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In 2010 @thenerdyteacher asked if I would be interested in starting a collaborative online magazine with him.  Of course I said yes!  Project PLN was born.  The passion behind Project PLN was to reach out to the education network and give everyone a voice.  Nick and I can be rather prolific and enjoy keeping a blog and keeping up a constant chatter on Twitter, but that isn’t for everyone.  We knew that there was this whole section of our PLN that had incredible ideas, amazing insight into education, but it wasn’t being shared widely.  Project PLN was our attempt to provide a place for all of those voices to be heard.  We wanted to help bring our PLN together, to introduce new voices and to solidify relationships.

N-1 is a concept that I read about on Seth’s Blog.  Seth says:

N-1. There are tons of things on your to do list, in your portfolio, on your desk.  They clamor for attention and so perhaps you compromise things to get them all done.  What would happen if you did one fewer thing?  What if leaving that off the agenda allowed you to do a world-class job on the rest?  What if you repeated N-1 thinking until you found a breakthrough?

I am a perfectionist with a pinch of OCD thrown in for good measure.  When I do something I go at it full speed ahead 110%.  The problem is lately, I can’t give 110% to everything that I would like to because I am always adding one more thing (N+1).  These things are good things, they are worthy things, important things.  I feel that way about each one of them or I wouldn’t have taken them on in the first place.  But lately I am finding that I am giving each less than what they deserve and not feeling a sense of accomplishment in any of them as a result.  I think this is a common feeling among teachers.  We always tend to be functioning in the N+1 model.  We give everything the best we’ve got and often feel stretched too thin.

After two years Nick and I are in new places.  We have LOVED Project PLN, even when we were at our busiest.  Over the last two years schools have been started, families expanded, new job titles added, speaking engagements, the list goes on and on.  It is time for us to employ N-1.  This is a difficult concept for us.  We are project adders…not project eliminators.  And yet, Project PLN’s time is coming to an end.  It has accomplished the purpose that we set out for it.  It connected our PLN when it needed to be connected.  With the increased use of social media and blogs, we aren’t seeing the need for it that we once did.  It is time for us to let go of one so that we have room for others.  Both Nick and I are sad to see Project PLN end.  It has kept us working together month after month.  It has given us a reason to plan after school Skype sessions.  It has been FUN.  It is our hope that in letting Project PLN go, we will have room for the next BIG thing that we can work on together.  (Stay tuned, we are always dreaming up crazy great ideas together!)

I suspect that this isn’t really an end, that it will be a beginning.  Now we have ourselves freed up for the next dream.

Thank you to all of you who supported us in Project PLN.  Thank you for contributing, for sharing yourself with us. We hope that this will be multiplied in new ways.  Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, our blogs.  Keep sharing your good ideas because YOU are an inspiration and YOU matter!

“It’s Project PLN Time, Project PLN Time!” (In my head, that is being sung to the tune of “It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time, Peanut Butter Jelly Time!”)  There are dance moves accompanying this. Can you tell I’ve been surrounded by 10 year olds all day long?  Are you singing it now?  Good.

Project PLN is now accepting submissions for the November Issue.  This issue is labeled the “Sharing Issue”.  Whenever teachers get together, we quickly start sharing great lesson plans, resources and tools that we have discovered (this is one of the reasons that my husband is not interested in having dinner with a bunch of educators!).  Since it isn’t practical for us to all get together for a edugeeky dinner, we want Project PLN to be a place where people can share their awesome lesson plans or resources with everyone out there.

If you think you have something awesome to share, please send an email to ProjectPLN10@gmail.com and we will add it to the November Issue. Please follow the guidelines for submissions below so we can quickly and easily load your posts to the site.

Please email the article or link to the article to ProjectPLN10@gmail.com

Please include a small bio that includes your blog, Twitter handle and other information you would like to share. A picture is encouraged, but not required.

It may be a piece you have published on your blog already. A good idea is still a good idea even if you had it a few months ago.

Please submit posts by Monday November 5. We expect for the issue to go live on Tuesday November 13.

Thanks again for all of the support you have given Project PLN over the years.

Kelly and Nick

Co-Editors – Project PLN

Help me personalize education for EVERY child!  Donate and spread the word about the Learning Genome Project.

Holy smokes, you all completely blow me away!  We received an incredible number of submissions for our “Back to School” issue of Project PLN.  You all are pretty amazing, thank you for sharing with the rest of us! Project PLN literally wouldn’t exist without our PLN…we count on you to share and make this happen.  Thank you!

