Twitter as Professional Development

In filling out the awesome PA state teacher application on pareap.net, I had to change my essay since it was out of date. I chose to write about how I use Twitter as a form of professional development. Hopefully my choice isn't too avant-garde for some schools. Will it get me hired for thinking outside of the box? Stay tuned!

ps- feel free to provide any feedback

The Importance of Continuing Professional Development and how I Plan to Incorporate it Throughout My Career

Teachers are life-long learners who want to educate and create a whole new generation of life-long learners. In order to do this, we need to stay on top of the current trends in education and how to incorporate these ideas in the classroom. Luckily, I have found the greatest resource in continuing my professional development.

Social networks and web 2.0 are very popular today. Everyone is familiar with Facebook and now the new talk is about Twitter. Some people have never even heard about it, and if they have, don’t understand it, or know how it works. Twitter is basically like Facebook, but with “status updates” that are limited to 140 characters. However, the difference, I believe, is that Twitter is more of a conversation, compared to posting about what you are doing. There is also a special “language” of acronyms, @ signs and hash tags that are used in most posts.

Understanding Twitter has lead me to a wealth of information that I could not have possibly learned anywhere else. Through this I have created a Personal Learning Network (PLN) of hundreds of professional educators. They range in all different specialities such as teachers, administrators, librarians, service providers, etc. from all over the world.

Everyone has all been to stale in-services where a presenter is trying to sell their latest product or boring staff meetings where few participate, and if they do, it’s to complain. Some examples of what I converse with my PLN on Twitter, are positive conversations about how we can do our jobs better, help with trouble in the classroom, our sharing websites about the latest news in the world of education.

Also, each week there are different chat sessions that exist on Twitter which cater to all fields of education. A topic is presented and people from all of the world offer their views and pro-active strategies to accomplish a common goal: how to better serve our students. I have participated in chats for special education, general education, new teachers, and English teachers to name a few.

This new style of professional development is more beneficial for me than staff meetings or in-services. First is because it is geared towards my interests and motivating for me. Second is the convenience. I set aside about 30-60 minutes each day to check Twitter. This can be done in the morning before work, when I get home, or even laying in bed. I see no end in this new type of learning and look forward to see how it progresses and grows. My PLN and Twitter will unquestionably make me a better teacher and life-long learner. Now, if only I was able to earn Act 48 credits!

My New Title

While on Christmas break, I got hooked on many marathon viewings of Locked Up on MSNBC. It's an excellent show that documents prison life. One night they were profiling a juvenile detention center called Lake County Juvenile Complex in Indiana.

There was one story that focused on an inmate/teenager/student who was back in court after being arrested on drug possession charges. It was his second time in the center for various illegal activities. This time though, he was making progress with his life; he removed his gang tattoos, went back to school and was passing to become an electrician, making tremendous progress in his weekly therapy sessions for anger management, and also had a second child on the way and promised to be a better father.

During the court session, the prosecutor kept bringing up the negative issues associated with this inmate/teenager/student, while the defendant was pleading his case in all the positive contributions he has been making. The court ruled that he was making progress with his life and he needs that to continue and therefore didn't need to have a longer stay at the detention center. After the ruling, the inmate/teenager/student erupted in tears of joy.

I like to think of myself as not only a teacher, but a tutor, counselor, advocate, parent and friend. Now I can add defendant to that list. Without the defendant pleading for this inmate/teenager/student, there is no way he would be free. I think some teachers are always pointing out the negative such as not showing up to class, not doing homework, etc. We need more defendants pointing out the positives in our students' lives. It's the only way some of them have a chance to succeed.

I run a school-wide positive behavior support plan and you'd be surprised the amount of teacher reluctance in participating in the program. There are many ways to support your students. A simple "Hello" and "How was your weekend?", if said sincerely, can welcome a student in your class and be that positive support they desire. Let's all be defendants and promote our students to be the best possible citizens they can be. We don't want to see them on the next episode of "Locked Up".
---------------
Here is Rodrick: the student mentioned in this post

Merry Christmas! Or is it?

It's hard not to get in the holiday spirit; the presents, lights, family, food and of course the break from school.  Or is it hard to get in the holiday spirit?  Today I saw that first hand. 

I had a student in a grumpy mood.  Everyone is smiling and cheerful that today is the last day of school because of Christmas break.  My student wasn't.  After giving him some time to be with himself and get some sort of control with his emotions, I was able to talk to him to see what's up.  He told me, "everyone is in a good mood, but some of us have family problems." I find out that today is the second anniversary of his brother committing suicide.  Whoa!  How do I handle this?

This student isn't stable to begin with, but all he wanted to do was talk.  I didn't have the best information for him, but I was able to listen.  Sometimes that's all our students want.  They need someone to trust.  Someone they can talk to.  Someone they can confide in.  After our little chat, he wished me a Merry Christmas. 

Teaching isn't always about the x's and o's.  It's about building relationships.  In my opinion, that's the most important aspect of school.  Learning will occur, both easily and naturally, when that relationship is made.

It's so easy a caveman can do it

It's so easy to blog. It's easy to set up a PLN. Its easy to tweet. Its easy to set up your own website. Its easy to do this. It's easy to do that. As a special education teacher, the one thing I learned getting my masters degree was to never tell a student something is easy to do.

Think about it. It makes sense. If you tell a student something is easy to do, they will already have this notion as a failure if its not easy for them, plus the anxiety of the added pressure to learn something "easy". That's the last thing we want to do to our students.

This is never more true as I'm learning the ropes of blogging and tweeting. I've been lurking around the social sites for a couple of months now and have been very over-whelmed with the abundant amount of information. As i thought of my first blog topic, i found it fitting to post about the "easy-ness" of it all. It's not, especially since I'm somewhat of a quiet person. Once I get my feet wet and become comfortable, I come out of my shell.

This is exactly what its like for our students. It is easy to find x in x+3=6. Its tough at first, but after time and practice, it does become easy. I promise.

See? It is easy to blog