task 3a- the networked professional

So networking for me in my line of profession can play a major part in sharing ideas and experiances with one another.
I have recently joined a web site called TES
 http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6000208&navCode=285
This is a website for teachers what are either looking for new jobs, resources or to share things that they have done in their classrooms. They have a forum on the website that is very useful for people within education to share concerns, things that work, different techniques ect.
Everyday we are networking, wether it be by using the internet, talking to someone or sharing something with a friend.
My understanding of networking is all about "who you know, not what u know".
For example i was talking to one of the teachers about the play scheme that i do during the school holidays and that it is run by the Enfield councils Play developmet team. She mentioned that her husband teaches basket ball to children in the brough and was looking to do sessions with kids in the holidays but didnt no where to start. I told her that the council is always looking out for new things for the children to do, especially if it is at a reasonable price but still good quality teaching. I told her about the Play development and the sports development team within the council that may be interested in something like that so she sent them an email. So far i dont no if she has had a reply but what im explaining is that by this quick 5-10minute converstation could be the start of a whole network of connections for this teachers husband.

For many practitioners they use networking as a form to showing their creations of work, most of them being social networking. Many times i have seen people using facebook as a form of networking. People can invite people to a production that they have put on in their unvirsitys or college. Only today my friend who is studying graphics in southampton posted a picture of the magazine that she has to create for her final project on facebook. Within the hour she had over 20 comments and 43 likes.
 It can take that one photo or one video to make someone successful in their chosen profession, like i have said in previous blogs about the likes of ed sheeran and justin bieber becoming world famous over night, is all because it took one person to see their video on YOUTUBE and for them to then tell a friend who tells a friend who then posted one of the videos on facebook, then for someone to comment about it on twitter which then leads to more follows and so on.
Its the same if someone was to take a workshop that they created into one school, more than likely someone from that school will tell someone a mum who tells a teacher, the teacher then passes this on then before you know it the person is being mentioned on a teaching forum for their workshop and they could end up taking it all over the country.

Again i go back to sayings that have been around for years, "word of mouth" can be so critical in making practitioners successful in their chosen profession. no matter how big or small, all sense of networking counts towards this.