Posts

Reflecting upon my own PLN (Personal Learning Network)

As I mentioned in my first ever blog post made a couple of weeks ago, I have entered (and am trying to navigate) the world of blogging as part of a course I am taking for professional development.  I chose to take the course -  Developing and Growing Personal Learning Networks for School Leaders  - because I believe strongly in the power of professionals collaborating and supporting one another.     In the business world, I was part of a group of plant managers in the southeast who created an informal network to support each other.  We were friends and the group formed organically - I honestly don't remember how the idea came together but know for certain that it helped each of us become more effective.     This was long before I became an educator and I certainly had never heard of John Hattie, but this experience proved to me first-hand the power of collective efficacy.  In case you aren't aware, collective teacher efficacy is listed by Joh...

What is a blog and why am I trying to write one?

So what exactly is a blog and where did that name come from?  The answer is easily found in the age the internet.  The answer:   "The term 'blog' is a combination of the words 'web' and 'log', which refers to an online journal or diary where people can share their thoughts, experiences, and opinions." I am a 65-year-old school principal attempting to navigate the internet age in a time of blogs and other concepts foreign to me.  I once heard a description of the divide between technologically fluent young people and folks like me who, while grateful for the extraordinary new tools now available to us, are struggling to avoid appearing / actually being inept when it comes to the ever-changing modern age of computers.  Older people like me are "digital foreigners" while those born a few decades later are "digital natives".   As someone who has dabbled in languages mostly as a hobby - but for a time as a profession - during my life, I ...