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:
- How to find time to develop your PLN and embed simple practices into your routine
- 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.
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.
All I’m saying is my #PLN has done more for me as an educator than they will ever know! There are too many of you to tag! #edtech #fearlessedchat #piratePLN #leadership #flipgridfever pic.twitter.com/sT7313yZdn
— tisha poncio (@TxTechChick) July 26, 2018
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:
- 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!
- 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.
- Share your top tip. Leave a comment to share your tips that have helped get you started building a PLN without feeling overwhelmed.
- 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!
- 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!
I could maybe use the time I spend on social media time spent on creating my own PLN. I think that once I begin my professional career after school, I could focus on creating one which I think would be very beneficial for myself and other educators as well.
I really want to focus on the learning aspect of my PLN first as a future teacher. I feel like as I learn more and more, I will be more apt to share my ideas, and create discussions about the things I am doing. However, since I haven’t had any experiences as a teacher yet, I think I still have a lot to learn. I would like to find some more elementary school teacher accounts on social media to follow, so that this learning is incorporated into my daily browsing.
After this course, I will definitely start creating PLN into my schedule. I will continue to search though Twitter, Pinterest, and some other blogs to get ideas on how to increase my PLN.
I think one of my goals is to make a Twitter account and learn from other elementary educators. There are so many people out there with great ideas and advice about teaching that I would love to hear and maybe add to my own classroom.
Some ideas on how I mill make time to build my PLN is to make small goals that I can obtain within a good time frame. Such as, what topics I want to cover, which app will I use the most, which one will not be too stressful for me. I would start with the smaller goals then do bigger ones. That way I ease into it, due to already being busy as a teacher.
To make time for building my PLN, I’ll allocate a specific time in my daily routine. I’ll also cut down on time-wasting habits, like mindless social media scrolling. Using productivity tools and techniques will help me stay focused during PLN activities, enhancing my professional growth.
A simple step that I can take to develop my PLN would be to join twitter, and curate my twitter towards my content area of interest. This course really highlighted how valuable of a tool twitter can be when it comes to developing your PLN, so it would be worthwhile for me to use the platform to find others within my content area of interest so that i can share and interact with new ideas.
My first goal in building my PLN will be creating a new Twitter account (as an educator) and finding good accounts to follow. I’ve been on the lookout for teachers, either other English teachers, teachers trying to improve the profession, or the hybrid of the two. There are some accounts I follow on other platforms (instagram, pinterest, etc.), so that would be a good starting point. Eventually, I’d like to be able to take part in a Twitter chat and try and build the connections talked about throughout this blog!
I think my goal is finding more educators I can connect with and get to be a part of my PLN. I think that building a PLN is really important and a great way to expand mine is to get in touch with more educators.
My goal is to reach out to educators in my area as well as beyond. I want to connect to educators, historians, and local peoples to help my understanding of local histories. I hope to continue to learn about twitter chats to engage dynamically within the community. It is my goal to make an education community for myself beyond just the school I teach/ will teach at.
I know I will definitely pass it forward and make sure to tell all my fellow co-workers and family members about the brilliance of PLN. I will also make sure I stay up to date with hashtags and other resources to benefit me as an educator.
My goals after completing this assignment include creating a teacher-based social media account on Twitter in order to see what is being discussed in the world of special education and education in general. I also plan to explore more blogs that provide tips for first-year special education teachers and read about some of the experiences of veteran teachers. Hopefully I will find some fellow educators to follow and have thoughtful discussions with over time.
My goal for my PLN is to start becoming more involved with Twitter. I think Twitter is a great resource for teachers because of all of the pictures, videos, links, materials, etc… I enjoyed looking through #kindercare on Twitter and I would use this resource for my PLN and for when I become a teacher. Another goal I have for my PLN is to also start becoming more involved with educators on Facebook so that I can learn more about the profession.
I will make time to create my PLN by being more purposeful with my time on social media. Instead of always carelessly scrolling, I can take some of that time and use it for learning more. I can see examples from teachers, create goals for the classroom, and look at different perspectives.
I’m planing to Use social media for PLN ; I will start using my Facebook and Instagram accounts to follow good pages and join education groups to connect with them, learn from them, get inspired, and inspire others by sharing what I know. I will also start using Twitter chats and hashtags because, as I learned, Twitter can be an excellent platform for building a professional learning network (PLN) for me as a teacher.
Twitter will allow me to connect with other educators, including experienced ones, researchers, and thought leaders who share their insights and knowledge on the platform.
Twitter is known for its real-time updates, which means I can stay up-to-date on current trends in education by following relevant hashtags or accounts.
I also will be able to participate and collaborate with other educators worldwide and exchange ideas on lesson plans, and classroom management strategies.
I will make time for building my PLN by taking some time off of careless scrolling on social media and trying to implement between 15-30 minutes of my time building my lpn for 5 days out of the week
I have to be honest. I am not sure that I want to build a PLN. While this has been an interesting course to take, I still haven’t been convinced I need to set one up formally. There are different tools that I will use like Flipboard and #edchat that I discovered through this course, however I don’t think I need to set up a PLN.
