Being a Connected Educator

Being a connected educator means that you take the time to connect personally with other teachers, sharing and gaining new knowledge relating to education. In todays society, most connections are done through technology and social media. In order to be a connected educator, you must first be a connected learner. After watching the video by Tom Whitby, I learned that teachers need to teacher students how to analyze their knowledge, "teach them to fish rather than giving them a fish." Everything  around us is changing every day, we, as educators, need to stay on top of everything that is going on. Teachers need to stay engaged and continue learning through their engagement/connections.

One site that I looked at and really enjoyed was http://www.edutopia.org/blog/10-tips-become-connected-educator-elana-leoni. This ten tips are great and very useful as an educator trying to stay connected.
These tips include:

1. Embrace Making Mistakes
2. There's No Right Way - There's Only Your Way
3. Just Jump In
4. Be Open to Learning Unexpected Things
5. Follow Like-Minded People in Education
6. Join the Edcamp Movement
7. Join a Live Virtual Event
8. Block Out Time to Get Connected
9. Be Yourself and Help Others
10. Start Blogging

When I read tip six about joining the Edcamp Movement, that got me really excited because I plan to attend the Edcamp later in March. I can't wait to learn more at this event!

I was unable to be part of the interview with Toby, but I learned a lot by watching the video. He was a big fan of Twitter and talked a lot about the different uses for twitter for staying connected with other educators. One thing I really picked up on was when he said, "you only get out what you put in." This can pertain to just about everything that you do in life and I believe that this is a great quote to live by while going through my teaching career. Toby really stressed that we need to follows several people, but to unfollow those who don't you to become a better educator. He did a really great job of promoting the positives that Twitter can bring to us as future educators. 

I can't wait to learn more about how to become a more connected educator for my future classrooms. I plan to continue using Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and keeping up on reading educational blogs. These are all great starts to becoming better connected.