Partners Reflect on Connected Educator Month

Post collaboratively written by staff members from The Fund for Transforming Education in Kentucky, Kentucky Department of Education and Hope Street Group

We had an engaging month of learning in Kentucky.  The Fund for Transforming Education in Kentucky, collaborating with the Kentucky Department of Education and Hope Street Group, participated in Connected Educator Month and achieved the goals established together to--

· help districts promote and integrate virtual learning into their formal professional learning approaches

· stimulate and support collaboration and innovation in professional learning

· get more educators “connected” (to each other)

· deepen and sustain the learning of those already connected

The 31-31-31 approach of highlighting a different educator’s story each day of the month was only the tip of the iceberg for what’s been happening in our state.  People read the daily blog posts, retweeted our CEM daily posts, started following us on Twitter, and liked our Facebook page. This extensive response enabled us to showcase 31 connected Kentucky educators who each replied to four questions about what being connected means and what it has done for them.  Educators shared a plethora of ways they are connected personally and professionally through platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Edmodo, Class DOJO, Remind 101, Dropbox, FriendFeed, Google communities, Wiggio and so many more. Some teachers have even set up classroom twitter accounts and allowed themselves and their students to become part of our global world.

For connections here in Kentucky and through a partnership between the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), the Kentucky Leadership Academy (KLA) and Battelle for Kids, educators in Kentucky are connecting through Wiggio. KLA participants are finding that they are creating a virtual connection with peers across the Commonwealth as well as using it as a curation site for support materials. Principals from across the Commonwealth serve as moderators and help encourage the strengthening of the virtual network.

Other Kentucky specific connections are happening within PD 360 Kentucky public school districts, schools, and individual users have the ability to set up and participate in learning spaces through PD 360 in the Continuous Instructional Improvement Technology System (CIITS).  These virtual Professional Learning Networks (PLN) provide educators with opportunities to grow and learn on topics or problems of practice in which they have particular interest.  One example of a PLN in PD 360 is the book study on Heidi Hayes Jacobs’ Mapping to the Core.  Anyone can sign up to join the PLN and can participate in webinars with Jacobs as well as participate in reading and discussing the book together.  Educators can use the information learned to inform their local curriculum mapping efforts and standards implementation in units.

Educators shared how being connected has impacted their practice because they exchange information and ideas to try in their classroom with their students.  Many of the ideas shared happen during the weekly #KyEdChat conversations on Thursday evenings.   On October 24th, educators were excited to have Kentucky Education Commissioner, Dr. Terry Holliday, participate in #KyEdChat so they could share with him how they are connected and learning from one another.  Adding to the excitement of meeting and learning from colleagues virtually was the University of Kentucky Innovation Summit in Lexington this week where many of the #KyEdChat ers met face-to-face for the first time, and they were driven to do so because they had already connected online.

Even though Connected Educator Month has ended, educators in Kentucky will continue to learn and be connected to one another across school, district, state, and country lines as evidenced in many of the posts we read during October.