CEP 810 Week 3 Blog: Who are my PLN’s?

Everyone from every profession has a list of PLN’s whether they realize it or not. Some have more PLN’s than others but everyone has connections, and in some way, shape or form these PLN’s are able to trigger what we think, how we perform our job and many times give us tools, insight and suggestions. I believe having PLN’s is crucially important for the teaching world! Being a one man team (although it may seem easy) can be stressful and tiresome. A team of go-to people and valuable resources can provide teachers with a plethora of important things such as motivation, skills, creative ideas, suggestions for difficult situations, classroom management skills etc. The list is limitless! Without having a go-to group and resources teachers especially tend to get tired, bored and burned out making them want to leave their profession and start over. Teaching is cumbersome, any educator will tell you that but being able to get over all the hills and through the hoops really can be worth it in the long run !

This week in TE 810 while creating a Popplet for my PLN’s I realized that have a lot of professional/formal connections to people, places and groups but I do not utilize them in the best means I could be. I also look at the list and find that these sources I have listed have been sources that have either been provided for me due to my schooling and job but none of them have risen due to personal interest or desire. I attribute this lack of seeking more outside sources on my own to the lack of time. As a teacher in today’s society time is a valuable! I find myself with very little time to myself to explore and do things that I find important to me teacher-related and un-teacher-related! Finding time when I am finishing my Master’s Degree, working a full-time teaching job AND having a second part time job to pay the bills makes extra time almost inexistent.

As a goal I would like to see my PLN’s grow. I would also like to reach out more to the current list of PLN’s that I have and utilize them more!

CEP 810 – Networked Learning Project – How to be a granny and Crochet!!!!!

This week in CEP 810 I have been asked to explore ideas on something I would like to learn using only YouTube and help forums. The interesting thing about this task is that I have explored YouTube videos many times to look for tips on how to cook something and have watched a plethora of videos on information I share with my students in class each week. YouTube has videos on just about anything you could want but I honestly have to say I have never REALLY taken the time to learn something for myself. Therefore I am very interested in this activity we are about to start. Every winter I have friends and family who take time to make handmade items for people both knitted and crocheted and as old school as this may sound I would love to be able to do the same thing even if creating something by hand such as gloves or a scarf seem like a waste of time when I could just go buy one. I love creating things and I especially think that learning to crochet specifically could also be a relaxing activity in addition to simply creating something for my own use or to give away to others.

As I explored YouTube and the Internet this week I found a bajillion resources. Yes I did just use the made up work BAJILLION!!! There are videos to learn to make anything from a basic square to clothing. I focused on viewing videos that were the basics such as:

• Learn to Crochet a potholder – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL7O8cYLGN8

• Learn how to Crochet RIGHT HAND – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqca00LdmAc

• How to Crochet a Granny Square for Beginners – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npIsh-o9AM0

• Mesh Washrag Tutorial – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knt-A90hU-U

In addition to the videos there are a lot of help forums to access as well, although I think in regard to this task the videos are a little more helpful at least for me since I am a very visual learner. Being able to watch another person’s hand on a YouTube video and having the ability to re-wind over and over to watch the steps that each person takes is really helpful! My overall goal is to start by making a simple washcloth J This is something that I like to use to wash my dishes but I have never created my own, I have always purchased them from arts and craft shows!!!!!

  

CEP 810: Learning, Understanding and Conceptual Change

In CEP 810 this week, I was asked to read a few chapters from the book How People Learn by Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2000) and to write an essay about learning, understanding and conceptual change and how these interlink and correlate to one another. In my essay I talked about how learning is the process of acquiring knowledge and skills by being taught, practicing or studying information on a given subject and applying it to real world situations. I focused on the importance of understanding in learning and compared the learning and understanding between novice and expert learners. In the world we live in today I feel we have a lot more novice learners than expert learners in schools today. As Herbert Simon was quoted in the reading this week “the meaning of knowing has shifted from being able to remember and repeat information to being able to find and use it” (Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.), p.5). Interesting right? Check out the full essay by clicking the link! Comments an/or reflections are appreciated!