I want to start by using twitter and TikTok to find educators from other places. I want to start looking for different blogs to start reading and gain more information.
The first step I want to focus on is to create a Twitter educator account to follow fellow teachers and educational organizations. After going through this course, I realized how useful Twitter can be for teachers because it is a great platform to connect with others and have honest and thoughtful conversations with educators as well as getting advice!
My goal for using PLN is to find as many resources as I possibly can with it. I want to use it as my own personal “dictionary”. I would also share my ideas and resources that worked for me in my classroom so other educators can use them. I probably start with using social media and then expand from there.
My goals for my PLN is to be exposed to new content, individuals who are from different subject areas, and people who work in different fields than me (not just teachers). I want to focus on going through who I’m currently following and adjust that list and include other creators that the people I follow follow.
My goal is to find more time to create my PLN and routinely check and update it once a week. I’m first going to join Twitter and get comfortable finding resources and making connections.
My first goal for my PLN is to find and continue building a list of blogs, teachers, websites, and other people/things that I trust to get information from. That way I will feel confident turning to my PLN to help when needed.
I think the first thing I want to do is start creating a Pinterest board for classroom set-up and decoration ideas. The way your room looks affects how your students feel about the class, so I want to make sure they feel excited and welcome. Also, this seems like a fun way to get myself into the habit of dedicating time to building my PLN.
One way I’d like to start building my PLN is to utilize the FlipBoard account that I created, and start using it to keep up to date on not only politics and the social climate, but also on the educational field. I think that the platform is a great place to start because it is self-explanatory, and easy to interact with; as well as the fact that it is a bit more professional than Twitter in my opinion. Overall, I’d just like to start utilizing different social media platforms to expand my pedagogical understanding of education, as well as my technological and content understanding of the fields.
In order to build my PLN I need to make time. In order to make time I need to build in working on my PLN into my schedule so that I actually take the time to sit down and work on it.
One thing I want to focus on first is flipboard and twitter, just building the accounts in general and join groups and hashtags to find out more about what I can learn and contribute to those sites. I feel like these are two really great sites for new teachers to explore and learn more about teaching in general. It seems that the online teaching world, has so much more to offer then we know, that can help us learn and grow as teachers in some many ways.
The hardest thing would be making the PLN and finding time to stick to it daily. It will be something to work on by setting reminders or something that makes it a daily routine.
I already use pinterest and twitter in my daily routine. So one way I could make time for my PLN is by giving some time that I use to browse my regular pinterest and twitter accounts to my education accounts. This is a small thing I can do that will let me access my PLN in an obtainable way. Another thing I can do is try to set aside 5-10 minutes a day to interact with resources in my PLN whether that be joining a Twitter chat or reading a new blog post.
Personally my first goal would be to connect with educators on platforms I didn’t realize how so much educational opportunity like twitter. I would love to find more educators on twitter and more things to focus on within twitter.
My goal moving forward with PLNs is to focus on Twitter. I would like to set up an account dedicated to my classroom. I hope to connect with other history teachers, so I can share what I am doing in my class with them, but also see the things they are doing. My hope is that this gives me more fun ideas and activities to try out. I also hope it provides new technology resources to incorporate into my lessons.
Learning more in-depth about building my PLN, and working on each task has actually been really fun. My next steps hopefully involve staying connected with other’s both like and unlike myself, and learning how to become a content curator. I would love to be one of those educators whose passion is creating fun, meaningful content for others. I would love to have my own Teachers Pay Teachers store, or even work for a company that creates content for schools all around the world. I think staying current within my PLN will help me make more connections that will assist me with my career path.
Through this course, I have seen how helpful Twitter can be for educators. My first step to progressing my PLN is to find a few lists of suggested accounts and hashtags to follow. I will also reach out to my coworkers and other educators to see if they have any favorite accounts. Knowing who or what to follow has always been a barrier for me. I think Twitter is currently my best tool as it is easy to use, accessible from both my phone and laptop, and relatively quick to read through. I can determine which tweets are applicable to my teaching without having to waste time diving deep into an article that in the end does not fit my classroom. I already have a habit of checking my personal Twitter. My new goal is to create a habit of checking my PLN twitter feed in place of or in addition to my personal feed.
My goal for expanding my PLN is to try and use Pinterst in a more productive way. Right now, I am most comfortable with Pinterst, but I am not opposed to being on Twitter more. I think I need to create another Pinterst account that soley focuses on education because right now I have one account with both personal hobbies and education stuff on it. It is hard to focus on education when my feed is full of cooking ideas and home DIY projects. By having a separate account for education it could help me follow other accounts and engage with other fellow educators. Right now, I currently follow friends and thats it. I would like to follow other educators and be able to comment and talk to them rather than lurk.
