Tough Being a Student

Early on, we ask our PLPers to remain students themselves–not to gravitate toward tools that might be useful in the classroom, but instead to participate fully in conversations and discussions, using tools to do so.

It’s hard, as one teacher said in our Dublin-Dallas ning. I asked if I might share a couple of responses here:

Gail Corder, a Fellow from Fort Worth, Texax, said:

I don’t know if this will help you any at all, but here are my thoughts. I am not looking at this as “technology” at all. I am looking at it as a completely different way to approach teaching and learning. You are certainly much younger than I, so you may already be completely comfortable in this world of connected learning. Me, not so much. I’m a whiz at pretty much any software, but being “connected” was not at all my thing – and certainly not in my classroom. In fact, I blogged about ithttp://tvsteachertech.blogspot.com/2010/10/musings-expanding-walls…. which is out of the ordinary for me.

Soooo… what I’m trying to say is that since I’m looking at this as a whole new way of learning and teaching (not the nuts and bolts of Nings and blogs and Twitter, etc.) , it’s not hard at all for me to put my class aside for now and just soak up as much of this experience as I can. Because I’m trying to become a different type of learner so I can become a different type of teacher. Does that make any sense?

Karen Terlecky, from Dublin, Ohio, added this thought:

I remember that turtle triangle all too well. So glad that’s not what we’re about now! I can tell you from personal experience that these PLNs we are building together to support one another will be invaluable in our growth this year. I am actually fortunate enough to have a group of educators where I live that get together once in a while to talk about all things technological. When you sit side by side with someone to learn a new web 2.0 tool, it makes it a lot more fun and you find success much easier. I look forward to learning “side by side” in our webinars this year and continuing the conversations here in the forums. I’m so excited about the possibilities!!

Watching teachers reflect and share about this experience helps us all learn.