Twitter Networking

This past week I had my first, fabulous experience at Kent Elementary. I didn't get any calls there last year, but then again I wasn't really expecting I would for a variety of reasons. 1) I am high school trained 2) I didn't know anyone (or at least I didn't know that I knew anyone), and 3) I worked basically full time at HSS. All completely valid reasons for 6 months of TOCing and 0 Kent calls. But all that changed after the summer Pro-D.

The Summer "Teach Meet" was one of the coolest things I have done in a long time. Tons of teachers from SD78 got together and (mostly) shared about the technology they are using/embracing/experimenting with in their classrooms. I got pretty stoked on my former worst nightmare...TWITTER! Don't laugh, I'm serious.

I had to get Twitter for a technology class during my BEd and I swore that I would never go back. I just don't care what Justin Bieber had for breakfast... But then it came to the Teach Meet. I went to Lenora's "Blogging for Professional Grown" (if you are reading this, you can tell how that ended), and then I went to Chris's session on Twitter. I started realizing that Twitter is so much more than celebrities sharing what colour their shoes are. In fact, there are cool people on Twitter. Twitter is a great way to network. Then I realized that if SD78 is getting all "Tweet-y," I probably should too.

So I lurked around on Twitter, I observed some great conversations on #kinderchat, and then I started tweeting what I was doing. I tweeted photos of my TOC days, I tweeted quotes from articles I am reading for my Special Education class, and I started actually connecting with people in my district in a meaningful way. I twitter conversed (is there a twitter lingo word for that?) with principals at different schools, with other TOCs (in fact, I have now had two one-on-one debriefs with other TOCs in the district talking about what is happening in their classes and what their TOC experiences are like), with contract teachers, and even with the superintendent of my district. That's pretty cool for a new teacher.

Then I got called to TOC at Kent.I am still not an elementary teacher (even though it turns out that I L-O-V-E elementary!) but now, thanks to Twitter, I have a connection with at least two people on staff at Kent and as a TOC, that is valuable. Twitter gives me an opportunity to get my name out there, show what I am all about, and make an impression based on the information that I am providing.

I am 95% sure that I got called to Kent based largely on my Twitter interactions (Twitter-actions?) and now I have had the opportunity to demonstrate my teaching style, classroom management, and chemistry with a class that may have a posting in the future.What could be better than that?