I loved going through all of these posts.  I finally took out a notepad to keep track of my favorite new ideas  Don’t keep these great ideas to yourself, share them with a friend.  Sharing is caring you know!

Nick and I are now accepting submissions for the November Issue. We have decided to label it the “Sharing Issue”. There are many great lesson plans, resources and tools out there and it is tough for teachers to find the time to look for them. We want Project PLN to be a place where people can share their awesome lesson plans or resources with everyone out there.

If you think you have something awesome to share, please send an email to ProjectPLN10@gmail.com and we will add it to the November Issue. Please follow the guidelines for submissions below so we can quickly and easily load your posts to the site.

Please email the article or link to the article to ProjectPLN10@gmail.com

Please include a small bio that includes your blog, Twitter handle and other information you would like to share. A picture is encouraged, but not required.

It may be a piece you have published on your blog already. A good idea is still a good idea even if you had it a few months ago.

Please submit posts by Monday November 5. We expect for the issue to go live on Tuesday November 13.

Thanks again for all of the support you have given Project PLN over the years.

Have an awesome school year,

Nick and Kelly

Co-Editors – Project PLN

A new year of Project PLN is here!  Over the summer we (read: @thenerdyteacher) spiffed up the look of Project PLN and gave it it’s very own home.  You can now find a new Issue of Project PLN each month at http://projectpln.com.   I am LOVING the new look and feel this year!  Project PLN looks like a bookshelf and each post contributed by the PLN is a separate item on the shelf.  So cool.

Nick and I started Project PLN last year as a way to get to know the members of our PLN better and to connect and spread ideas.  Many of you have contributed over the past year and I hope that you will continue to contribute this year!  We have some fun topics coming up that I think will spur some great thinking.

We are dubbing the October issue”The Best” issue. We want people to share something that they think is the very best. It could be a lesson plan they really love, it could be a mobile app, it could be a web tool or anything else that you think is the very best and you want to share it with the rest of the PLN.

In November, we are having a #SchoolDidAGoodThing issue. We want people to share the stories of how school did a good thing for them. These stories serve as an inspiration to teachers and the community. It is a nice reminder why we all do what we do. We really hope you will share a story with us on how school did a good thing.

December is going to be EPIC. We have an idea for the December issue that we really love. We have declared December, “The Student Voice Issue”. We want to encourage teachers to have students write about, film, draw, etc. what they want their dream school to look like. Our goal is to have 13 posts with 1 post representing each grade of K-12. We still have some logistics to work out, but we want to get the idea out there now so interested teachers can think about working with their students on this exciting project.

We hope you like this month’s issue of ProjectPLN and we want to hear from you about what we can do to make it better.

As always, feel free to email posts to ProjectPLN10@Gmail.com, check in on us at Twitter @ProjectPLN or say hello on Facebook.

This month’s Project PLN was all about advice on starting the school year. We have a wide variety of advice from amazing educators from all over the world that might be what you are looking for or might be perfect for teachers in your building.

This month you can find the following:

• Believing in Our Students
• First Day of School Activities
• Reflecting Back to Forge Ahead
• I’m Ready
• Back To School
• Ready or Not
• Personalizing Learning
• Starting the New Year
• Classroom Management Stuff for New Teachers

I am always humbled by all of you in my PLN, you are incredible!

Thank you to all who contributed to this issue and please join in by contributing to the next issue!

What it is: Sophia is a site that I have been playing around with for the past few months in their invitation only, beta space.  Now that the beta has been released to everyone, I’m excited to share it!  Sophia is a platform that connects teachers, learners, experts, and parents. This is an academic community that supports and enriches the traditional classroom.  Sophia is a social network of sorts that connects everyone in meaningful ways so that knowledge, help, instruction, standards-aligned content, and experts are available for learners everywhere.  As an educator, Sophia will help you to share your knowledge and make it available to anyone, anywhere.  Sophia can help students by offering them support in areas of weakness, opportunities for deeper learning, and the ability to follow areas of interest that aren’t being met in the classroom.   Currently the Sophia subjects include the arts, business, English/language arts, learning strategies, mathematics, science, and social studies.  Each of those subject contain several sub categories as well.  Packets of learning can contain text documents, slide shows, videos, and useful links.  In addition the packets are rated by users as to how academically sound the resource is.  Individual users of Sophia get scores based on how well they contribute to the community.

