I've got a question for you: how many staffrooms should a teacher have? One or two?
Now, you may think that this is a weird question.
Well, I will explain.
The main part of the profession of a teacher takes of course place in the classroom with the pupils
but as a teacher, you are also part of the school as an organisation.
You will interact with colleagues in the staffroom and discuss your teaching practice.
You will probably connect to senior teachers who will be your mentors.
You will learn from the experience of colleagues
and eventually, you will also inspire other teachers.
Next to the staffroom in their own school,
networked teachers of the 21st century also have a second staffroom.
It is in fact a virtual staffroom you create for yourself.
It is a group of teachers working in other schools,
or other people and organisations working in the educational sector.
This second staffroom we call PLN, or Personal and Professional Network.
It is Personal because you decide yourself who is part of your network
and Professional as well, as the interaction is related to learning and to the job of a teacher.
So a PLN is a group of people you connect to and this happens in most cases on social media.
On social media you can follow interesting people or organisations and learn from them.
In many cases, we just enjoy and use the ideas of other teachers who share them on internet.
When you grow as a teacher, you will start sharing your ideas and resources as well
and become more interactive and productive.
How do you get started to build your second staffroom?
Where you find interesting colleagues?
Well, you may find them here in this course for a start.
Taking a course, be it online or on-site, connects you to like-minded teachers.
There are indeed many learning opportunities for teachers.
You have MOOCs, Webinars but also face-to-face trainings and conferences.
You can follow or keep in touch with some of the fellow participants to these events
and consider them as part of your Personal Learning Network.
In many countries, you have organised networks for teachers you can be part of
but it is maybe even more interesting to join international networks.
eTwinning for instance is a network for European teachers with more than half a million members.
It offers lots of opportunities for learning and sharing
not only for collaboration with your students but also for your personal development.
Also some big industry players have set up communities for educators.
The Microsoft Education network for instance is a global network for teachers
where you can learn and share.
Social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.
give you the opportunity to reach out to almost anyone in the world.
On these internet services, you find ways to find profiles of inspiring people.
You can start from hashtags or become part of dedicated groups.
You can take part in social media events like streamed Webinars or Twitterchats.
Another way to get in touch with inspiring educators
is through social bookmarking and curating services like Pinterest, Pearltrees, Diigo, etc.
With these social internet tools, anyone can collect and share interesting resources.
In the end, you will see the same names of educators and organisations coming back
when being active online and you will have the feeling they are part of your second staffroom.
The attitude of sharing starts at your own school.
Don't close the classroom doors for your colleagues.
Discuss your classroom practice and experiences.
At the same time, try to connect to a network of teachers outside your school.
Teachers of the 21st century are lifelong learners and they learn from their peers in networks.
Teachers of the 21st century also share: they store their knowledge in friends.