Choose two professional connections you have in your map. Evaluate their impact on your practice and professional community.
I have mentioned it several times in this blog already, so it is probably no surprise that the first connection that comes to mind for me is Twitter. I may well be coming across as a stuck record, but I cannot emphasise enough the impact that Twitter is having on my practice. I had signed up for it a long time ago and never really 'got' it. In fact I was quite disdainful about the site and saw it as full of mindless celebrity shenanigans. However after going to 2 or 3 professional development sessions in a row whose main message seemed to be "Get on Twitter!" (even though they were about unrelated topics) I started to realise the professional potential. I created my account from scratch as purely education related (with a wee dash of wildlife and conservation) and started to see some exciting things pop up in my feed. However it wasn't until Mind Lab and getting my head around scheduled chats that my interest really took off. I now try and participate in various chats as often as possible. It is so exciting to engage with like-minded professionals who share, advise and inspire. I get all sorts of ideas for my practice and am kept up to date with exciting things happening in education. This has had a huge impact on me as an individual, but I also try and share regularly with my school community and am encouraging everyone to get on there themselves!
The other connection I have forged in recent months which has had a significant impact for me is my Mind Lab cohort. While I have learnt an amazing amount from the course content, probably the most valuable thing for me about the course has been the time spent sharing, collaborating and engaging with other professionals as excited about new things as I am. We are absolutely spoilt with the global connections available to us through the internet, however there is nothing quite like face to face and the weekly sessions in the first half of this course were some of the most inspiring hours I've spent during my education career. Now that we are not able to catch up in person so regularly, however, I am very glad this connection has extended online with the Google + community and contact I have with my particular group I got to know in the course. I am blessed with an awesome bunch of colleagues at my own school, however to now be able to reach beyond that and find out what others are doing in other contexts is having a profound impact on my own teaching and learning.
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