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1. Workshops - Let's face it, we've been to tons but generally don't make the most of them. At every workshop there is another teacher who is bound to be someone you should stay in touch with for practical daily classroom advice. Many times you go to the workshop, you learn, and then leave. No, no, no! Stay in touch with this person so you can plan together via email, FaceTime, or a GoogleChat.
2. Conferences - When you spend a few days with the same group of people at a conference that you all share an interest in, you will definitely find a group of people you will want to stay in touch with. Remember it's not enough to get names, you have to set up a communication plan like I did with my ASCDL2L group. We didn't want to lose the connections we created at our first conference together in July 2014 so basically the next day Brad setting up a Voxer group where we communicate with each other almost daily. Can't imagine life without my Voxer group now!
3. Twitter - Isn't Twitter just for putting a status update? No! Twitter is a network full of educators from around the world. Start following chats with hashtags like #edchat and start following some of the zillions of educators. Edchats are structured conversations guided by questions on a particular topic and followed with a conversation hashtag. You can jump on these daily conversations whenever you want and they will help you get connected to many educators from the same or different regions, and give you a lot to talk about with like-minded people.
Some of the value I gain from my PLN:
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