As we move towards the use of personal learning plans in Vermont, I have really been wondering what it might look like in our current system. I set out on an individual professional learning path this summer in order to reflect on what it might look like for students. To be honest, I like the structure of classes and have taken one almost every semester for at least six years now. I wondered if I could learn without the structure of deadlines and course objectives; I found that I actually learned more than I set out to and was able to manage my time well. I started with one learning goal but I learned so much that it sparked other interests.

I spent a good part of my summer on the computer. I learned a lot about technology and about how I learn. I really thought I was pretty well versed in this topic since I have been thinking about it for most of my school aged life. I have never spent my summer focusing on professional learning before. Maybe I might take a class or something but I never spent time learning what I want for the sake of learning what I want. It was a great experiment and really got me thinking about how we could get kids to this place in a public school setting.

One thing I did was commit to my blog. I wrote at least once a week. I started doing this in April using my blogger account but soon became interested in going further so I moved my blogger site to a WordPress site. While blogger was free (and trust me I hedged the move), I have limited skills in the area of website design and maintenance.  Anytime I needed help it was a struggle.  Bluehost is a hosting company that costs money but it has been well worth it. They were extremely helpful. This led me to develop all kinds of skills around website development and technology. I also did quite a bit of research about online business. This all came from committing to write on my blog once a week. And it costs me $4 a month. I have developed all sorts of ideas that I had only really been thinking about in my head. I have created some plans about how I want to implement these ideas in the classroom. It has helped me articulate complicated instructional concepts so I can collaborate with others on them in a meaningful way. Mostly, I noticed that the more I wrote, the more I had questions and sought out answers leading to more information.

Last Spring, I took action on a topic that has interested me for years. I had never done anything before except for think about it. I sought out a colleague with a similar interest and we co-taught an online course together this summer. It was so much fun to collaborate with him. As a result, I have a plan of action and so many ideas, I don’t know what to do with them all. Plus, I found an amazing colleague in my co-teacher. We are so different in our approaches and strengths that I am able to learn even more from him. Ideas that took me years to develop have become so much deeper in just a few months.

Finally, I got on Twitter. I have never been a user and I really couldn’t see having to check another online social site. I have felt overwhelmed with email and Facebook. But I have heard positive things about Twitter and professional learning, so I figured out how to use it and tweeted some stuff. Then I figured out hashtags. One night, I stumbled onto a chat. Now I use Tweetdeck to manage more than twenty chats that occur weekly. Watch out because they are fast. My favorites are #nbtchat (no box thinking), #whatisschool, #colchat (culture of learning), and #sblchat (standards-based learning).  I have almost 400 followers that are mostly teachers from around the country looking to share and collect innovative ideas for use in the classroom. I haven’t had one negative nelly yet. Everyone in the chats has been committed to improving learning and school change. After I attended a few chats, I

started seeing some familiar names. We have conversations and are really getting know each other. Every now and then one of the two people I know face to face on Twitter will “favorite” something I have posted.  If you are interested in developing your own professional learning network on Twitter, I have put together some resources.

Vermont has developed some resources around personal learning to help students organize their own personal learning but I certainly have some ideas myself. So much for inservice administrators! We don’t need that anymore.  Some key components to staying productive are setting goals, setting aside a routine time and creating a system for collecting resources.  See my recent post on social media to learn more about ways that this can be done on Twitter and Pinterest.