PLN

A PLN is a network that everyone develops individually. It is a personal grouping or all the people, content, and contacts you have made throughout your time on the internet. This grouping is comprised of friends, family, colleagues, websites, magazines, and anyone or anything else who can help you with a variety of needs from creative ideas for a job to finding valuable contacts for an interview. You can use this PLN to help find resources and information, while building off of what you already know.
 * What is a PLN?**

There are many ways to use a PLN as a Teacher A teacher could use a blog or website from their PLN to gain new ideas for projects and assesment in their classroom. They are gaining fresh perspective from an outside source. Educators can use resources from their own PLN to help students find sources for a project or information from a contact in the field that the teacher might know. Teachers can use valuable websites to find interesting and effective lesson plans to be used in their own classroom on a variety of subjects. Teachers can subscribe to news feeds and blogs just like anybody else. They can find websites that fit their specific areas, or they can even find websites that discuss integrating multiple subject areas together to make for a more interesting learning environment. Teachers can get caught up on new advancements in the field of education or even learn more about different ideas or controversies that are popular at the time.
 * Ways to use a PLN as a Teacher**
 * - To find resources**
 * - To help link students together**
 * - Find Lesson Plans**
 * - Get news from the Education world**

This is important to educators now more so than in the past, because the internet and technological resources are how life is organized now. Everything revolves around technology in some way or another. You can apply for jobs online, you can submit essays online, and you can keep in touch with people online. This is how life works, therefore teachers need to adapt to this new lifestyle. They need to be able to teach their students how to professionally use technology and how to find valuable resources through technology. They need to be proficient at it themselves in order to effectively teach their students.
 * Why is this important to Teachers Now?**


 * My PLN:**

[|Free Technology for Teachers] This blog provides all the latest news in terms of technology with an emphasis on educational integration of that technology. I can use this to remain up to date on all the newest ways to use technology in the classroom. It also allows me to download programs and lesson plans that can be used in my own field and all of the information is free!
 * -Blogs**

[|The Clever Sheep] This is a blog that provides information on the world of education and it also provides new ideas for keeping your subject interesting in the classroom. This can be used as a way to gain perspective on how other teachers keep their students engaged in learning and also as a way to find other teachers who are dealing with the same issues I may be having at the time. This blog offers several connections to other educators.

-[|NEA] This is a link to the website for the National Education Association. This is a group that is dedicated to the sole purpose of improving education and the educators of today. It offers insight on many of the main issues facing education today and it uses user responses to offer action. It provides tools for the user in terms of lesson plans, activities, projects, and teaching strategies. It also provides the user with information concerning current grants and events that they can take part in and apply for in their own educational communities.
 * -Groups**

-[|IFEEO] This is a link to the website for the Institute for Educational Equity and Opportunity. They are dedicated to creating a universally fair and engaging learning environment for students in public schools that might not be getting the opportunities that they deserve. They want all students to reach their fullest potentials in the school setting and they are using their capabilities as a non-profit organization to help achieve that goal.

-**Websites** [|Discovery Education] This website provides a variety of resources for education in a number of fields. There are videos, articles, and lesson plans that can be used by educators, administrators, and students alike. I can use this to get lesson plans or just ideas for lessons and projects in my classroom. I can use the videos and articles in class to introduce a subject or model what I want for a project. It is an abundant resource to be used in the classroom!

[|PBS] This website offers a variety of resources for educators through PBS. It offers a number of videos, lesson plans, interactive activities online, and many other things. This can be used to gain materials for any social studies subject, it's free to use, and it's also easily accessible to anyone with a computer. It offers these resources for any age level and it provides the user to customize their search so that you can find materials that will specifically suit your needs.

-**Individuals** -[|Mr. Ehrhart] This is a link to a course page under the instruction of Mr. Ehrhart. He was my professor in an Educational Technology course at York College of Pennsylvania and he was very influential in the creation of this wiki as well as several of the other technological additions you will see while visiting these pages.

[|Mr. Barry Hayman] This is a link to the teaching website of Mr. Barry Hayman. He is a one of my former high school teachers and he has played an important role in my pursuit of a teaching career. He has allowed me to conduct observations in his classroom and he has also been very helpful in answering any questions I have had concerning the profession. He has been an active member of the teaching community for a number of years and I believe this website demonstrates his commitment to his job.

-**Wikis** Teaching-with-Technology This wiki offers information on different types of wikis that educators can use. It also offers a variety of links and suggestions for how these wikis and various websites and sources can be used. It supplies educators with information on new forms of technology and how they can be used in the classroom as well.

EDU210 Our class wiki can be used now as a way to keep up with assignments and provide us with a guide. We can look at the wikis of our classmates to get new ideas or just check to make sure that we are doing what we are supposed to. This could also be used after our class as a way to get in contact with each other once we are professional educators, we can ask each other for advice or ideas for our own classrooms.