PLN Reflections and Exploration

Getting Started with my PLN

My first full-time gig teaching was at a rural high school where I taught all levels of Spanish, and my only language colleague was part-time. I taught that year on an alternative license because I did not complete an education degree (I had studied journalism and Spanish), and my prior teaching experience was primarily with undergraduate students when I was a graduate teaching associate. Suffice it to say, I was a bit in over my head and without a mentor in my content area. By the second week of classes, it was evident--I needed some help.

That's when I started building my PLN (Personal Learning Network). Of course, I didn't know that's what I was doing at the time, but I started following the blogs of other high school Spanish teachers to see what they were doing to engage and connect with their students. I especially loved the Creative Language Class, by Kara Parker and Megan Smith, and Musicuentos, by Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell. These teacher-bloggers often gave me activity ideas to help me survive the week, and they made me reflect on ideas related to proficiency, comprehensible input, and authentic resources. Thanks to my small PLN, that year, I experimented with learning stations, creating choice activities, and incorporating new games. 

My Current PLN

Almost a decade later, my PLN has expanded considerably and includes a variety of people, spaces, and tools (Krutka, Carpenter & Trust, 2017). Here is what my PLN looks like currently:

• Twitter: I follow a variety of educators and professional organizations. I often search tweets and share ideas using the hashtags #langchat, #authres (related to authentic resources), #teach4ic (related to intercultural competence), and #wlteach. If I am searching for authentic resources related to a topic, I might search #authres and then a hashtag such as #viajes or #México. 
• Facebook: I am part of several groups for language educators on Facebook, but I probably need to leave a few that I no longer use as much. The groups most relevant to my current goals and context include Spanish Language Pedagogy in Higher Ed, Incorporating Afro-Latino Culture in Spanish Classrooms, and iFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching. I also have participated this year in a Facebook group doing a book study for world language educators on White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo.  
• Podcasts: I mostly listen to the We Teach Languages podcast. I love that their episodes are succinct (often around 30 minutes) and I always learn something new. Recently, I also started listening to El hilo, a new podcast by the creators of Radio ambulante. I use podcasts like these not only to find ideas and resources for my classes, but to continue to develop my own skills in my L2 and stay up to date on current events. What's great about podcasts is that they provide needed flexibility: I listen in the car, when I'm folding laundry, going for a walk, or making dinner! 
• Webinars: I have attended several webinars recently, most of which I found out about through Twitter. This spring, ACTFL has provided a variety of webinars related to "Teaching and Learning Remotely." I also learned a lot from this timely conversation hosted by SCOLT: "Courageous Classrooms: Hard Conversations, Intentional Design, and Critical Reflection." 
• Email Digests: Every Monday morning, I receive in my email the InterCom, an email digest from the Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) at the University of Oregon. It's a great resource for discovering new activities, research, and blogs to expand your PLN!

A New Tool for my PLN 

This week, we've been discussing PLNs in the summer course I am taking, which has given me the opportunity to consider exploring a few new tools to enhance my PLN. This is a tool I would like to explore more in the coming months:

Wakelet

One "hole" that I have in my PLN right now is how to organize the resources I find through my PLN. This week, I've been experimenting a bit with Wakelet, a free tool that provides a space to save and organize a variety or different resources, including web pages, PDF documents, videos, tweets, images, Flipgrid videos, and more. Compared with Pinterest, which I have used in the past, I like the wide range of resources that can be added to your collection in Wakelet. I also like that I can add text headers to organize the resources within my collection. 

Here is my first Wakelet collection, which I created for resources related to world language learning for students with disabilities, an area of interest for me. It includes blog posts, podcast episodes, web pages, PDFs, and tweets, and I organized it into a few different sections. 

I also saved this Wakelet collection on anti racism tools for world language educators, shared by Anna Ogunnaike, a member of ACTFL's Critical and Social Justice Approaches Special Interest Group (SIG). 

While I am initially exploring this tool as a way to organize materials pertinent to teaching, I am wondering how this tool could be used for students to curate materials related to their interests. Perhaps once I learn a bit more about Wakelet and its potential, I'll do a follow-up post on that topic. :)