January 31

What I’ve Been Reading: January 2019

I LOVE BOOKS!  Sleep does not happen for me without absorbing at least a chapter of my newest literary find.  It is so important to find books that you love, and inspiring young people to continue reading later in life is one of my goals. To accomplish this, I want to share 2 “types” of book posts with you.

Stories Inside

Abraham Arthemius via Compfight

Monthly Reading List:

These posts will come out the end of each month, just to show you what I’ve read. I won’t be extensively reviewing these books on my blog, but you can definitely hop over to goodreads and see what I’ve said about them over there.  These will mostly be adult books, but I do really enjoy YA fiction and fantasy, so I’ll throw those in as well occasionally.

How do I pick my books?

I participate in the ATY Book Challenge, which stands for Around the Year Book Challenge.  It’s 52 categories of books, with the idea of reading one category each week.  This is a great way to try out some new things I might not have read otherwise.

Youth Book Reviews:

I like to keep up on books that will be interesting to the students I am (or will be) teaching, so I’ll try to sneak in an occasional book review for middle grade/young adult books as well.  These will be linked on the page Read, Review, Recommend as well so you can always look there for books you might want to check out!  Right now I have a couple of advanced reading copies that I am super excited to finish and share with you soon!

My January 2019 Reading List:

Juliet
it was ok
ATY Category: Book based on a Shakespeare play – Juliet was based on Romeo and Juliet.
The Lost Symbol
really liked it
ATY Category: Book with a criminal main character.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
liked it
ATY Category: Book featuring a historical character, in this case J. Edgar Hoover
Shanghai Girls
liked it
ATY Category: Book nominated for an award in your favorite genre – Historical Fiction
The Shining
really liked it
ATY Category: Book with an author or writer as the main character

So…what are you reading? Leave me a comment to let me know what books you’ve been hooked on lately so I can add them to my list!

January 28

Growing My PLN: Blogroll Building

218/365 : Depressed

Henti Smith via Compfight

This week has been a whirlwind of learning as I have thought about blogs, PLNs, twitter, and all of the things involved in a social media footprint. It’s been eye-opening and a bit overwhelming; however, I have had some fun making some new connections in the great wide world! I hope to share some of what I’ve learned through my own blog, starting with what I’m learning from others.

Blogs I’ve Discovered:

Most of these blogs were recommended to me by colleagues on Twitter on in response to my own post.  I’ve  spent some time perusing them and am excited to dive in deeper to each of these.

Made with Padlet

What other blogs for teachers or aspiring teachers do you recommend?

January 26

PLN – Learning How I Learn

Have you ever really sat down and thought about how you learn? Where do you get your information? What sources do you trust? Who do you talk to? Do you have a “go-to” team of collaborators?

PLN? What is That??

One of the classes I am enrolled in this semester is Educational Technology. Right away in the first week of class we were asked to begin thinking about and beginning to expand our PLN. My first question was “What in the world is a PLN?” As I soon learned, a PLN is a Personal (or Professional) Learning Network. A network of people, places, sources, etc. where you get ideas, learn new things, or just talk about what you are doing. Since I’m just getting started, I didn’t really think I had much of a PLN, until I sat down to make out a map of where I am at now. Here is what that map looks like:

I have a lot more branches on here than I thought I would for just starting out! Over the course of this semester, I am going to be working on expanding this map. I’ve been doing some thinking about where to expand and over the next few months.

What Now?

Here are my plans for the next few months

  1. Grow my Twitter account – I just started a twitter feed for my classroom.  Feel free to follow me @AngieBrand12
  2. Find and follow some great education themed blogs.  Have some suggestions? I’d love to know what blogs you find useful! Feel free to leave me a comment!
  3. Start my own blog and get some people interacting with me on here. That’s what you are reading right now!
  4. Find and subscribe to some great teaching podcasts. What podcasts do you listen to?
  5. Start filling up my Pinterest account with some ideas for my future classroom.

Your Thoughts:

What does your PLN look like? I would love to hear from other educators on what your favorite blogs and podcasts are – where do you go for information?