve, it will all pay off. We promise!

Maybe you’ll end up like Tisha Poncio who gave this inspiring shout out to her PLN on Twitter.

 “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Edublogs PLN Challenge

Your Task

PLNs are all about sharing, collaborating, and learning from each other. So here’s your chance to ask a question, comment, and get involved!

We’d like you to add your voice and ideas to our ongoing conversation about PLNs by undertaking one or more of these challenges:

  1. What are your goals? Leave a comment on this post to tell us what aspects of your PLN you want to focus on first. Maybe you want to join Twitter and find some fellow teacher-librarians or history teachers. Or maybe you want to add all your favorite blogs to a Feedly account. Tell us about it!
  2. Making time. Leave a comment on this post to share your ideas on how you will make time to build your PLN. Remember to consider if there is anything you can remove from your online browsing routine to free up time for building your PLN.
  3. Share your top tip. Leave a comment to share your tips that have helped get you started building a PLN without feeling overwhelmed.
  4. Pay it forward. Remember that a barrier to developing a PLN is simply not knowing what’s out there. Why not ‘pay it forward’ and tell a friend or colleague about this series? Encourage them to take part and learn about building their own PLN!
  5. Write a post about PLNs. If you have a blog, now could be the perfect time to write about PLNs. Put all the pieces together from what you’ve learned in this series and share your own insights or goals. You never know, you might just help someone else get started! Please include @edublogs if you tweet your post so we can share it with our network. Leave a comment with a link to your post so we can read it!

Also feel free to leave a comment to ask any questions you still have about building a PLN. We may be able to help!

How to leave a comment: Scroll down to find the comment box. Write your comment, then enter your name and email address (email addresses are not published). Enter the anti-spam word. Press submit and we will moderate your comment ASAP.


PLN Course Certificate

Have you completed each of the 7 steps in this course AND left a comment on each post? Maybe you’d like a certificate to show that you’ve completed the PLN Teacher Challenge course!

Fill out the form below to receive your certificate via email. Alternatively, click here to open the form in a new tab.

If you don’t receive your certificate, please look in your junk/spam folder.

Claim Your Badge!

If you’ve completed the PLN challenge, feel free to proudly display this badge on the sidebar of your blog. Alternatively, you might like to add it to your About page to demonstrate your professional learning.

Simply right click on the image and save it to your computer. Then add it to your sidebar by following these instructions.

We’re so happy to have you as part of our Teacher Challenge community!

PLN Teacher Challenge badge Edublogs

736 thoughts on “Step 7: Making Time To Build Your PLN

  1. I want to focus on developing a PLN on reddit and/or twitter, as those are platforms I use often and I have already found a lot of great tools and resources through them.

  2. I think my main focus would be how to create a Personal Learning Network on a platform such as Reddit or Tumblr. These are both platforms that I am a lot more comfortable with using and I feel as though teachers in my generation will be more comfortable with using them, as well. I would also want to search on both of these platforms to see what established personal learning networks are there, and use those as examples for creating my own.

  3. My goals looking towards the future of building a PLN focuses more on branching out in the resources I use. I have experiences Twitter and fakebook to look for sources and also contribute sources to others. However, I can see how they can be limiting at an extent. What is important to recognize is that there are so many sources that can be used as a resource, outside of Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. It was refreshing to hear about other curated tools in Step 6, like Nuzzel, Diigo, Evernote, Flipboard, and LiveBinders. These are great resources to also build your PLNs and could be a great opportunity to find what sources work best for me.

  4. I think one good tip for building a PLN is following teacher related content on your existing social medias. This serves as a good way to prime your algorithms to give you more content that would be of use to you as an educator.

  5. My goal is to build my PLN and connect with like-minded teachers. I’m looking for a community dedicated to enhancing the student experience and willing to challenge traditional norms to improve the education system.

  6. I thought the tip about reserving 15-20 minutes a day to your PLN was helpful. I think this is something that will be helpful to me. Once I’m ready to start scrolling on my phone I plan to give myself at least 15 minutes of time to work on my PLN before I start scrolling on my phone. I think this will help give me time to build my PLN without it feeling like a chore. 

  7. I think regularly talking to a network of educators to further my ideas on building my PLN and setting aside at least an hour or two every Sunday dedicated to building my PLN before my week starts just to keep myself accountable would be a great start

  8. One goal that I wish to achieve with my new knowledge on PLN would have to be Flipboard. I used it for the first time and I really enjoy how visually accessible the tool is. I am able to find most categories with no trouble. I also wish to get more involved in educational forums in general so I can start a meaningful teaching journey.

  9. For me, the best way to find time to build my PLN is to incorporate it into the time I already spend on social media. This way I don’t have to designate a separate time to do this. I have already been doing this by saving videos of lesson ideas and teaching tips in a folder on TikTok. The more I do this, the more teaching and education-related content I will be shown.

  10. I’m going to attempt to make time twice a month to work on my PLN. I think this will be a great resource to use in the future, and I think it’s best if I start planning it now. I’m fairly busy at the moment with work and school, but if I can find time to do extracurriculars, I can also find the time to work on this at least twice a month.