Time is of the essence. Moving forward, my goal is to make time to build my PLN. I know that if I don’t view my PLN as ‘one more thing’ then I will be successful when utilizing it. I plan on building my PLN through the utilization of Twitter by following hashtags and other educators. I will build this time late at night instead of randomly scrolling through my personal social media accounts before bed. This will allow me to free up more of my time to use social media and the Twitter platform in a more intentional way. This intentional and focused scrolling will be more purposeful, rather than the random scrolling that I’m currently doing. Not only will I be a ‘lurker’ but I plan on contributing as well.
I think that will twitter is my PLN platform . I look twitter is good platform networking ,sharing and conecting to every people in word.
I think that I will use twitter as my PLN platform. I look forward to networking with other teacher candidates.
Going through the seven steps to build the PLN has been a rich learning experience for me. I find that the steps presented are very practical, and have given me the essential tools to start my PLN. While all of this was overwhelming to me, I was able to get the gist, and I will refer to these valuable resources throughout the build process.
Since I already have a Twitter account, I want to start by making time every day to explore and develop it for this purpose. Then, even if I have not yet built my own blog, although it is part of my objectives, I will now take the time to discover others, provide comments which will help me in the creation of mine.
PLN will become a reality if only daily work is done on it. Knowing that, I’m going to set time in my calendar to be able to respect this commitment.
My goal is to create and build a blog to share my thoughts and experiences in education with teachers. I want to grow a PLN to help teachers find peace and joy in their jobs in the midst of chaos.
My goal is to become more invested with my PLN by making more time for it as well as incorporating into my routine. I also want to be more connected by following blogs that will help me become a better educator.
I think an attainable goal would be to spend 15 minutes a day building my PLN. I already catch myself scrolling on social media when I don’t need to be, so I might as well make that time educational. Setting aside 15 minutes could be just scrolling through teacher tik toks for cute activities or great strategies for teaching math. I already have a lot of videos like that saved, so I should use some of that time seeing when I could try those strategies (especially the math ones).
My goal is to make my filler web-browsing/twitter time more productive by putting it toward building my PLN. My most typical browsing times are during breakfast and lunch. I typically have my phone or computer open just looking at current events or twitter. I plan to transition to using that time to looking at educator communities on twitter or other PLN building activities instead.
I also want to start a Diigo account in order to organize all the resources I find. Hopefully that will make this otherwise wasteful browsing time more useful.
My goal moving forward will be to start using Twitter more than I currently do, which shouldn’t be hard as I just started. I am not much of a social media person, but you can follow fellow educators and discuss numerous ideas quickly and easily. I will start by following more politically focused people and organizations as well as other government and social science educators in general. Finding other experts on the curriculum or course I teach will bring forward new ideas and strategies I can implement in my classroom. I will also begin to follow more blogs and broaden the groups and organizations I currently follow to build up my PLN.
I would like to focus on Twitter to build my PLN. I feel like this would be the best way for me to start. I already have an account and follow a few educational people, but I would like to do some more research and find quality people and groups. My school has upgraded our math curriculum this year. Finding some experts with out new curriculum would be a good place for me to start and be very helpful.
One of my goals is to use twitter a little more. I don’t see myself conversing with other via twitter but I can really see the value in curating and benefiting from other people’s curation. I think another goal would be actually setting up time to create a more substantial PLN. Like everything in an educator’s day, it takes time. As we know stuff starts to add up quickly for teachers. I need to carve out, even an hour a week, to focus on not only more tech integration but just setting up a PLN. I know a PLN isn’t something you can build in a day, I should say a strong PLN. This will definitely take a few years to build a strong PLN but I think a little dedication toward doing it will have great results.
My goal is to start with one hour a week on a Thursday evening to build my PLN. Time management is definitely the biggest challenge for me. I want to start with getting comfortable with Twitter since that is the platform educators say they use the most. I would like to find other Lutheran teachers, other high school teachers, other English teachers, and other instructors teaching World Literature and British Literature. I also am starting a Writing Lab this year so I will be on the hunt for tips and tricks on how to successfully operate a writing lab in a high school setting.
Building a PLN doesn’t have to be difficult. Over this course, I’ve learned about multiple tools that are simple and easy to use. I’ve started using Flipboard and Tweetdeck and both have excellent resources. I plan on taking some time to look through these resources more over the next week before school starts again!
Building a PLN is so valuable! I find that the best time to build my PLN, as a teacher, is over the summer. I have more time to delve into blogs and comments that have been made on posts to gain valuable information on topics I am interested in. It can get overwhelming, so I suggest building your PLN on platforms that you are comfortable with, sticking with those and keep building your network from there. Do lots of searches and click on suggestions that others make to see if they are appealing to you. It can get overwhelming, so sometimes you just have to take what you’ve learned and step back for a while as you implement things you’ve learned and come back when you’re ready for more!
Making time to build a PLN and use it daily is a big challenge. Although I understand the value of having a PLN, the additional minutes on a device make it difficult to cut back on my screen time. I walk for about an hour a day. I thought this would be a good time to listen podcast.
I will definitely start making time for my PLN by scheduling in a set time during the week to spend going through blogs and Twitter account in order to grow my PLN.