#BetterTogether and the Power of a #PLN - #TOSAchat

8/17/17

This is one part of what I imagine will be multiple posts in the future about the importance of collaboration and working together, and how a Professional Learning Network can help you grow professionally.

The #BetterTogether hashtag is used a lot on Twitter to demonstrate that by working together we can achieve more and we can develop even stronger ideas. I learned about the power of collaboration even within my PLC on campus early in my teaching career. When I first started teaching, I was going through it alone and struggling like most “young” teachers do when they first start in the field. Only when I started working with my colleagues and sharing ideas did I realize that the job becomes a lot easier when you have others to bounce ideas off of and share strategies with. As an EdTech Coordinator in Coachella Valley USD, our TOSA team and I are constantly working together and developing ways to better serve our teachers with integrating technology. We collaboratively build webpages on our department website through Google Sites, collaboratively create presentations for workshops through Keynote and iCloud Drive, and our Google Drive Folder is getting ridiculously full of ideas and finished products. These are all examples of how things are #BetterTogether. When I started using Twitter about 4 years ago, I began building my Professional Learning Network (#PLN) which took the idea of a PLC to a whole different level because I am learning from so many other teachers, administrators, and even private sector leaders, and I just grew professionally because of this network.

One of the webs of my PLN that I have really learned a lot from is the #TOSAchat PLN on Twitter. TOSAchat is an EdChat that takes place every Monday night at 8pm; just use #TOSAchat to join. The group consists mostly of TOSAs (Teachers on Special Assignment), Instructional Coaches, Specialists, but also includes classroom teachers and administrators. Each week a topic with 6 questions is posed to the group and we chat and share ideas for about an hour through Twitter. It really is an amazing way to learn. Most of the time the conversation carries on through the hashtag throughout the week as people post additional resources and questions to the group to help them in their position.

This past Monday (8/14/17) marked the 2nd Anniversary of the chat group, so a big shout out to Karly Moura (@KarlyMoura), Kelly Martin (@kmartintahoe), Ben Cogswell (@cogswell_ben), and Joe Young (@Jyoung1219) for starting the weekly chat group. You guys have really started a movement! To mark the second anniversary, one of the questions asked for ideas of how to grow the chat group to allow for even more collaboration and resources besides the Twitter chat group and the Voxer group. It was mentioned that a Facebook Page could be helpful for those learning and growing within the Facebook space so voila...some of us stepped up and created a TOSAchat Facebook page!

Just this week alone, we have already started sharing resources and creating a weekly slowchat question for engagement. This inaugural week's slowchat question already has 16 comments and the page already has 66 Likes in less than 72 hours of Page creation!

This is one example of how we truly are #BetterTogether. When an idea is thrown out there, get behind it and make it happen! We all have so much to contribute and to give. This blog post is one of my first major blog posts that I have ever published and for me is a why to take a risk and get some of my ideas out there for hopefully the betterment of others. I want to continue to take risks this year, try new things, and I know that I am not alone so the journey will be a little bit easier. Know that you are not alone either! I encourage you to grow your PLN and try new things because when we work together and share ideas, we all benefit, and most importantly the people we serve around us benefit.

Thank you for reading and please connect with me on Twitter so that we can keep the learning going. Have a great journey!

Eddie Simoneau

@Simonometry