Over the course of this class, I can truly say that I have learned a TON! I’m so glad that I chose to take this course, so that I can work on expanding my PLN for my future as an educator.
Being a teacher requires help from others in and around your community, whether it be local or from afar. If we do not allow ourselves to be learning constantly and allowing ourselves to be vulnerable to the changes that learning provides, I believe that we cannot teach our students to do the same. By beginning to curate my PLN within the last year, and especially during this course, I think that I am taking a huge step in the right direction. Before taking my EDCI 336 class with Michael this past fall, and then this class with Jesse, I had no clue what a PLN even meant. Now, it is more important to me than ever!
With our group’s final project coming to a close, and through the filming of Kiana acting like she didn’t need a PLN, I couldn’t help but think this is how I felt before this year! My social media accounts have always been used to interact with friends, people from my high school or “meme” accounts. I never really posted much on them, and especially never anything controversial, but I can’t help but think how dull my accounts were. I never interacted with anything educational related, it was strictly for “likes” or social engagement.
I’m really quite excited to start using my PLN for professional development. I am already making plans to create a second Instagram account for when I start teaching, and expanding my Twitter account. I have followed a bunch of accounts that Kiana mentioned in her last blog post to start expanding my professional learning network. I think in this day and age as a teacher, following educational related content, as well as members of Indigenous communities is really important.
With the course coming to an end, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on a challenging moment for me. One that I have already sort of highlighted above, is my lack of a PLN. From the start of the course, and learning all about what it means to have a PLN, I always felt guilty for not starting to expand my knowledge base and professional media engagement earlier. I felt as though I wasn’t doing enough to engage with the community around me, and my peers who are in the B.Ed program with me. Although I am glad now, that I have this whole WordPress site as a start to my PLN! My hopes for my post-course reflections, is to keep updating this blog site. I want this site to be a portfolio for who I am as a person and educator. I think this is a really great place to start my PLN, and something that I can be proud of when someone Googles my name.
I am excited for what the future has in store for me and my professional learning network. I am going to keep what I have learned in this course in the back of my mind, from personal vs professional identity and all the implications that can come from what we post online, to inclusion efforts and community engagement. I will always be cautious about what I choose to post about, and who I choose to follow on my PLN. I am grateful for all that I have learned in this course, not only from the material, but also all my peers! So thank you Jesse, and everyone else in this class!