  11. My goal for building my PLN is to find other ways to do that outside of what was shown in this course. I think these were all great tools and tips, however I do no plan on using Twitter, and do not have an account. I am open to the idea of starting a blog when I become a teacher to help others and myself share ideas and grow my community. I would need more information to help myself have a stronger PLN. This was very helpful and I plan on implementing a lot of these strategies in the future.

  12. I think designating time once a month to find new PLN resources is a great way to make time. You could then designate one time a week to read and view the content of each of these resources to keep up with the most recent information.

  13. I would love to build a small blog to help build my PLN. It doesn’t need to be viewed by many or be something that is super big but something that helps me build my PLN. If I find resources I can blog about it. If somebody happens to come across it and can also provide me with resources it will only build my PLN even more. I would contribute to the blog at least once a week.

  14. My goal for building my PLN is to join a community of teachers that can help me be a successful educator.

  15. For me, any time I have a few minutes could be used to build a PLN. Also setting aside some time on specific days to build it would be great. Like 30 minutes on Mondays and Thursdays. Also giving myself time to explore content and ideas that I find while building the PLN. I do best with a structured routine so having that built into my schedule helps a lot with staying on task.

  16. I think making time to form a PLN is my biggest concern at the moment as it seems a bit of a counting task. One benefit, though, is how intertwined digital culture is with my generation. I have all of the social media platforms mentioned and so I already have one step done in forming a PLN. I think just building off of what I currently consume and share on social media to fit more of what I am looking for in a PLN as a teacher is definitely the next step in working towards filling out my PLN.

  17. The aspects I want to focus on first is classroom management examples. I really like learning about how different teachers teach accountability and behavioral skills in their classrooms. As an upcoming teacher it’s hard to like visualize and plan how I’m going to manage a classroom, and these tips help!

  18. My primary goal for my PLN is to expand my network of fellow educators and exchange ideas and resources related to language teaching and technology integration. I want to curate a collection of my favorite education blogs as well, enabling me to access valuable insights and inspiration from diverse sources. Excited to be on this journey of professional growth and collaboration!

  19. My first goals for my PLN are to follow people on Instagram and Twitter that are sharing resources related to secondary social studies education. This may include people sharing lesson plan resources, content specific research, educational pedagogy as a whole. I am excited to explore the people and resources out there who can help answer my questions and become a part of my network as I continue learning how to become a better educator.

  20. My plans for the future after completing this PLN is to start a PLN of my own to track my progress as a start student teaching in the following semester. Giving myself the time to prepare for my discipline as much as possible as well as creating connections early will further help me enter the education field confident and sound.

  21. At this time, I am worried I will not have the time to create a PLN.. mom of five and first year kindergarten teacher after a 20 year break from teaching. I plan on trying to do more with social media and becoming more active on others pages. I currently am a “lurker,” but I hope to get more active on others blogs and pages.

  22. My goal is to work on creating a PLN. I think this is an amazing resource and I am excited to use it in my future.

  23. I plan to make time to work on my PLN by committing to check my “work” socials every time I check my “personal” Socials. Since I grew up in a technological age, and already have social media, this is a goo way to link a habit I want to create to a habit I already have!

  24. This website is a very good resource, and it has taught me how helpful a blog and a PLN can be for a teacher. Page 7 has also given me good advice to being a good teacher not only online, but also in the classroom for my future students.

  25. – So this one is hard but this is the one I want to work on the most. So how will I make time to build my PLN? I have to start of small because I have two kids that need my attention so I was thinking that since I want to blog first I would start blogging every hour on my break and if that works out for me than I will do 2 hours a hour at work and then a hour and the end of the day after I get the kids settled. I was also thinking that I can make time on the weekend when the kids are sleeping or away for the weekend as well.

  26. My first goals for creating my PLN are to find education communities on Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, and Pinterest. I would like to create a Pinterest account dedicated to education and start finding and curating sources on there for all of my passion/content areas. I would like to find reliable sources for education of Tik Tok and Instagram. And I would like to join education groups on Facebook in order to meet and talk to other teachers. I also want to explore Feedly some more and see if there are any blogs that pertain to my particular interest areas. There is much to do!

  27. I think this is a great resource to use as a teacher! There are many ideas you can connect to and also many teachers to connect to as well!

  28. My goal to improve and learn about my PLN is to find new blogs that inspire me with new creative ideas to improve learning and teaching strategies. I also would like to join a Facebook group of future educators to hear some of their innovative ideas.

  29. My goals for myself are to create a PLN or platform where I can be more engaged and educated in the education field, and learn from other professionals. Another goal of mine is to join and connect with more education platforms and blogs, so that can find ones that fit my wants and needs for my future and career. My last goal for myself is to inform others about PLNs and other platforms and their benefits.

  30. I would like to spend time creating PNL and making it more personal. I should use more of my free time to do so.

  31. I’m working on cutting back on the amount of time I spend scrolling aimlessly on social media. I think this is a great opportunity to build my PLN. I can definitely work on my Flipboard account and make a Pinterest pin category dedicated to education because I know there are so many ideas that I can use.

  32. my goal is to connect with other teachers via my PNL and or social media. I think this is a great way to get new ideas and other ways to improve!

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