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in this issue celebrate in simplicity personal learning networks many pln plans volume 15 issue 4 reminders merry christmas when you sign up for the library please let me know what you are doing so we can assist please remember to call the library if you are sending more than two students down from your class there are times when we cannot accomodate them due to heavy class use phi delta kappan december 2011 the professional journal for education 8 24 33 44 48 60 getting religion right in public schools face to faith teaching global citizenship closing school for the holidays whose holiday religion in america facts and figures sounding the charge for change taking on multitasking christmas waves a magic wand over this world and behold everything is softer and more beautiful norman vincent peale

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celebrate in simplicity smart computing dec 2010 all things frugal http www.allthingsfrugal.com read up on thrifty christmas practices in addition to other frugal ideas for holiday gifts and decorating the christmas area has sections dedicated to handling finances outdoor decorating the tree greeting cards gifts holiday stress and more just christmas http www.justxmas.com simplicity surfaces when we focus on a single idea or action so why not apply this concept when budgeting and planning for christmas just christmas has a large number of holiday resources such as homemade cards gifts wrap family activities diy ornaments etc charity navigator http www.charitynavigator.org find a charity you can trust charity navigator america s premier independent charity evaluator works to evaluate the financial health of over 5,300 of america s largest charities global impact http www.charity.org global impact is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping the world s most vulnerable people established in 1956 it is the national leader in raising awareness and funds for humanitarian organizations such as doctors without borders/médecins sans frontiéres care and save the children that provide help to people in need in virtually every developing country through programs such as disaster relief education health care training and economic programs global impact funded charities promote self-sufficiency strengthen communities and offer hope you will find as you look back on your life that the moments that stand out are the moments when you have done things for others henry drummond

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personal learning networks learning leading with technology march/april 2009 by david warlick personal learning networks plns are not new we have long relied on our families friends colleagues and acquaintances to supplement our knowledge about the world our professional learning also comes from reference books the textbooks we carried home from college the television and radio stations we tune in to and the professional and personal-interest periodicals to which we subscribe and we have been connecting with people and information through the digital realm for decades but the times are still changing information and communication technologies including an ever-growing repertoire of open source applications have freed content from the printed page giving voice to the ideas of people we have never had access to before and enabling us to reshape our information experiences to suit our learning needs harnessing these new technologies to create and grow our own plns is imperative for educators who want to stay connected to the changing world we are charged with introducing to our students plns open up doors to sources of information that were not even available a few years ago and continually evolving technologies are making it easier to capture and tame the resulting information overload keep it simple personal learning networks may open up new worlds but the technologies that extend our personal and professional learning beyond our immediate proximity can be difficult to understand and control here are 10 tips for creating cultivating and pruning your pln 1 start small and limit the number of blogs you subscribe to 2 organize your subscriptions by topic or job function 3 organize folders in your aggregator news feeds networks based on how frequently you need to read them call one folder everyday and place in it blogs and other rss feeds that you need to see every day call another one once a week and another one once a month 4 give yourself permission to switch your pln off every once in a while it is ok to ignore parts of your pln when you need to 5 scan you may need to read only one in 10 of the blogs that come through but that one will make you a better educator 6 your aggregator can grow temporary limbs if you are teaching a new unit find sources that will help you prepare for it and subscribe to them when you ve learned what you need sever the lines 7 realize that your network is much larger than it seems you are not just reading my blog you are reading all of the blogs that i read and all of the blogs that those bloggers are reading 8 invest some time but don t fret that it will take up all your time according to david jakes it takes only 15 minutes a day to learn something new 9 you do not need to subscribe to dozens of educators blogs to learn how they are using voicethread instead conduct a google blog search for voicethread and subscribe to that search s rss feed 10 some bloggers are very good connectors and filters they read lots of information and then blog the gems.

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many pln paths web winners connectivism a learning theory for the digital age takes into account trends in learning the use of technology and networks and the diminishing half-life of knowledge http www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm educators pln a ning site dedicated to the support of a personal learning network for educators http edupln.ning.com christmas hunger site christmas is of course giving although christmas in the net is more commercialized share food to the hungry this christmas with just a single click http www.thehungersite.com/cgi-bin/webobjects/ctdsites volunteer wisconsin a professional network of volunteer center staff connections statewide www.volunteerwisconsin.org/

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