Backstory for my PLN Title

Its been a good while since I taught full-time in the classroom.  I’ve still spent lots of time working in primary and Prep classrooms – just not as the classroom teacher. I had been tossing up whether or not to “go back” since my 3 kids were now in Upper Primary and Secondary.

Some time last year, whilst working part-time in a Prep Unit in the capacity of Learning Support Assistant- a role I loved, the teacher asked me to take a small group and do an activity with them using the Interactive Smartboard. But the Smartboard didn’t want to play. After clicking a few keys on the laptop,  flicking a few buttons and switches, and wriggling cords…still no action from the Smartboard. One of the 5 year old boys in the group, who was just short of turning 6 (establishing credibility here), looked solemnly at me – and at quite close range as 5 yr olds tend to do – and said “You know Mrs. T…. I think its time you recalibrated your smartboard.”

We blinked silently at each other for a few moments. Him, waiting for me to fix the darn smartboard  I’m guessing, and me…..well, I was plunged into an existential crisis that rocked me to my very core.

He was right.

I DID need to recalibrate my smartboard.

And so, by the end of that month, I had applied to and received acceptance into Uni to upgrade my teaching degree to qualify for full registration once again. And now, here I am generating my first PLN – which I have titled in honour of the 5 (almost 6) yr old boy who helped me make the jump into recalibrating my smartboard.