PLN Assignment

I had the opportunity to create a twitter account. I was never aware of all of the different resources available to me through twitter. I always viewed twitter as another social media network that was designed to share funny memes and silly stories. I never thought that I could actually learn things about teaching and different things to try in the classroom. I looked through and began following several different twitter accounts.

The best account/resource that I found was Mindshift. Its twitter handle is @mindshiftkqed and it shares the most interesting things. This resource focuses on shifting our brains from traditional ways of learning to more progressive ways of thinking. I think during this time in history, it is incredibly important for everyone to shift the way they have thought about teaching and education, and move towards the future. This Twitter account embeds a growth mindset across all areas of education. I think I was so interested in this particular resource because I have tried to move my classroom toward a Growth Mindset environment. Every article they shared has some way to continue that growth.

One of the coolest resources they shared with me, was how to integrate Math into story books for children. I think this caught my attention because I love to read and so do my students. However, getting them to enjoy Math can be a little difficult at times. Implementing story telling and prior interests could make Math easier to teach. Follow this link to read the full article. In the article, they discuss the ability to teach comparing numbers using the Goldilocks and the 3 Bears stories. It brought up a great point. Do we want to teach our students Math or do we want to teach them how Math works in every day life? This blew my mind!! I always just thought to teach the students a skill and move on. This article showed me that it may be more important to show them the world of mathematical reasoning and where it fits in their life, then to teach them a skill and test them on it.

Follow my twitter for more information on Growth Mindset and 21st Century Learning! @feemstep

Also, check out my #edchat with #cvusdchat where we talked about connecting our classroom to the outside world and our students to the world around them!
The Twitter chat that I participated was so interesting. I had the opportunity to learn from complete strangers. We shared ideas that we used in our classrooms and bounced ideas off of each other. It was strange to me to see such a sense of community from a group of people that didn't know each other. I collaborated with another 3rd grade teacher. We talked about connecting our classroom to the outside world and how that looked in different ways.We were able to reflect on how our students were similar and different and new things we could try in our classrooms. I truly enjoyed participated in this Professional Learning Community and would love to do it again.