Why I Tweet

"I bet you're going to tweet that out!"

"Umm, yeah, I am."

Education is changing.  It is changing at a pace that is exciting and invigorating.  As an educator, however, that can sometimes be scary - especially if you were trained to teach in the No Child Left Behind era, like I was, when testing was the only measured outcome.  About a year ago, I had the opportunity to learn about the importance of telling my story - controlling the narrative that comes out of my classroom. It was something that I grabbed onto with all of my might.  But you see, I don't know that I always do a good job of explaining what I am doing and why I am doing it.

So why do I tweet so much?  That's a good question.  Maybe I should start with why I don't do it.

I don't tweet to brag.
I don't tweet to make others feel bad.
I don't tweet to say that my class is better than another.

So why do I tweet? Well, there are several reasons.

1. I want to share the story coming out of my classroom. You see, I worked with one of the best English teachers I know for over ten years before her retirement. She got results. The kids loved her. But I cannot tell you how she taught.  I cannot tell you how she hooked those students from day one and got them to do their best. I do have her lesson plans, but they are a labyrinth of notes that I have yet to figure out. I taught next to her for 10 years and I have no idea how her classroom worked.

I had a philosophical change over a year ago that begins with telling my story. I am so proud of the work that my students do each day. I am proud of the innovative ideas that we are trying, and many of those ideas are not difficult to try. They do, however, take courage - so if by my sharing what we do on Twitter, another teacher is courageous enough to try it - then mission accomplished. My classroom is not a traditional classroom. We have moved away from worksheets, quizzes, and tests as our main focus. Those things still exist, but they are not our focus. Student ownership of learning is the focus. I am proud of this shift. I am going to share it.

2. I believe in being a connected educator. I don't work well in isolation. I am a people person. I need people. I need to laugh with people. I need to learn from people. I spent the first 10 years of my teaching career, basically isolated in my classroom. It was lonely.  Extremely lonely. I need people, and Twitter makes people available 24/7 - for support and ideas. It breaks down building and district walls. There are educators across the state who I meet at conferences for the first time, but they are not strangers - they are colleagues whom I have just never met in person. They live in Ness City, Hesston, Ellinwood, Frontenac just to name a few.  They make me a better educator because they push me to innovate, ask for me to share what I have learned, and encourage me when things don't work as planned.

3. I have found numerous ideas from my PLN. Until I learned about action research while working on my master's degree, I was comfortable teaching the way I had been taught. While that may have been easiest for me, it was not what was best for kids. I believe with all of my heart that students should not be the ones uncomfortable in my classroom - this was not an easy realization for me to accept.  From my PLN I have learned about #Booksnaps and #Coversnaps. I have learned about "Roll Dice and Black-out Poetry". I have seen flexible seating implemented in many ways - giving me the courage to try it in my own classroom.  I was able to Skype with another class for the first time to share my experience as a foster mom. I did none of these things prior to becoming a connected educator on Twitter.

4. It's how my department shares ideas. I am fortunate to work with a very technologically connected department, school, and district. My department decided last summer that we should create classroom hashtags - #BHSneill, #BHSkohls, #BHSfroese, and #BHSneighbor. This is one way we share what is going on in our rooms.  By sharing these ideas, we follow up with conversations on Voxer, before and after school, or during lunch. Rarely will you find us alone in our rooms - we are planning, collaborating, researching. If you look up "nerds" in the dictionary - we'd probably be listed in the definition. By sharing our ideas on Twitter we are modeling life-long learning for our students.  It is real-time, student-driven learning, and it is exciting.

Recently my department has changed our junior and senior year curriculum.  We polled our students to see where their interests were, and we created high-interest ELA classes to give students more choice in the literature they are studying and the writing they are doing.  We use the hashtag #BHSela to retweet articles, add videos, and share ideas. By doing so, we are creating an online log of ideas to go back to when we need to brainstorm new activities.

5. I want to be able to give students shout-outs (S/O) when they do good work. So I may be a bit biased, but my students are pretty amazing. Many of them have gone too long without any recognition for the work they do each day.  We celebrate the milestones, but sometimes the steps along the way need recognition, too! As we work to change our mindset, it also allows me to highlight the shifts in thinking that I see happening in them - from becoming students to embracing what it means to be a true learner. 