How to integrate Sophia into the classroom: As a teacher, Sophia can be used to supplement instruction, for blended learning opportunities, for “flip” learning (remember that Fisch flip I mentioned earlier in the week?), and for private personal learning networks (PLN).  Students can use Sophia for additional classroom support, homework help, to participate in study groups, and to help others in their learning.  Use Sophia to facilitate study groups between students, to create an online learning community for your team to create and share resources, and to create groups that include other classrooms for collaborative learning opportunities.

Tips: Sophia is best for middle, high school, and college right now.  I hope that they will scale this down for elementary students as well!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Sophia in your classroom!

Hot off the press, the March issue of Project PLN is here! This month we focused on reading, we got fantastic posts about reading, 21st century libraries and media specialists.  This is a fantastic issue packed with great ideas and a clear passion for literacy.  We hope you enjoy the March issue and will contribute to the April issue!

For the April issue: Mistakes. We have all made them. Sometimes it is easy to forget about them and move on, but we feel that mistakes are an important part of what makes an educator. We tell students to learn from their mistakes because it will help them grow as a person. Educators are not different. We love to share are greatest success with the world, but sometimes our slips can provide support for all of the teachers out there who think they are the only one to make a mistake.  Share your learning with all of us by sending your posts (remember these can be re-posts you have already written.  Send us what you’ve got to projectpln10@gmail.com

projectpln10 – The March Issue – The 21st Century Library

Create Your OpenZine

Once again, thank you to all who contribute and help Nick (@thenerdyteacher) and I pull this off each month.  I feel so lucky to be working with Nick to pull these outstanding posts together into one magazine that I get to share with all of you!  It is fun to meet more of our PLN up-close and personal.

Here it is, the February Issue of #ProjectPLN.  A big THANK YOU to all who contributed and to @thenerdyteacher for letting me be a part of it!  Take a look inside to contribute to our March issue.

projectpln10 – February 2011 – The Passion Issue

Create Your OpenZine

Okay, here is the deal, I know this is a highly unusual post and request from me but bear with me for just a minute while I explain the importance of what I am asking.  At the bottom of the post I talk about a really cool new tool worth checking out.

I am working on a rather large educational project that will make it possible for every teacher to customize and tailor curriculum and learning for each of their students without putting a huge burden on teachers.  I have met some wonderful entreprenuers and business minds as I have worked on that project.  One of those brilliant people is @Toma_Bedolla.  Yesterday Toma and I were talking about this big project and I was trying to convey the powerhouse that is my personal learning network.  People outside of this network don’t really understand how it works or how it can make a difference in the world.  Toma could see that I have a lot of followers on Twitter and that I follow a lot of people on Twitter, what he couldn’t see is incredible support system that it is.  We don’t just follow each other. We make changes happen. We pull together and network and brainstorm and collaborate and discuss and encourage.  People who don’t use social media this way have a hard time getting it.

As we were wrapping up our conversation yesterday Toma mentioned this little contest he was involved in, a contest to get more fit.  Not education related per-say but I thought…what if I could use this contest to help someone outside of the PLN and outside of education see just what a powerhouse my PLN is?  What if by winning a contest (and subsequently $10,000) I could show someone outside of the PLN why it is worth investigating more, why it is worth investing in?  This is where you come in.  I’m hoping that I can get all of you to vote and help Toma out.  The problem?  The site is a PAIN to vote on, seriously, they couldn’t have made it more confusing.  But…it is really just 4 steps and if you know the secret (which I will tell you) it is a piece of cake.  Here is a hint I use on ALL websites that I sign up for that I’m not sure I really want to sign up for (education or not).  Use an @tempinbox email address.  You can type in anything you want before the @tempinbox.com and it will keep you from getting on lists you don’t want to be on.  To confirm the email just go to www.tempinbox.com, type in the preface you used infront of the tempinbox extension and you can click the confirmation in the email.

Here’s the simplest way to vote:

1. Register for a free account at Precision Nutrition: http://on.fb.me/fZBnXk (sign up with that tempinbox.com account if you want)
2. Click the link sent in the confirmation e-mail. (If you used my Tempinbox trick go to www.tempinbox.com to confirm).

