Reflecting on My Journey as a Connected Educator

I view my first year as a connected educator as slowly walking up a set of garden steps. You know, the steps you can easily climb at your own pace, allowing you to observe and interact with your surroundings as you move forward. By taking my time I became used to, explored and learned from the blogs I read and wrote, and the PLN I formed. I wrote a total of 28 posts, have 300 followers on twitter, and contributed 880 tweets. I surpassed my goal of publishing one blog a month. I did sit down and rest on those steps many times, looking around trying to absorb the environment, seeking guidance and contemplating what to do next. I participated in interactive leadership forums, numerous #chats, asked questions, shared resources, and experimented with social bookmarking, different readers, and brought my thoughts and discoveries directly to those I work with. I did not necessarily take any alternative routes, and wish I could have encouraged more of my colleagues to accompany me up those steps, but I certainly did admire the diversity of the flowers as I climbed, and from time to time picked a flower to share or planted a seed to nurture throughout my journey. So as I enter my second year as a connected educator I plan on exerting myself a bit more. I imagine myself walking up the steep steps of a Mayan pyramid.  Acknowledging the architectural and organizational wisdom of the Mayans I will begin the journey planning and organizing in order to facilitate the journey. I will add some structure to my blog(s), better use and organize the features of Feedly, expand and adapt my readership, add Pinterest to my repertoire, establish a mechanism to learn from my “favorites,” and create a schedule of professional learning through many educational chat sessions. The important thing is that I feel ready to push myself as I make my way up the top of the pyramid. I can now only imagine the experiences I will endure, the ideas I will contemplate, and what the final view will be when I reach the top! I look forward to sharing my view and learning with you all throughout this journey. 

http://michelepeterson.com/566-meal-of-the-gods-in-tikal-guatemala/

Blog as Portfolio

George Couros’ session on “Blog as Portfolio” brought my initial web 2.0 goals full circle. Creating an eportfolio was at the top of my web 2.0 goal list over a year ago. For better or for worse, it fell straight to the bottom. I understood it; I found it necessary, but I just wasn’t ready to develop it – there was still too much to learn. I  had my reliable paper copies of my resume, professional statement and accompanying documents to fall back on. I am now, however, looking forward to working on that skill and pulling that goal out from the bottom of the pile.

The suggestions and comments made by George and the participants of Leadership 2.0 have helped focus my thinking and have triggered the planning stage. A blog portfolio can be seen as the blue print for a new design – a starting point, or a carefully developed replica of what you are working to complete. In my case, it has ended up being a replica I will work hard to create! 

First, it was important for me to become comfortable in this new medium of social media, interacting, engaging and sharing with others across the nation and globe. Second, I learned that finding my voice through blogging and tweeting took practice and time. It is a unique type of writing; it honors individuality, but can lead to collaboration when interests among your PLN begin to interact.

Blogging, for me is a focused reflection. It is not simply putting thoughts on paper, but centering those thoughts around a specific experience, belief, idea, value, goal, project…… using those thoughts as a self-brainstorming session in order to improve my own craft, and hopefully improve my contributions to the field of education, within my immediate community or beyond. Equally important, twitter provides a forum for engaged conversation – dialog as opposed to a personal narrative blog. Twitter provides the opportunity to question, support, clarify, explore and have fun! Of course, I am still a novice. I know there are limitless forms of expression out there, using info graphics,  Pinterest, and tumblr. for example. The pile is large, and I won’t get through it! However, as I explore I will find the applications and means of expression that best fit my own needs and learning style while simultaneously meeting and exploring with other educators. I look forward to integrating my blog posts, twitter reflections and any up and coming skills into a conceptualized blog portfolio. 

Why blog? A personal reflection

-->

My blogging journey began about a year ago. I made a long list of web 2.0 skills that I thought would be necessary in order for me to progress as an educational leader. With the help of a mentor I began to prioritize that list. It ended up that for an entire year I only managed to set up my Google reader and Flipboard account and kept up with lots of interesting blogs. (OK, I did manage to complete and defend my dissertation; so there was a little progress professionally). What led me to begin blogging, one year later, was an intense sense of curiosity, as well as isolation. From my blog reading it became clear that there was so much more out there, and so much to take advantage of, so I began to dabble in twitter as well as to think about and plan for a blog.  I have been in the same position at my school for over a decade. I love my job and love my community, but having been in the same environment for such a long time, made me feel a bit isolated. Interacting with, learning from and sharing with the whole world has certainly been a way to escape that sense of isolation. More importantly, it has triggered a vast amount of ideas and reflections that motivate me to do a better job each day.  I now feel I have more to contribute. I encounter more opportunities to collaborate with colleagues and to engage with students. I am also able to extend that spark of creativity that ignites within me after a day, weekend, or moment immersed in the blogosphere.

It is also a learning journey. I am a life long learner, thirsty for continuous learning. I did not initially enroll in a doctoral program in order to become a scholar, but to quench my thirst for knowledge. I am so grateful that over the years the Internet has advanced in a way that has enabled me to continue this ongoing learning journey in such a collaborative and global manner. Moreover, reading and writing blogs meets my personal learning style. I am reflective, pensive, and prefer writing my thoughts to verbalizing them. What a great match for me! By sharing my learning journey, I hope that I am modeling for my colleagues and community, and ultimately encouraging them to jump on board!