Just 15 Minutes A Day

Did you know that according to David Jakes it only takes 15 minutes a day to learn something new? Certainly makes you think of everything you could try and squeeze into those precious minutes. We educators are constantly trying to find any extra minute we can for teaching, planning (and in my case, exercising, dinner, and so on). So the idea of just 15 minutes a day made me think about all of these new resources we are discovering through this course and how we can make the most of them (in a relatively short period of time).
I read "Grow Your Personal Learning Network" by: David Warlick. The is a great article if you want a quick overview from an educators perspective on how to establish yourself in a PLN. I enjoyed some of the more practical tips and let's face it, that's what most educators make a beeline for anyway! All of these online resources are certainly enough to put you straight into "information overload" as Warlick calls it. How true!! But if you scan down to his "Keep It Simple" list, it really seems to put it all in perspective. I appreciate reading that many blogs out there for educators are screened out by discerning people to remove some of the leg work of searching for hours. If you create a PLN, you can prioritize and find what works best for you at the time. Planning a unit takes on a whole new meaning when you have a network of educators helping one another with the very topic you are designing. This is just one of the tips Warlick offers. I did have to laugh at his advice for actually stepping away from the computer to go for a walk and socialize face to face. I think THAT should take more than fifteen minutes a day!