Slides from “Our Blogs, Ourselves” at the inaugural #SpringBlogFest

Dr. Nellie Deutsch (@nelliemuller) is busier than I am. That’s saying a lot. She invited me to present at the inaugural Spring Blog Festival that she co-organized with Sylvia Guinan (@ESLbrain) and Shelly Sanchez Terrell (@ShellTerrell). I titled my presentation Our Blogs, Ourselves, because I’m a child of the 70s and a sucker for a pun.

Curation is a 21st Century skill, and I have been curating my digital presence for years. I encourage people all the time to claim their virtual real estate even if they won’t be using it actively. My goal for this session is to share how and why I gather archival evidence of my professional endeavors and classroom projects in a digital portfolio and offer some tips to get started. Also, in the spirit of using social media socially, I will suggest ways to build and optimize a Personalized Learning Network (PLN).

The Spring Blog Festival will all be held online on WizIQ. The link for my session is here: http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/1680258-sbf-our-blogs-ourselves

Just had our first Tweetup at @The_School! Lots of teachers and administrators in attendance. :)

We just had our first Tweetup at The School at Columbia University. (I was totally inspired by the iPad App Shares that Gina Marcel (@fpgina) initiated this year.) For about 45 minutes after school today, teachers and administrators joined together to talk about how we can/do use Twitter to build a PLN (be it a Personal or Professional Learning Network) and collaborate, share, learn with others.

My 3 immediate goals were for attendees to share:
1. How to find people to follow
2. What “chats” to join
3. How to use a hashtag

I showed Jerry Blumengarten’s (@cybraryman1) ridiculously comprehensive list of educational chat hashtags: http://www.cybraryman.com/chats.html

In attendance today were:
Kathryn Kaiser (@110kaiser), Primary Division Head (K-2)
Kevin Fittinghoff (@kfittinghoff), Intermediate Division Head (3-5)
Belinda Nicholson, Middle Division Head (6-8)
Don Buckley (@donbuckley), Director of Innovation
Cristina Martinez (@cmfinlay), Server Manager Extraordinaire
Karen Blumberg (@SpecialKRB), Technology Integrator (5-8)
Stacy Bolton, Director of Communications
Nadine Renazile (@infobirdie), Librarian (5-8)
Nancy Wong (@scampnyc), Math Liasion (K-2)
Joyce Tsang (@jyc_nyc), Kindergarten Teacher
Catherine Georges (@CatherinGeorges), 7th Grade Social Studies Teacher
Clarisa Leal (@leal_cm), Spanish Teacher (multi-grade)
Talia Gonzalez (@TaliaGonzalez2), Spanish Teacher (multi-grade)

Based on the success of today’s gathering, Don (my boss) suggested holding another share in two weeks. 🙂