Do we forget about the network we have available when we open our classroom or office door?
It seems I continue to distance myself from my own campus when I constantly turn first to my online network.
My PLN (Personal Learning Network) online is filled with educators who want the best for their students. Educators who strive to keep current with the latest opportunities in education, Educators who are qualified to have opinions, suggestions, advice, and guidance, and Educators who have hopes and dreams and frustrations and doubts.
But wait – my campus is filled with many of those same educators.
But am I listening to them? Or have I tuned them out because they are not wearing their “I am using Tech” t-shirt on.
It is easy for me to have tunnel vision and everything I see is through the vision of tech. For me, I eat, sleep, and breathe tech opportunities. Perhaps, at times, a bit too much, but it has become an easy constant in my life.
It is very easy for me to get so involved with my online PLN that I overlook, disregard, and ignore the helpful advice, corrective criticism, optimistic ideas, progressive thoughts, and hopeful plans that my own campus might be able to offer me.
It is easy for me to assume that my PLN online is more forward thinking than my own campus and it is easy for me to label my own campus so “out dated.”
Because of this……
It is important for me to include in my PLN people who are not as obsessed with tech – but just as obsessed as I am about education, students, and being better today than we were yesterday.
It is important for me to include in my PLN people who see me more than just at conferences.
It is important for me to include in my PLN people who I work alongside with daily. Those who we share not only a campus, but a student body, an admin, and all the other stuff that goes along with being a “school.”
Because of this………..
It is necessary that My PLN must grow with members from my own campus and my own district.
What about you? Does your PLN include people from your own campus??
