(Originally posted on amytragg.com Jan. 2014)

Professional Learning Network?Powerful Learning Network?Personalized Learning Network?Whatever you think the “P” in PLN stands for, it will really become all three! Educators on Twitter can create a professional, powerful, personalized network to communicate with other educators all over the world. No kidding!

I decided to read Dave Burgess’ book, Teach Like a Pirate, based on a recommendation from another teacher on Twitter.  It helped me to plan more exciting lessons for my students. After using one of  Dave’s “hooks” during one of my art lessons, I posted a photo on Twitter, thanking him. Imagine my surprise when he answered me within a few minutes!

Communicating with an author was awesome, but conversing with Cathy Hunt (an art teacher in Australia) was just as terrific. We were Tweeting back and forth… across the world! She had just released her iPad Art iBook, I re-tweeted her Tweet and congratulated her. During the next week, I read her awesome iBook and used one of her ideas with one of my colleagues I co-teach with. Our students created stop motion videos for math story problems they wrote. Of course, I thanked Cathy on Twitter:













Create your PLN to communicate with other educators today! What are you waiting for, anyway? Go to Cybrary Man’s Twitter page for TONS of information.

(Originally posted on amytragg.com Jan. 2014)

It was the middle of last year when I was reading “THE Journal” or some other techie publication and came across #EdTechChat …..and the whole concept of educators discussing educational topics on Twitter. Huh? Now that was something I had to try.

When I participated in my first Twitter chat, #EdTechChat, I was a bit apprehensive. Was this safe? I’m chatting online with people I don’t know? Didn’t I warn my kids not to do this sort of stuff online? Well, I found out there was no need to worry. I also learned about the power of the hashtag by actually using one!  It all started to make sense to me and I learned how much I could learn from these educational discussions on Twitter.

If you are a teacher, you should try a Twitter Chat (if you haven’t already) and have meaningful conversations with other educators. You will need a Twitter account to start. There is an article on Education Week that explains chats really well, Cybrary Man’s website has lots of information for you,Kodable’s site has a great post and this article by Susan Bearden will give you some great ideas for chats you might want to check out.

So get on it! Learning new things with educators from all over the world is an eye opening experience. Maybe I’ll “see you” at #EdTechChat, #ArtsEdChat, #K12ArtChat or #CTEdChat!

(Originally posted on amytragg.com on Jan. 2, 2014)

In part one of this post, I was thinking and reflecting: How did I get to this point in my  professional growth using Twitter for PD? And wow...I have learned a lot from my PLN in the last year.

March 2013. I was lucky enough to be one of fourteen teachers in my school to be given an iPad2 to use for work. And that is when I remembered something from that "Twitter for PD" session way back in 2011. Didn't that presenter say that I could learn from others on Twitter? It was time to get online and figure out how I could actually do it.

Getting my own iPad to use at school prompted me to start using the student iPad cart. My student teacher, @supnals, developed an amazing lesson that introduced fifth graders to David Hockney and his iPhone drawings. The students used Wixie to draw and save their work. I started posting some of their work on Twitter. Looking back, I see that I really didn't understand the power of the hashtag. That definitely would have helped me connect with other educators more quickly.

Difficulties with the shared iPads prompted me to go online and find educators to help me. I found Tony Vincent 's website, and started following him on Twitter. The information he posted helped me with many questions I had, especially deciding which app to use to mirror my iPad. Reflector App has been a terrific answer for mirroring in my art classroom. I love being able to demo on the iPad and reflect student work as well.

I needed to find more people to follow. I looked at the educators I was following: who were they following and interacting with? That's a great way to build your PLN. What's a PLN? At a session I attended at EdCampNYC in November, Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby) said a PLN is your Personal Learning Network. See what he wrote about getting a PLN here.

Attending EdCampNYC and EdCampNJ last November was a terrific way to meet new people, learn new things and grow my PLN. And I wouldn't have known about either EdCamp without Twitter. It was fun to meet new people and follow them. And it was great to meet Tweeps in person you are following!

Connections = professional growth.
Professional growth = learning.
Learning = happy teacher.