Would you say I have a plethora of Twitter posts?

92. Reach 1000 tweets on my Twitter account
34. Participate in #edchat at least twice a month

My uncle and my mother both started using Twitter pretty early on, and I used to tease them mercilessly about it.  They would keep track of companies, podcasters and celebrities, and use it as an alternative means of text-messaging each other.  I couldn’t figure out why you’d use it when you could use Facebook notifications to tell people what you were doing, along with all the other awesomeness that you could get from Facebook.  I never saw the point of it.  That’s why I had considered it a challenge, to use Twitter 1000 times seemed like a lot to me when I wrote this list.

That is until my coworker Brian told me about #edchat, an hour where teachers got together to talk about the topic du jour relating to education, whether it was assessments, learning styles, professional development, 21st century skills…you name it.  I followed the conversation one evening, just to see what people were saying, how people were expressing themselves in such a text-limited format, how back and forth discussion was handled, just trying to get the lay of the land.  I was amazed – passionate teachers being passionate about education!  On their own time! Using social media!  I knew this was a group of professionals I would want to get involved with and learn from.  The next week, I threw out a statement or two, hoping to gauge response…and people started answering!  People smarter and way more-savvy than me, interested in what I had to say!  I don’t remember the first time one of my Tweets got retweeted, but I remember doing the happy dance I was so pumped up to be contributing something worthwhile to the conversation.

The other amazing thing to me was that as I was picking and choosing people to follow, they were following me back and adding me to their network, in the hopes that maybe I’d have some knowledge that I could share with them.  Not only was I following some pretty amazing people, but I also started following their blogs and reading what they had to say in a format that went beyond 140 characters.  I now have a blog list of about 20 that I keep tabs on, and I pick up something new everyday from my professional learning network (or PLN, as those in the know like to say).  It’s no surprise that I look forward to Tuesday nights, nor a shocker that I blew through 1000 Twitter posts so quickly.  Whether its a link to a resource, or a new blog post, or a conversation, I find I’ve improved as an educator simply through my involvement with such amazing and passionate professionals, and hope to try my best to give back as much as they’ve given to me!

I should note the irony that my 1000th tweet, which occurred on 5/17/10, was one linking to this blog!