June was a fabulous month for me. In the span of three days I had the privilege of  meeting  the original Newbie, Richard Byrne and then announcing  the new Newbie for 2010, Jason Schrage. For those of you who have followed the Newbie Project since last April you know the focus of the two projects is very different, yet the end goal is still the same. The goal is for our PLN to  raise enough funds to send one teacher to the ISTE conference which will be in Denver, Colorado this summer. It is early in the year, but we have a lot of money that we need to raise.

When I first came up with the idea for this project I intended for it to be a one time experiment to test the power of our network. However,  its popularity continued to grow and it seemed as if people wanted to see it become an annual event. It never would have been successful had it not been for the support of my PLN. You came through for Richard last year and now I need you to throw your support behind Jason. Please take a few moments to give a monetary donation to help send Jason to Denver. Both Jason and I have a donation button on the sidebar of our blogs. We would also appreciate you leaving your information on the spreadsheet, but that is entirely up to you.

Let’s unite once again to make this project a HUGE success. I cannot think of a better way to start the new school year than by coming together to support such a great teacher who is going to share so much with his PLN this year. We reached our goal in exactly two weeks last year. Can we do it just as quickly this time around? I think we can!

We would also appreciate it if you could help spread the word about the Newbie Project either on Twitter or by linking to one or both of our blogs. This project will not be successful unless it is pushed by our PLN and amplified over and over again.

Have you ever met someone and you just instantly knew that they were someone that you going to like? I had that experience today. I went down the hall to visit with my coworker Brenda Smith about WallWisher and she introduced me to a teacher named Angie Shaw (@krazydandelion).  While I was visiting with Angie she told me that she had a class blog. WHAT? Really? You mean there is another teacher in the Panhandle of Western Nebraska who has a class blog? (At this point in time you could have knocked me over with a feather!)  During  the course of our conversation I also found out that she has a Flickr account and has an  excellent background in tons of Web 2.0 tools.  The more I talked to her the more of myself I saw in her. I was so excited to see someone else in my town who has taken the initiative to learn about technology. She is anxious to share her knowledge with others.  I hope that you will follow her and welcome her into our PLN.  I am certainly looking forward to getting to know her better.

How exactly do you give a PLN to someone? Several suggestions have been made today, but the one you pick depends on your relationship with your administrator.  Instead of signing up for a Twitter account for them I am going to offer to help them set up one up. I will have a profile picture of them ready to go  and I will have some suggestions for their biography.  I will also show them how to manage and share the information that they find valuable so they can become an asset to their PLN.

I have created this list of 50 educators with my two administrators in mind.  I have chosen these educators based on how much I think my administrators will get out of following them.  I have selected a mix of teachers, administrators, professors, educational technologists, and journalists.  So here they are in no particular order:

• karlfisch
• kdumont
• shareski
• mwesch
• mguhlin
• chrislehmann
• hdiblasi
• isteconnects
• kjarrett
• LarryFerlazzo
• jwindsor
• budtheteacher
• teach42
• MikeGras
• oswego98
• Edu4U
• lkolb
• AngelaMaiers
• ddrapper
• bbarreda
• plnaugle
• jutecht
• dstall
• SuzanneWhistler
• ScottElia
• watcanz
• wfryer
• rmbyrne
• mcleod
• kellyhines
• timlauer
• woscholar
• pgeorge
• Astro_Mike
• principalspage
• canyonsdave
• garystager
• Web20Classroom
• tomwhitby
• paulrwood
• lthumann
• courosa
• rickweinberg
• HallDavidson
• edutopia
• bengrey
• dianafingal
• WendyDrexler
• teachakidd
• bethstill (You didn’t think I’d forget to add myself, did you?)

Yesterday, this tweet from Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby) caught my attention.

whitby tweet

What a simple, yet powerful idea! I was finally able to get all of the teachers at my building to use Twitter, but I never could win over my administrators.  I am going to go build each of them an account this morning.  I think we all need to remember that the reason so many people quit Twitter is because they don’t see any value in it. Why? My guess is that they are simply not following the right people. The “right” people will differ for everyone.  If you are anything like me you have been building your PLN for a very long time and it is constantly changing. I invest a lot of time in my PLN because I know how much I will gain from it,  but how many administrators do you know of who have the time to spend months establishing a solid PLN?

My strategy? I am going to work backwards through the list of people I follow. Why backwards? Because those are the people who I have been following for the longest and I know the most about. I will list the people I have picked on a blog post later as well as a brief explanation of why I picked them. I hope lots of people take Tom’s advice and do this for their administrators. I would advise being very careful when creating their account that you keep it private and you let them fill out their profile. This account might become a large part of their digital identity. They deserve to be the ones to write up the information about them that appears in public. However, I fully plan on “pimping” my principal’s page. He is an avid golfer so I have some ideas of what to do for his background.

Would you like to be added to my list or do you have any suggestions for who should be added to the list? If you do please leave a comment.

I work up to the realization today that my summer is quickly coming to an end. I go back to school in two short weeks. I am sure the time will fly by, but I am OK with that. This year I am so excited to get back to school for so many reasons. I miss my coworkers and my students. Most of all I miss my routine!

The vast majority of you who are reading this post already know about the ISTE Newbie project. The project has a new face and a new goal this year. Last year so many of you supported the project because you were familiar with Richard Byrne, author of FreeTech4Teachers. This year Jason Schrage (@oswego98 on Twitter) will be blogging about his experiences as a classroom teacher. I hope that teachers who are new are apprehensive about using technology or who are simply new to the conversation will read his blog. The inherent problem of targeting this audience is that they are NOT on Twitter. I am counting on all of you in my PLN to help spread the word about this project in your district. As you go back to work please tell people about this project. Please subscribe to his blog and add the Newbie badge to your blog. I have also created some business cards that you can print and share.

Please share your suggestions on how to promote this project. While you are at it make sure you join the ISTE Newbie support group on the Classroom 2.0 Ning.