Before I introduce you to the newbie for 2010 I would like to take some time to explain how I came about choosing the NECC 2010 Newbie.

I spent a great deal of time looking at the various people in my PLN. There are certain qualities that I look for in a newbie. The absolute most important thing is that they possess a passion for learning. They must also have the desire to share what they are learning. They need to be visionary leaders in their field. In other words, I want someone who has big ideas because those are the people who are not afraid to affect change. My PLN is full of people who meet these criteria, but there is one person who I have been watching since December. This teacher is incredibly dedicated to his profession. He is a social studies teacher who is working hard to seemlessly integrate technology into his classroom. From the conversations I have had with him on Twitter, he is facing some of the same struggles that so many of us are. I think so many of us will be able to relate to him.

The person I am about to name has absolutely no idea this that this is even happening. While he is not obligated to accept my offer to be the next newbie it is my hope that he will! There is one condition that will be attached to this project this year which is not unreasonable. I am requiring that the newbie blog every week or two about what they are doing in their classroom.

So without any further delay please join me in congratulating Jason Schrage (@oswego98) who I have selected to be the Newbie for 2010.

I am not going to start the fund raising for this project until much later in the year. I have not even thought that far ahead! If Mr. Schrage accepts this offer I want to give our PLN time to get to know him. If it is not too much trouble please follow him and send him some words of encouragement.

Thanks to my PLN for all of your help with the 2009 Newbie project. I am literally sitting 20 feet from Richard Byrne who is in a discussion with Lee Lefever from Common Craft. I hope you can welcome Jason into your PLN. He is a rising super star!

Let me provide a little background so this post makes sense. The first thing you need to know about me is that I am a Twitter addict. The second thing you need to know is that I have a passion for my PLN. My network has taught me 1000 times more that I will ever learn at any formal training. Back in April I decided to see if I could organize my PLN to help show the power of Twitter. Basically, I wanted to see if my PLN could raise $1500 to send an educator to NECC. I asked Richard Byrne, the author of FreeTech4Teachers, to be the newbie and he gladly agreed! With the generous support of people from our PLN and from VoiceThread we were able to meet the goal in two weeks.

I am sitting with Richard Byrne in the Bloggers’ Cafe as I write this. I am more convinced than ever that Richard was the perfect choice to be the first newbie. He shares so much with so many people and his audience is still growing. If you are attending NECC be sure to track him down and tell him hello.

I was interviewed about the newbie project a few weeks ago about the project. One of the questions I was asked was would I do it again. Of course I will! In fact, I have already chosen the next newbie. I will announce who it is in my next post, but I will say this person is an incredibly dedicated teacher who has a passion for learning.

Stay tuned for more details!

My flight takes off in exactly three hours. I am incredibly excited to meet dozens of wonderful people that I have had the great pleasure of getting to know over the last year. I am planning on writing numerous short posts over the next week. I have decided that the theme I would like to write about is opportunity. If there is one thing I have learned over the last year it is that in order to grow we have to take advantage of opportunites when they come along. Don’t be afraid to take chances; life is too short to live with regrets!

If you are attending NECC please look for me and say hello. If you are attending virtually the same thing goes for you. It seems like this year NECC is catering to the “virtual” crowd which is great! Either way I hope you enjoy the conference.

The other day I was editing a page in my PB Wiki and I wanted to wrap text around an image. I played with it for a few minutes before I gave up and asked for help from my PLN. Now, I could have probably gone to the PB Works site or I could have Googled my question, but why? I sent my request for help out on Twitter and within a matter of minutes three fellow educators (@jgates513, @cheryltice, and @kyteacher) came to my rescue.

I started thinking about all of the things I have learned on Twitter over the last year and I sent out the following Tweet:

Someone should start a wiki where we go each day to list 1 thing we learned from our pln. Don’t look at me. I’m just saying it’d be cool.1:44 PM Jun 21st from UberTwitter

A few minutes later @kyteacher and @a_dowling volunteered to set up a wiki for this purpose. (Thanks so much Angela and Angie!) The function of this wiki is two-fold. First, it will give all educators a place to reflect on one or more things that they have learned throughout the day. It is yet another place to share what we are learning from our PLN. The second function of this wiki is to serve as a place where we can showcase examples of learning.

