Prior to the course beginning I only belonged to a single professional community, TESL Ontario. Now having come to the of this course, I have become involved in a number of communities and have already gained some valuable insight, as well as been able to share my own knowledge and help others.
As a teacher in an International School, all teachers on staff are part of this organization and last year I attended their conference. It was not as meaningful or engaging for me as it could have been. Many of the workshops, and information was structured towards the teaching of adults English not high school.
New organization I just joined since beginning the course. I found it while I was looking for professional communities to join for our project. I will also be attending the conference on Nov. 16-17, 2017. I am very much looking forward to the workshops, as many of them involve both history and technology.
This community is actually a Facebook group where teachers can engage with each other, ask for ideas, advice, or recommendations. I have asked several questions to the group, and have replied to a variety of questions that other members are asking. I also have found resources and ideas that I am currently using in my practice. I would highly recommend any teacher in Ontario to use this one.
I now officially have a professional Twitter account! I have dabbled with a personal one, but I now have a strictly teaching account and I am following a whole slew of professional communities on Twitter. Sharing and communicating resources all over. I has been a great discovery, I never know just how many were out there.
Teach Ontario was the initial online community I joined, optimistic about engaging with others. However, despite my 3 posts on various boards I did not get any feedback or engagement. Many of the boards had posts dating back a couple of years, and that was the last of the engagement it had seen. I was disappointed by this but, I was able to find a new space to engage with, so I chalked it up to a learning experience and moved on from it.