“If you are an administrator who wants to promote the effective use of technology in your school or district, you must provide valuable and ongoing training in not only how to use the tools, but how to implement them effectively into the curriculum” (Crompton, 2015). After reading about concepts related to excellence in professional practice, I can use some of the shared ideas to develop and share more robust communication with my school’s stakeholders. After completing the reading assignments for this week, I realized the importance of establishing a Personal Learning Network (PLN). According to Sheninger, “PLNs can be defined as collections of like-minded people with whom one exchanges information and engages in conversation” (2014, p. 118).

One of the first ways I will establish a PLN is using Twitter. Although I utilize Twitter now, I usually just post my students’ work from time to time. I haven’t used it to connect to other leaders or to grow professionally. I would also like to communicate more to my students and their families using Twitter. For example, I could tweet weekly assignments and due dates. I liked the suggestion of utilizing Google Docs to plan more collaboratively within my team. I am at the point of the year where I am brainstorming what I need to implement or change for the next school year. I like the idea of having our team meeting agendas on Google Docs so that my teammates are aware of our schedule and so that we are more efficient with our time. We could also use Google Docs to keep track of our home/school communication with parents and to keep track of what days students stay after school for help.

I could transform some less effective or inefficient forms of communication through the use of digital tools. “To strengthen home/school connections, she began communicating with parents frequently through the use of a school blog and Facebook page, replacing traditional paper newsletters that did not allow for two-way communication” (Sheninger, 2014, p. 121). I like the idea of allowing parents to comment or ask questions about my posts rather than simply read them. I am excited to implement new communication tools in my classroom. “With the empowerment of digital leadership, leaders no longer attempt to find the time to learn and get better, but make the time to learn and get better” (Sheninger, 2014, p. 131).

References

Crompton, H. January, 2015. Know the ISTE Standards for Administrators: What does the research say? Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=264

Sheninger, E. (2014. Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.