Twitterpated

About a year and a half ago my district and a few innovative colleagues introduced me to Twitter for educators, and now I'm twitterpated. As a Xennial, I grew up prior to social media. MySpace was cute for my freshman and sophomore year of college, and Facebook was just inviting me into its realm as I entered my junior year of undergrad. Thus, I kept mostly to Facebook as I graduated, and I behaved as an intelligent professional and joined LinkedIn as recommended. I managed to behave on all these new tools, unlike some of my fellow Xennials who fell victim to the newness of social media, and its ability to share with the world every misstep they may have taken before graduation. Because of watching fellow undergrad educators make so many missteps, I was cautious of utilizing social media much at all as a teacher. I don't friend kids. I don't friend parents. I don't friend people are aren't friends. That's Facebook for you - a great way to connect and live in constant anxiety and paranoia. 

Twitter seemed rather silly to me. The idea that I'd tweet out my day-to-day business in 140 characters or less seemed trite and, well, boring. Nobody else is going to be excited about my cup of coffee at 4:30AM before school starts. What I did not realize was that people were using Twitter professionally as educators (not just as crazy movie stars or politicians looking for the most retweets). What I found after I was poked and prodded and told to join twitter by three or four fellow educators in crime was that Twitter is one of the best locals for networking and connecting with what I'd like to call "Star-Power Educational Leaders." Like that book you just read on Close Reading? Innovation? Maker-Spaces? - The author is on Twitter, and not just as a pretty picture with three tweets over a lifetime. Chances are, that individual is tweeting, interacting, reacting, and re-tweeting. They're creating a presence and they're connecting with their readers. They didn't just publish a great book for you to read; they're spurring and engaging in professional development with teachers right now online on Twitter (and possibly through a blog or a podcast).

And while finding your favorite author and educational leader on Twitter might be exciting enough, that's just the beginning. Twitter is a great place to go for bite-sized PD. Once you follow some of your favorite professionals, you find they recommend others to follow, and before you know it, you're following 100 or more other educators who are tweeting great ideas. You find links to save or read while you're waiting in line at the grocery story or to have your teeth cleaned. As you start to see what everyone else is tweeting, you start to see how you can contribute and maybe, just maybe, you tweet an idea or retweet someone else's idea, then people follow you because you too are an idea person. You can find some great suggestions on the purpose and reasons to use Twitter from George Couros's blog here. He is an idea person who might make you an idea person. 

And once more people are following you, you might find Twitter chats where people share all sorts of ideas about tech in education or the latest reading strategies or how to inspire leaders or how to use maker-spaces or how to integrate alternative seating in your classroom. In essence... it works like this:

Yes, it has the potential to get out of control and become overwhelming. It starts, however, by just creating one account and following a few interesting people. You don't have to tweet anything, ever. Nobody will scold you for your silence, but you might, just might, find yourself engaged in spite of yourself.

If you're nervous about Twitter as an educator, it is perfectly normal. Most educators been warned out of social media for at least ten years, and kept away from a very important tool in our learning. There are ways to overcome that social media fear, however.  Teacher2Teacher tweeted a great blog post that is worth checking out. Kara Welty breaks it down into Ten Twitter Tips for Educators which may make it a little less daunting. 

Before you know it, you may be a little Twitter-Pated too. 

#twitter #socialmedia #networking #PLN