3. Scroll to the bottom to click Vote at: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/s2b-winners-2010

4. You will be redirected to the poll where you can vote.  Vote for finalist #8.

Toma is only 146 votes out of the lead for the $10K first prize…  I’m pretty sure my powerhouse PLN can make that happen! I’m a big believer in helping each other out in any way we can, it creates some great education karma.

Now, for the part of the post where I share a really cool tool:  Toma is the brains behind a new website called How Tru.  You’ll have to take a look at the site to really feel its full impact but I have to say-this could be HUGE for education.  Toma describes it perfectly, everyone has a credit score…none of us had to do anything special (other than borrow money) to get that score. A credit score gives us a way to verify whether we can trust someone financially.  How Tru scores will give us a way to begin to verify a persons veracity online.  The ultimate in digital footprints.  The tool has a few implications for education: 1. It gives students and teachers a way to begin verifying the veracity of content. 2. It gives everyone a way to track their digital footprints and the footprints of those they follow.  Pretty cool!  I’ll write a full post as soon as the site is “officially” launched with my ideas of how it can be used in the classroom.

Thank you to all who helped and feel free to spread the word!

Now back to our regularly scheduled edutech content

The January Issue of Project PLN is here!  This issue was all about your educational goals for the new year.  We appreciate everyone sharing with us and meeting some new PLN faces.  I often get the question, how do I join a PLN (Personal Learning Network)?  It could not be easier, just interact with other educators on blogs through commenting, through conversation on Twitter, through connections on a Ning, or face to face.  As soon as you do any of those things you are considered part of the PLN! I suspect that ALL of you are part of a PLN in some capacity, even if it is just talking education in the teacher’s lounge over lunch. Enjoy meeting some new educator friends in this issue of Project PLN and be inspired by their goals for education this year!

projectpln10 – Goals for the New Year

Create Your OpenZine

Nick and I hope that you will participate in the next Project PLN, below is the topic for February and ways to participate:

When we think of February, we think of love. Love is the main reason we do what we do each and every day in education. Educators have a passion for what to hear why you are passionate about education. Share with the world why you get up each morning and do what you do. February is Passion month and we want to know why you are passionate about education. Feel free to contact though email projectpln10@gmail.com or Twitter @projectPLN. We would love to have your thoughts ready to share by January 8th. Thanks again for your continued support of Project PLN.

What it is: K12 Online Conference is a completely FREE online conference for educators around the world.  The conference focuses on innovative ways that web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning.  The conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone.  This year the theme of the conference is “Cultivating the Future”.  Yesterday was the kick off to the conference with a pre-conference keynote by Dean Shareski.  In the next two weeks (October 18 and October 25), 40 presentations will be posted online for participants to view, download and discuss.  Live events happen in the form of “Fireside Chats”, there are three live events this year.  The first Fireside Chat is scheduled for October 15 and will be hosted by Dean Shareski.  I have attended the k12 Online Conference every year since it started (2006) and each year I am inspired, and fueled with new ideas.  I am excited to see so many student voices and presenters this year, there is just nothing like hearing about education from the student perspective!  I am also excited to see so many familiar names from my PLN…there just isn’t anyone I would rather learn from!

How to integrate K12 Online Conference 2010 into your classroom: Check out the 2010 Schedule now and choose some sessions that you are most interested in.  Commit to viewing 2 or 3 (or if you are OCD like me, all of them!).  Take charge of your professional development and be inspired by fellow educators and students.  Make it fun and invite a friend to view some sessions with you.  Play sessions in the teacher’s lounge during lunch, take over a classroom with a projector and provide snacks, or invite a colleague over for PD and cocktails (for the record, that is the option I would choose!). Don’t keep all of this great learning to yourself!    In the past, I have found the student presentations to be inspiring not only for me, but also for my students.  Last year there was a presentation about applications called Wizard of Apps or Will they have an app for that or What we are loading (and learning) along the road presented by Joyce Kasman Valenza and students.  The presentation was a fun Wizard of Oz type play about different web 2.0 applications that they were using and learning with.  My students loved the idea of students putting together a play and teaching teachers.  If you are an administrator, be sure to let your staff know about this truly amazing professional development opportunity.  The line up of presenters is fantastic!  Then, encourage your staff to start building up a PLN (personal learning network) on Twitter.  They can start with the k12 Online presenters!

Tips: You can view the archives of past k12 Online Conferences for 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using k12 online conference 2010 in your classroom!