C4T #3

For my third C4T I was assigned to Mrs. Cathy Jo Nelson. Mrs. Nelson is a school library media specialist with twenty eight years of experience. She is also an educator from South Carolina. Mrs. Nelson says her blog, Professional Thoughts, is "Designed to offer helpful hints, tips, and tricks to teachers and library media specialists who are modeling the integration of technology in an authentic and ethical manner in the name of increasing student engagement."

#1

The first post of Mrs. Nelson's that I read and left a comment on was called Connected Educator Month: DEN. She says "Connecting educators is what I think of when I think Discovery Educator Network." I liked how she explained a Discovery Educator Network as "A way for those looking for connections, and worried about online weirdos" to come together and exchange ideas in a safe way. I also liked how she described it as a "Safe place to seriously look at becoming a connected educator." I think a Discovery Educator Network sounds like a very helpful resource that can be provided to teachers, that want to make differences in their classrooms.

Mrs. Nelson said herself that she went from lurker to virtual friend to a full blown PLN member. She said "Reading or listening was enough... initially." However, eventually her true "connected-ness" started. Her blog, born October 1, 2006 over the Google Blogger Platform, then transitioned to Edublogs, and finally came to rest as her own domain and has become a place for her to publicly share her thinking, interact with others, and most importantly extend her learning. As she grew in these online circles, both in friendships and learning's, she began to dabble in other online circles. Through her interactions with her PLN, she began getting asked to make contributions. Mrs. Nelson said she likes to think of Discovery Educator Network as a "GLOBAL group of educators who come together periodically, some more than others, to learn from each other or learn often together about best practice in education." It is often centered on educational technology though not always on Discovery Education resources. One last important thing Mrs. Nelson's says about a Discovery Educator Network is "More often than not it is a virtual group meeting via social networking resources, but there are state levels, national, and even international opportunities to come together as a group."

In the comment I left Mrs. Nelson I told her that we briefly talked about Discovery Education a few weeks ago in class, but that we did not spend a lot of time on it because we have been so busy learning about other resources as well. So after reading her post, I’m glad to have a better understanding of some of the things it has to offer. I also told Mrs. Nelson that I think it is so great that they’re teachers and other people in this world that step out side of their comfort zones, and try all different types of resources to gain benefits for learning and for teaching. I then thanked her for being an inspiration to young students like me who want to become the best teachers they can be. I concluded my comment with a link to my blog and a short sentence saying that I would be summarizing what I have learned from visiting her blog soon.

#2

The second post of Mrs. Nelson's that I read and left a comment on was called SC Voices to Inspire. In this post she began by saying "I can't speak loudly enough the power of connected learning." Mrs. Nelson thought about what inspirational voices come from local flavor (the South Carolina variety). She was asked by one of her connected voices to provide a list of feeds and people she subscribes to in her current reader of choice, "Feedly". When putting together those lists, she realized there were some "Twitter" voices that impacted her daily practices as well. Although there is no blog RRS feed to show them, she did include a link to her Twitter list of SC voices in her post. She then created a few lists of voices from South Carolina who have inspired her. I'm glad to have read this post because sometimes I catch myself wondering who else could I use as a resource and who could I follow that is inspirational when it comes to Education. From there, I don't know where to look, besides my assigned C4T teachers. So I'm glad she provided lists of people and sources that I could gather more information and ideas from.

Her lists of people are separated into categories including: "South Carolina School Librarians," "South Carolina Teachers/Educators Across the Curriculum," "South Carolina School Administrators," and "South Carolina- Other/Interesting." I checked out a few of the blogs listed and they really are a great source to look to for information and ideas. Mrs. Nelson also concluded her post with providing a "How To" video on "Feedly."

In the comment that I left Mrs. Nelson I told her that once again I found her posts very helpful and resourceful. I also said that as a young college student who hopes to become a teacher some day, I’m always looking for resources and other people who have experience in Education. So I thanked her for including lists of people and resources that she found inspirational to your blog.