Take 2

I publicly announced at the Liberty LEADs Conference that I would begin blogging in 5 days.  Well I didn't make the 5 day challenge, but I am within the week, so that has to count.

So I get on my Blogger account and noticed the last time I blogged was over a year ago.  This of course was when I was still a science teacher.  So right now it appears, I also need to come up with a new name for my blog and possibly a new URL.  I almost let that stop me from writing my first blog for this year, but knew that was something that should not stop me.  I'll worry about the name later.  Feel free to send me any suggestions you might have.

Last week's Liberty Leads Conference was an eye opener for me and for many of my co-works.  I would say what has discussed at this conference has come up in conversation at nearly every meeting I've been in.  Which is awesome, because I was worried how their message would spread to others in the district.

I left the conference with many thoughts, but there are a couple topics that keep coming to my mind;  The power of Twitter/Social Media, Traditional Learning Vs. Modern Learning.

I've had a Twitter account for a number of years, but it tends to only be used when I go to conferences or some evenings when I have exhausted all my other social media avenues.  Twitter is definitely overwhelming and somewhat intimidating.  The amount of information that comes at me is overwhelming.  I am now have accepted that I will probably miss something, but I have also learned the power of hashtags.  I also get stuck when it comes to tweeting that, no one cares what I have to say or other tweets sound much more intelligent than what I would post.  In my head, I often think, "I could tweet that."  I just need to get in the habit of tweeting.

It's a little things, but a tweet that I posted during the conference was retweeted a number of times.

It showed me that my PLN is started to go beyond the a small group of co-workers.  I look forward to building my PLN throughout the year and who knows maybe more Tweets will be retweeted.

The other thing that got my attention what the power of Twitter.  Check out these stats from the #lpsleads during the Liberty Leads Conference.

We had 223 users posting to Twitter about the conference, but look at how many potential people were reached 395,344.  I don't have a map of this, but I can almost guess that this group of people extends from the West coast to the East coast with some of these people being International as well.  With the power of Twitter your conference is never confined to the conference location, it is now an International Conference!

Now this finally brings everything together.  What impact could Twitter have in the classroom? One would think that your classroom would now be open to the world.  Now your students have a global learning experience rather than what just occurs within the 4 walls.  I am excited to work with teachers through this experience.  Guaranteed to be some challenges, but I am confident it can be done.

The year is off to a great start!  The energy is starting to build with the start of a new year.  I look forward to riding this wave that I hope continues throughout the entire school year!