January 4th, 2014
When I set up my blog on December 31st, 2013 I had no idea that I would be inspired to write another blog 4 days later. However, after participating in #satchat this morning I just HAD to blog! I am in awe of all the educators that came together on a Saturday morning to share their craft. It was such a positive experience that you couldn't feel anything but inspired. The moderators: Scott Rocco (@scottrocco), Brad Currie (@bradcurrie5) and Dave Burgess (@burgessdave) took amazing to a whole new level.
I am so excited to be a part of this twitter community. I "joined" on October 13, 2013 and have loved every moment since. I've read great articles, got ideas from teachers around the country, and shared my excitement of twitter with my 4th grade class. "Hey kids, check out this video I saw on twitter last night!" "Boys and girls tell me what you think this quote means." Their response now when I show them something new is, "Mrs. Jones, did you find that on twitter?" This is me, smiling! :)
The feeling I get from participating in a chat (#satchat, #tlap, #IAedchat) is unreal! It still amazes me how fast and furious the information starts coming at you in a chat, but once you start becoming a player, and not a spectator, the feedback you get is awesome! I love it! And now I want other people to love it and feel the joy of the excitement of twitter! This is my 25th year of teaching and this year, more than ever, I feel so re-energized and excited to try new things and it's all because of the power of twitter. It would only be appropriate to give a shout-out here to Jay Posick (@posickj), my principal, who introduced me to twitter in the first place. Jay also started our staff book club with Dave Burgess's book "Teach Like A Pirate" which also changed my life! See what I mean? This is all amazing stuff!
My excitement for twitter is full throttle, 100%...so of course, I want to share my enthusiasm for twitter with our staff. Once a month we have a "PLAY-date" (PLAY = Professional Learning and You) where staff can choose to go to different "sessions" put on by fellow staff members (think edcamp). Our TILT committee (Teachers Integrating Learning Today), which I am a part of, generates a list of topics and people sign up to teach them! I'm excited to present twitter and we'll see how things go on January 22nd. I want others to see the value of being a connected educator. Sometimes I think, "How can you NOT be a connected educator?" The hard part is dodging all of the negative Nellie's out there who question my passion. I try not to focus on them, but it's not easy. I had one staff member tell me just this week (while I was laminating a quote I found on twitter) "Oh, Heidi, you went to the dark side." Ugh! So, I will just heed my principal's advice and "Keep on, keeping on!"
Stay tuned for the results of my presentation...
Thank you for reading.