I hope that you will contribute something to this wiki on a regular basis. It is for all of us to use and share. If enough people start contributing and sharing this wiki, it has the potential to become a very powerful tool. To get there all of us must contribute just a little bit. Remember that the power of the PLN comes from us working together.

Status Learning Wiki

Last week I wrote a post on how to get a newbie started off right in Twitter. Then I started thinking about all of the educators who have already fallen through the cracks. The ones who gave Twitter a try, but were really never given a proper demonstration on the ins and outs of Twitter. What about the ones who were left to figure it out on their own and felt so overwhelmed that they gave up?

Here is my challenge to you. Find someone who has tried Twitter, but who dropped out. Send them a message to let them know you want to help them rediscover Twitter. Help them make sure their profile and bio is complete. Invest some time teaching them how to use Twitter. This is something we wrongly assume people will figure out on their own.  Teach them how to do things like send “@” messages, DM’s, and add links and images. Help them bookmark different sites so they can reference them down the road.

Perhaps the most important thing is helping them find people to follow who are the right fit for their PLN. It might look like they are following a lot of people, but what really matters is the quality of information that is coming across. Help them find 30-40 good people to follow. Show them how to find people in different directories such as Twitter4Teachers and WeFollow. The next thing you need to do is help them make some meaningful updates. After a week or so reintroduce them to the Twitterverse! Add them to a Follow Friday list to help them grow their PLN. Once they see that a couple of dozen people care about what they have to say it might just hook them on Twitter permenantely!

I don’t like it when people use acronyms and they just assume that the person they are talking to understands the meaning of them. I just realized I have been guilty of doing this a lot recently and I apologize! I have written a couple of blog posts and sent out tweets where I have referenced my PLN. I have had more than a few people contact me recently asking me to define PLN for them.

I will answer that, but first a little background.

Last summer I wrote a post about how important my PLC had become to me. PLC stands for professional learning community. (People use the terms PLC and PLN interchangeably, but PLN seems to be the term that is more popular.) I slowly moved from using the acronym PLC to PLN which is short for personal (professional) learning network. Anyone who is actively engaged in learning online is part of a PLN. If you are reading this then I am part of your PLN. The people I follow on Twitter make up the vast majority of my PLN. These are the people that I learn from and interact with on a daily basis. A PLN is an incredibly powerful tool to have at your disposal. The flow of information is available 24 hours a day seven days a week.  It has been said that the more time you invest in building and contributing to your PLN the more you will get back from it in return. This is so true! A PLN does not form on its own; you have guide it and direct its growth. You have to invest time in figuring out who you want to include in your network. Don’t feel like you have to include everyone! That defeats the purpose in customizing it to fit your needs.

Do not be afraid to get to know some of the people in your network beyond Twitter. There is only so much you can share in 140 characters or less. Consider using email, Skype, chats, or discussion forums in various Nings to continue conversations that begin on Twitter. You might find you enjoy “working” with some of the people in your PLN. Collaborating on projects with people that you choose to work with is fantastic! It is an exciting time to be in education.

All of us on Twitter know the routine. Someone in our PLN introduces someone and they ask us to say hello. We take a few seconds knowing that someday we will want them to return the favor. We might even go to their profile to see if it is someone that we want to follow. We make a snap decision to follow or not follow very quickly. So what factors determine why we follow some newbies and not others? More than likely we make this decision based on their look and feel of their profile and recent tweets.

The biggest mistake we make when getting someone started on Twitter is we don’t help them complete each step of setting up their profile. For some reason we introduce a new person and ask our PLN to welcome them before they have completed their profile.

Yesterday Glenn Hilton tweeted that 60% of new Twitter users quit within the first month. His tweet was very timely because I had just been asked to welcome several people to Twitter. I said hello to all of them, but did not follow a single one. In fact, I rarely follow people who are new on Twitter? Am I a Twitter snob? Of course not! Why would I follow someone that has not told me anything about themselves? Under most circumstances I will not follow people who violate the following unwritten rules:

1) You must have an image on your profile. The ideal image is one that is a clear shot of your face and you should be the only person in the picture.

2) You have 160 characters to make a first impression. Take full advantage of it and make a good one! Use keywords to identify your passions and interests. Take this opportunity to let people know what you teach, what grade levels you work, and other things that might help you build your PLN.

3) Keep your account public. By setting your tweets to private it gives the impression that you are not trusting. This might sound harsh, but if you are one of those people who is scared some weirdo freak might follow you then you are probably not ready for the power of Twitter.