It also allows me to give shout-outs for extra curricular activities, to "like" or "favorite" a quote or idea, or to tag them in an inspirational quote or question.  Earlier this week, I tagged 10 students and asked them what they were reading this summer.  It is a way to stay connected after their year with me is over.

6. It's fun. I am a positive person. I believe that energy creates "like" energy. I have started to turn away from Facebook because I cannot control the political opinions and negativity that seems to fester there. I post on Facebook for my family and to catalog pictures of my kids, but that is about it. Twitter, on the other hand, is always positive. I follow people on Twitter who have a "like" mindset, who are professional educators - breaking the stereotype of the June/July/August teacher. I want to be surrounded by people who are constantly looking for ways to improve education - being solution oriented rather than just complaining about issues like budget cuts. We tweet jokes, GIFs, and Bitmojis to each other (they are my favorite)! It is not uncommon for an author that we are studying to "like" one of our tweets or reply back - they become real people, not just some name on a piece of paper. So yeah, it's fun. It makes me smile. It feels good.

I can see how an educator, who is not connected on Twitter, might view this online interaction differently. Yes, it is "another" thing to do in a day that is already jam-packed. I can see how it might appear that we are only celebrating those educators who have drank the Twitter Kool-aid. But they allow us to celebrate them. By posting what is happening in your classroom, you are inviting in a world who wants to cheer you on, to push you out of your comfort zone, to learn from you. If you aren't sharing, we can't do that; it's as simple as that. There are many more reasons why I tweet, but I want to make it clear that this is not about just about Twitter.  As my colleague Jason Kohls (check out his blog here - he's got some pretty neat ideas) said in a conversation on Voxer this morning, "It is not about Twitter. It is about being connected with our students and our colleagues/PLN. Learning, growing, and celebrating together."  We want to celebrate each other. We want to celebrate you - Twitter just happens to be one way to do that.

I'm Not Ready

On Monday, my sophomores will turn in their research papers.  We have been working on this papers for about 4 weeks now.  This past Friday I said to my students, "If you have used class time wisely, and have met our due dates up to this point, you should be sitting pretty." One of my big, tough, Ferdinand-the-Bull students replied, "Well I FEEL pretty" - and laughter followed. It was at this time that I thought to myself, "I'm not ready."

*I'm not ready to be done with 1st hour's random outbursts of music and moments of honesty. I can always count on a good start to the day with this bunch. We are a class of 13 girls and ONE very, very brave boy. 

*I am not ready to for the conversations to end after 2nd hour with a few students who always stick around a minute or two after the bell. These small conversations mean so much on days when I am questioning my effectiveness as a teacher.

*I'm not ready for silence that will follow the passionate and opinionated comments of my 4th hour - no doubt these kids will move mountains. Creativity flows from them; it is in the air they breathe.

*I'm not ready for my laid-back, good ol' boy and girl 5th hour to end - what a little family we have become. Singing to Bon Jovi, the Beatles, and Lynard Skynard has become a norm. Respecting our very different opinions and truly learning from each other is what makes me most proud.

*I'm not ready for my 6th hour's variety of learning styles to move on to junior year. These kiddos have learned to take risks in their reading and writing - seeking out my help on an individual basis. They are working, always working, to get better each day.

*I'm not ready for my dynamic, ornery, and energetic 7th hour to stand by the door and wait for that last bell to ring. They keep my on my toes, and at the end of the day I wouldn't have it any other way.

Don't get me wrong. I am tired. My brain hurts. My classroom is a mess. My house is even messier. I have a pile of laundry 3 feet tall. My kids have eaten PB&J more times that I can count in the last few weeks. Not to mention I am not sure the last time my husband and I went on a date. But I am not ready to be done with these kids. Have I taught them enough about English and life? Are they readers? Are they becoming learners instead of students? Do they know how much I care about them? Have I told them they are important? I have seven days left. S.E.V.E.N. - quite frankly, it's not enough.

I am excited to see what lies ahead for them.  Such talent, such wisdom, such kindness. I am excited to see what students walk through my door next year, but for now, I will hold on to these seven days with all of my might because I'm not ready.