Learning Networks




Learning Networks
By: Mitch Madden

I really feel learning communities are very important tool that I have utilized over the past few recent years. I feel it has allowed me to move outside my own campus to collaborate with other teachers and professionals on classroom or education issues and ideas. It has allowed me to develop more of a growth mindset because it has given me new ideas and thoughts about science or education to consider. They have been a great place to go to get new ideas or solve a particular issue or discuss issues to improve education in the country. I will admit I find myself joining them to gather thoughts and ideas, but I need to be more involved in giving out my thoughts and ideas.
I have found twitter is a great place to go for learning communities and not only are their some great educators that I follow on twitter, but some great groups such as:

https://twitter.com/ShakeUpLearning - This is a great place to learn more about Google products and I had the opportunity to see a presentation before from her at a Google Summit.

https://twitter.com/KidsDeserveIt - This was started by a few people, one being Todd Nesloney that is a principal in Navasota. I had the opportunity to see him at several Google Summit’s and the organization Kids Deserve It, is a great place to go. They have a saying, challenging conventional thinking and pushing boundaries because kids deserve it. They have weekly chat calls that you can join in to talk more about education and discuss ideas how to help education along with students.

https://twitter.com/iamkesler - I came across Chris Kesler’s information Kesler Science a few years ago and it has been a great resource to go to get some new material for my classroom as far as labs or new ways of incorporating more hands on engagement activities.
Some of my Facebook groups that I have found helpful are:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1019770121475580/ - This is a group of middle school science teachers that collaborate about science or teaching middle school students. It has been a good group to get some ideas from for my classroom.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/classdojoambassadors/ - I use Class Dojo in the classroom and have found this group helpful in incorporating Class Dojo more. It even helped me get more involved in the growth mindset thinking from the beginning of our course.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1391607630957125/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/2148069318816229/ - These Lamar graduate school groups have helped me get feedback or information that has been helpful throughout my master’s degree.
Then of course there have been the times that I have referred to these groups for information or I belong to:

https://www.tasanet.org/  - This is the Texas Association of School Administrators and has been a great resource for me at times.

https://tcta.org/ - I belong to this group, which is called Texas Classroom Teachers Association.
I would like to get more involved in others groups like TCEA and ISTE and feel those groups would be beneficial for my growth as an educator. I truly believe learning communities are a great tool to get new innovative and different ways of doing things in the classroom along with helping kids grow.

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