Day 22: Who's in the Network?

Oh, the joy of learning new acronyms. Today's post is about our PLN--professional and personal learning network--essentially the colleagues, friends, and family who we collaborate with!

I mentioned before that I love my colleagues. Some I'm close friends with, and I steal great ideas from virtually everyone I come in contact with. Recognizing and incorporating a good idea into my own curriculum is one of my talents, really! I highly recommend it :-)

In no particular order, here are some of the folks who are in the PLN:

• A dean who inspires us to think outside the box and ensure that what we want our students to learn is meaningful and that our classrooms are conducted in a most egalitarian way

• A friend who inspires incredible amounts of self-reflection and the need to think from the student perspective 
• An instructor who is willing to "be the bad guy" and hold her students to a very high standard (and who expects no less than the best of herself, either) 
•  A passionate teacher who is a self-proclaimed "staff development junkie," so full of great ideas for me to adopt
• A vivacious poet and teacher who inspires me to achieve more balance and reassures me that taking time for myself will not result in a poor job in the classroom 
• A husband who reminds me on the daily what it is like to be a student and how a compassionate teacher can support them
• Former students who follow me on Facebook and give me feedback on how to teach, whether they realize it or not

 These are just a handful of the folks I get to work with every day. I hope everyone has a fab PLN no matter what they do with their days!