Sharing Different Knowledge Sources Can Be Powerful

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There are countless professional learning networks that educators can join that has powerful information.  Below are some of the networks that I joined:

https://www.iste.org/home

https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/kqed-education

http://www.classroom20.com/

http://home.edweb.net/

My experiences as a member of a learning community have been nothing but positive. Can you just imagine learning and sharing different ways of teaching, strategies and lessons from someone in Switzerland which is considered number one in the world in education? Therefore, my experiences have been an eye-opening and aha moments.  My students have had the opportunity to communicate with children of their own age and other cultures.  I have shared activities, lesson plans and video conferences that have extended my teachings. Whenever someone has questions, educators are quick to jump in and collaborate with their ideas.

At this time, I feel that I am consuming more than contributing.  I am trying to learn new sources and strategies that can enhance my lessons.  There are other links that some of the networks recommend that can be of great use. Not only do I use their ideas but I also share mine.  I have even bought teacher made products that have assisted me in teaching certain concepts a different way that finally helped some students comprehend.  Another thing I was forgetting to mention is that I have trained staff using videos on different topics or have even interacted with trainers/consultants from faraway. I feel that I have contributed with activities, lessons and some videos that can be shared with other educators that can assist them.  Other educators have chatted with me on various topics.  Many times, some of them have asked me for Spanish activities and lessons.  Others have asked for pictures of my culture’s traditions like Cinco de Mayo.

This type of learning community has expanded my knowledge on how to integrate lessons with technology.  According to Nield (2016), sharing our knowledge and skill sets with others is critical for modern advancement and to make room for new ideas.  Best of all, sharing can help my career.  Ideas from other educators throughout the world can be of great assistance for educators who are struggling with certain concepts.  Many times, when educators are planning a new concept, they might have trouble thinking outside the box.

Since I retired from school administration, I have been involved in assisting educators with lesson plans, disaggregating test scores, class observations and any other assistance they might need.  What we do is immediately goggle to determine if there are new ideas or strategies that we can incorporate.  I love to use Excel for disaggregating scores which gives me a clear picture of what concepts need to be researched for new strategies. But during this process, I am chatting with my friends who are administrators and educators.  I want to make sure they get some immediate feedback so they won’t get discouraged.  It’s getting tough to teach with students not wanting to learn or behave, parents that are not cooperating and the lack of teachers needed to coach or do UIL after school.  If parents can easily be on Facebook for hours and hours, why can’t they sit down for an hour or so with their child and use technology to learn.

Below are more helpful learning communities that are of great interest:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/10/26/09edtech-network.h31.html

https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/digital-is

https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/common-curriculum

Nield, T. (2016).  Sharing knowledge with others is critical for advancement.  https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/sharing-knowledge-with-others-is-critical-for-advancement.v