Those of us who love Twitter sometimes get ahead of ourselves and do not remember that it is not about how many people are following us, but it is about who we follow. We need to keep this in mind when introducing someone to Twitter. If we do not help them with this critical step then they will quit! Make sure you share resources for where to find people on Twitter. Liz Davis started a spreadsheet with names of educators on Twitter. Gina Hartman started Twitter4Teachers, a wiki to help educators connect as well. Both are incredibly valuable and should be used by even seasoned Twitter veterans. Follow Friday tweets are also a way to find educators to follow.

After the person you are mentoring has made some meaningful updates and contributions then introduce them! Throwing them to the Twitterverse before they have had a chance to build their network will hurt them much more than it will help them. Not to mention the fact it will overwhelm them! It is also important to remind newbies that they do have important things to contribute. The people I have introduced to Twitter get hung up on the the thought that they have nothing to share. Patience and encouragement are key when using Twitter.

Also, remember to talk to them about Twitter etiquette. When do you send a DM as opposed to an “@”? What is an RT and when do you do it? This is second nature to veterans, but to Nebiews it is very confusing.

I think following these simple rules will help keep more teachers enough to stick with Twitter.

In just a little over two weeks I will celebrate my one year anniversary on Twitter and the beginning of my PLN. This is one of those posts that I am writing more for myself. It is to remind me of why I invest so much time in my network. It is my small way of saying thank you to some of the people in my PLN. I wish I could thank everyone who has made an impact on me, but I don’t have enough room. If you are not on this list please do not think it does not mean you are not an integral part of my learning network. I am picking a few people that I have had some very memorable interactions with over the last year. This has been the best year of my teaching career and it is because of my PLN.

• mrplough07 You took so much time last spring and summer to make sure I got off to a good start. I could not have asked for a better mentor. I am glad you have returned to your PLN. (I am not sure if I have told you that yet, have I?)
• StonyRiver You have added a completely different perspective to my PLN. Your work in Australia is so inspiring. I enjoy getting the emails that you send and my students absolutely love hearing about you.
• woscholar For the last year you have given me great advice on a number of topics which has helped me make a solid case to bring change to my school. You have no idea how large your impact has been on my school.
• michellek107 and j_allen I have loved getting to know my colleagues from the central and eastern part of Nebraska. You guys have really taken the time to get to know me and include me in things like NETA. I cannot wait to meet you someday, Josh. Michelle and I get to meet Michelle next month.
• budtheteacher You moved to the top of my list of favorite people on Twitter when you tweeted about your quest to find fresh, hot doughnuts on your family trip last summer. That tweet stuck in my mind because it was one of the first noneducational updates that came across Twitter. (I had only been on for three weeks at that point.) You are the only person who stepped up and questioned the purpose of the Newbie to NECC project. Thank you for challenging me on that!
• karlfisch I was sitting in the Bloggers’ Cafe in San Antonio last year and someone asked me if I had seen Karl. I said “Who?” and they said “You know, Karl Fisch. The Shift Happens guy.” I could not believe that I was in the same location as one of the people who was responsible for that amazing presentation!  I was a little intimidated. I also wanted to tell you and Bud that the conference you put on in Colorado back in February let to some connections that have changed my life.
• a_dowling You have been part of my PLN for as long as I can remember. You seem to always know when I need a Starbucks and a hug! I cannot wait to meet you in a few weeks.
• kyteacher I feel like I already know you because we have so much in common. I am glad that we will finally get to meet in DC.
• npratt We met quite by chance last year. Who would have ever guessed that being interviewed by Pearson Learning would have helped create a friendship. Guess there is a silver lining in every cloud.
• bksmith, anschutzrm, marydobro You have all helped make this year the best year of my career so far. I cannot think of three people that I would rather work with everyday. I am so proud of all three you for finding your voice on Twitter.
• missmarista You have reminded me that not every teacher can be as open and honest with their students as I am. It seems like alt.ed. teachers have a lot of latitude. I am looking forward to following you on your journey to Dubai.
• TeachaKidd I have looked up to you ever since I started following you last year. You always share such useful information! (Like the pictures of your trainer!) On a serious note…if it were not for you the NECC Newbie project would not have been as successful as it was. Your connection to the great people at VoiceThread helped make the project a success.
• rmbyrne I am so glad that you believed in my crazy Newbie to NECC project enough to agree to be the focus of it. It took a lot of guts to trust me and believe in this project. THANK YOU!!! You and I have faced some of the same challenges this year and I am so excited to get to meet you in DC next month. In fact, I think there are a few people who are excited about meeting you next month!
• oswego98 It is hard to believe I talked to you on Twitter for 3 months before finding out your real name. I have learned so much from you since you became an active part of my PLN. And just think….I was supposed to be the one teaching you. Some mentor I turned out to be! The projects we have worked on collaboratively have convinced me that it is possible for people who are separated by distance to work together to share their knowledge and passion to come up with fantastic ideas. Your suggestions, ideas, and energy have helped me more than I can say.

