Thing 18: Building Your Professional Learning Community

I find it rewarding to be a part of different professional learning networks. I love learning from those I know and from other professionals who have great ideas but are not a part of my “work community”. I am trying hard to exhibit technology leadership through the professional learning communities that I am involved in throughout Kent County. As a Kent ISD Teaching and Learning team, we try to model and set up learning communities through the use of wiki’s, Google Docs, Moodle Courses, and Nings. Each time we set up and model these tools we also take time during professional development sessions to brainstorm how these tools could be used in the building with colleagues or in the classroom with students. Our leadership goal is to help educators across the county begin to use these tools and different local/global learning communities to expand their own learning and networks.

I am also going to facilitate my first online course starting in January. I am a bit nervous, but I have to start sometime. It is easy to let fear (of failure) get in the way of ever trying something new. I am gathering ideas from my daughter about what she liked and didn’t like with her online courses. I will also be tapping into my colleagues for help and support. Time will tell . . . I am sure it will be a learning opportunity for everyone involved!