PLN: So personal, so full of learning. No really, I mean it!

I joined the personal learning network English Companion, englishcompanion.ning.com, one of the PLNs that our instructor, Mr. BeckSfort (I made a typo and left out the S in his name the other day in something I wrote and he called me on it) in his infinite wisdom showed us in class. It's great for me. Even though I do not have immediate curricular needs, my teaching partner and I will be looking for a new play for our ninth graders next school year, and this PLN seems like a useful venue for seeking out good ideas. I even commented on someone else's post earlier today, offering up some ideas for non-fiction works that 9th grade English students might enjoy.

I love the PLN concept -- it is relevant, low-key (or at least can be if we wish for it to be), and useful.

By the way, you, too, should read Mark Salzman's Iron and Silk, the non-fiction work I recommended. While you're at it, read The Laughing Sutra, a fictional novel by the same author. I'll tell you in the fall what our students think of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, The Glass Castle, and The Other Wes Moore.