These are just a few of the people who have been part of the amazing journey that I have taken this year. In hindsight I almost regret writing this because there are hundreds of people that I have learned from over the last year.  I just wanted to recognize a few people that have impacted me or my career. Thanks!

A few months ago I wrote a post about the meaning of the word friend. We tend to use the term so loosely and it has taken on an entirely new meaning in the world of social networking. It is evident to me now that true friendships can be formed with people that we have (and may possibly never) meet f2f. In fact, sometimes these bonds are even stronger than the ones we have with the people we work with everyday. Now that is a topic for another post!

About a year ago a young man named Mundo Munoz enrolled at the alternative school where I teach when his traditional school was not meeting his needs.  In the course of getting to know him I found out that he wanted to go into law enforcement.  I happen to have some connections in the law enforcement community. My husband, Kris Still,  is a deputy sheriff so I made arrangements for Mundo to interview him for a school project.  He was also able to interview Jason Perkins, the K-9 handler for the Scotts Bluff County Sheriff’s Department. Mundo’s genuine interest in law enforcement opened up an opportunity that high school students rarely get to experience; he was able to go on a 10 hour ride-along with my husband last summer. It was a great experience for both Mundo and my husband.

Mundo was one of those students that my husband and I both took an interest in. We could both see so much potential in him and we wanted to see him fulfil his dream of becoming a police officer. I thought Mundo was on the right track until he dropped a bomb on me in late September when he told me he was dropping out of school. I spent over an hour trying to convince him that he needed to stay in school and that he was throwing his life away. I have never broken down in front of a student, but I cried. I felt as if I had failed miserably as a teacher and mentor.  I was supposed to be able to make him change his mind. I was suppose to know exactly what to tell him to make him change his mind, but I couldn’t. In the end he walked out of my room and left town. He did what he felt was the right thing for him and as much as I disagreed with his decision I had to respect it.

He was just 10 English credits away from a high school diploma. My principal and our English teacher, Brenda Smith, agreed to let him finish the classes online. In the weeks after he left we tried to contact him, but without any success. The online classes remained unfinished and Mundo remained unreachable.

On February 10, I hosted a college planning night. I just happened to be on MySpace the night before. I hardly ever get on there! Something in the back of my head told me I needed to check my messages. I noticed Mundo was online at the same time so I sent him a short message asking how he was doing. That started a series of messages that went back and forth for about an hour. It turned out Mundo was miserable where he was living so he moved back to town. He was actually just blocks away from me! I told him about the college planning meeting that was going on the next night. He said he would be there. He worked with my husband for the entire evening and it paid off! Mundo was awarded the Western Nebraska Community College Board of Governors Scholarship, the WNCC Outstanding Leadership scholarship, and a third scholarship. The Board of Governors scholarship will pay his tuition for two full years!

Mundo will complete his two English classes at the end of this week and on Thursday he will officially graduate from high school. I cannot even begin to tell you how proud I am right now! I feel like my own son is graduating from high school!

Please feel free to leave some comments for this very special young man. He has a very bright future ahead of him.

*Mundo gave me permission to use his full name and photos.

We did it! What else can I say?

We are now thirteen days into the Send a Newbie to NECC project. I am pleased to announce that thanks the amazing generosity of several dozen amazing educators on Twitter, we have raised enough money to get Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) to NECC and pay for his registration to attend the conference. We have reached the half way mark, but we still need to get donations to offset Richard’s housing and meal expenses. This will be my last call for help on this blog. I am asking one last time for you to donate just one dollar to help with this project. Over the last two weeks thousands of people have read about this project, but relatively few have stepped up to the plate. As a government teacher I cannot help but compare this to the low voter turnout that we see in this country. People have gotten excited about this project much like they do about elections, but when the time comes to cast their vote, they fail to show up. Lots of people think to themselves, “It is only one vote. What difference can it possibly make?” I am speculating here, but I think people are not donating $1 at a time because it seems like such an insignificant amount of money. The ultimate goal of this project is to show how powerful we can be when we work together as a group by raising $1 dollar at a time.

According to the spreadsheet approximately 36 people have dontated to this project which makes the average donation $21. I would like to see hundreds of people donate $1 to knock that average way down. This should not be a burden to any one person. The intent behind this project was to come together as a collective group and unite to reach a common goal. We CAN do this if we work together. Not only do we need your pledge of $1, but we need you to tell everyone you know about this project. Use to power of your PLN to spread the word. Blog about it. Tweet about it. Do whatever you can to help get the word out. I would like to be able to announce no later than April 22 that we have reached the goal, but I have to have your help to do that!

Donations for the Send a Newbie to NECC project have been steadily coming in.  As of late last night we were closing in on $600. In order for this project to work we need help from as many people as we can reach. Only you have the power to make this project successful.

Many people have expressed concern about donating money online through PayPal. We completely understand this concern. If you want to participate, but do not want to share your information online please mail your donations directly to:

Richard Byrne
54 Top Hill Road
Naples, ME 04055

Remember that your contribution will not only help send Richard to NECC, it is helping show everyone how powerful our network can be if we all work together to reach a common goal. Together we can send a very strong message to those who continue to question the value of networking and wonder if our ties are truly valuable. I hope you will join us!

I want to thank everyone who has donated the the Send a Newbie to NECC project. With your help we are nearly 1/3 of the way to our goal. However, we still have a very long way to go. It is evident that people have supported this project due to the enormous number of times it has been retweeted on Twitter. The average donation has been $20! While it is fantastic to see that kinds of generosity that is not the intent of this experiment. The idea behind this project was to get 1500 people to donate $1. This would show the power of our PLN to pull together and work toward a common goal. I have watched the live feed on my blog as people take a look at the project, but then move on. My guess is that they don’t think that by donating $1 they are doing any good. One dollar seems so incredibly insignificant, but when it is added to a pool of money from hundreds of other people it does amount to something. The purpose of this experiment is to see if people think that they they can make a difference by contributing something small. By donating to this project you are telling the world that you believe you play an important role in your PLN. Each item and thought you share with your network is what makes it so strong.

Here is my challenge to you. Check your pockets, your sofa, and your car for loose change. Whatever you come up with round it up to the nearest dollar and donate it to this project. If you are apprehensive about using PayPal I will email or DM you instructions on where to send your donation.

I also need your help to spread the word about this project. Blog about it. Tweet about it. Join the cause on Facebook called Send a Newbie to NECC. If this message reaches enough people who are willing to invest $1 and 3 minutes then we will meet our goal. I know if we all come together we can do it!

Thank you again for believing enough in the power of your PLN to make this happen! By pulling together to work toward a common goal we are proving that we truly are a community.

Last year I was fortunate enough to be able to attend NECC for the first time. I barely had a half dozen people in my professional learning learning network (PLN) at the time, but by the end of the conference that number had grown to include a variety of people from around the country. Over the last nine months, I have created an amazing network that has taught me so much. In December I learned that my proposal to present a poster at NECC had been accepted. I started asking around to see who from my PLN was attending. The responses were disappointing. It soon became evident that many people were not going to be able to attend this year due to both personal and school budget constraints. I started feeling guilty because I was going to get to experience this amazing conference again. It hardly seemed fair that I was able to attend twice when there are so many people who have not ever attended once.

An idea for a project started to come together in my mind. I started wondering how much a PLN could accomplish if it came together to work toward a common goal.  What if we came together to help send one of our own to NECC? Would it be possible to get several hundred people to donate a few dollars each to help send a “newbie” to NECC? My PLN is by far the most powerful tool in my toolbox, but there are some who are still skeptical of the idea of the power of social networks. The purpose of this project is twofold. First, I want to see someone who truly deserves to go to NECC get to go. Second, I want to raise awareness about the benefits of professional networking. I want us to show all of the doubters out there that social networking tools can make a difference in education.

I shared this idea with a teacher in my PLN named Jason Schrage (@oswego98). With his help I decided that Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) was the “newbie” that I wanted to send to NECC. Richard is a Social Studies teacher in Maine who has worked tirelessly to help ensure his students and coworkers are able to work on a network that is as open as possible. He also maintains a blog called Free Tech 4 Teachers that recently won the 2008 Edublog Award for the  Best Resource Sharing Blog. Mr. Byrne is a top notch educator who invests countless hours in compiling resources for teachers in all subject areas. He is truly a selfless educator who deserves the chance to attend NECC. Richard is far from being a “newbie” when it comes to using technology in the classroom, but he has never attended NECC.

Richard has told me that he wants to share his experiences while he is in Washington DC. He will be blogging and updating on Twitter to keep everyone informed about what he is experiencing. I imagine he will probably be open to streaming video once in a while when he is able to do so. If you have any suggestions for how to share this special event with the folks who could not attend please leave a comment on this blog.

So what do you say? Are you willing to donate a few dollars to help one of our own? I also need your help to spread the word about this project. Please tag any tweets associated with this project with the hash tag #neccnewbie so we can track the conversation. The goal is to raise $1500. Please add your information to the spreadsheet. You do not have to add your information, but it would be great to see the names of everyone who helps with this very unique and special project.

Donations are being collected using PayPal which is a fast, easy, and secure way to send funds online. All donations will go directly to Richard’s PayPal account. In the unlikely event that we do not raise enough funds you can elect to have your donation sent back to you or allow Mr. Byrne to put the donations toward improving his classroom. You can mark your option on the spreadsheet.

(Please note that this is a private endeavor which is not associated or endorsed by ISTE or NECC. )

I have used Twitter for nine months now. During this time I have had some amazing conversations with people from all over the world. This map shows the location of the people I follow. I think it is safe to say that I have the “breadth” covered. The bulk of my “tweeple” are from the United States, Europe, and Australia, but I also follow people in South America, Africa, and Southwest Asia. Currently I follow about 275 people. Approximately 35 of the people I follow are my current students. I have gained an entirely new perspective of the world thanks to the ecelectic group of people I follow.

One of the most common complaints I hear about Twitter is that relationships that are deep and meaningful cannot be formed with people when you have superficial conversations in 140 characters of less. Well, you can’t! The depth does not necessarily come from the conversations that occur on Twitter. The deep connections come when we jump off of Twitter to continue conversations that are started on Twitter. Depth in a relationship comes from a true understanding of what makes a person tick. What better way to get to know someone than by reading their blog? Skype is also a great way to continue conversations that start on Twitter. Talking or chatting in a one-on-one space is a perfect way to achieve a level of depth that cannot be found on Twitter. Email is also a convenient way to continue conversations, especially when the person you are communicating with is in a completely different part of the world.

That brings me to another question that has come up recently. What do we call the people who are in our PLN? Are they colleagues? Are they acquaintances? Are they friends? According to TwitterAnalyzer these are my “Top 10″ friends:

At first glance I was really surprised by this graph. I never would have guessed that some of the people on here would be part of my “top ten” friends and there were people who I was sure would be on it who were not. Unfortunately, there was no explanation for how TwitterAnalyzer determines my top ten friends. From the looks of it I would say it is based on both direct and “@” messages. It is interesting to note that I have continued conversations outside of Twitter with eight out of these ten people. With two exceptions, all of the conversations have taken place in emails or on Skype. However, I have not had a voice or video conversation with anyone on my Top Ten list.

Is it possible to be friends with someone that you have never actually spoken with? I guess that depends on your depends on your definition of the word friend. I feel like some of the people I have connected with through Twitter are truly friends. We share our accomplishments, failures, and frustrations. We turn to each other because we “get” each other. Sometimes we are comfortable enough to share information about what is going on in our personal lives.  Like any friendship, the more that is shared the deeper the connection becomes.

I think it is obvious that a successful PLN is dependent on breadth, but is it necessary to have depth as well? Absolutely not, but the rewards that come from nurturing a few individual relationships is priceless. Over the last month I have had the chance to collaborate with one of the teachers in my PLN quite extensively—-probably way more than they want to! I am certain that I have gotten way more out of this relationship than I have given. If you are reading this and you have not yet taken the time to get to know someone from your PLN better, I highly recommend that you take the time to do so. It does mean investing not only time, but part of yourself, but the payoff is HUGE!