Turning into a Tweeter

The first week of class we were introduced to the concept of PLN, Personal Learning Network. While I have initially understood that power of networking. I did not understand the full concept how much information Twitter has to offer you. Twitter has know grown to be a tool, that can depend on to stir up ideas or create goals of the teacher I would like to strive to me. I have always been on social media, I had a Facebook in high school back when you had to be in college to sign up. I never really had a Twitter or thought I would be able to contribute anything of substance to it. Once we joined as a class, and I read the tweets from the list of those to follow, I was amazed at the information that was being talked about. Over the weeks I was inspired to use technology, sites, and power of a positive mindset.  I had a powerful moment that I have had during my experience over the weeks.

The first experience that I had was on February 28, I remember just being drained. It was the day before class, and both of my jobs had just drained me. My kids at school just refused to listen all day, they had personal issues with family members. I had a bad shift at the restaurant and I hadn't been on Twitter all week. I hopped on expecting to have to dig for something that I could retweet and be done. My feed was filled with uplifting memes. There was a tweet, A bad day of no writing, is better than no writing at all. It was better that I had a bad day being able to work with students then not being able to work with them at all. I went on to find really inspiring stories and great tools and resources. I think this was a huge win for me, finding a network of teachers that are living it and really passing out what they know you need. Sometimes that is encouragement, and not just tools or ideas for you to take to class.
Another take away that I really liked about my experience with Twitter is that I was able to find unique tools and resources. Just today I saw an article on Address Cheating Students in Google Apps. It is things like that you do not think of on your own. Taking these tips and applying them to your teaching before student can think of ways to cheat is a great tool to stay ahead. There are countless other tips and tools you might not even know you need or wanted on Twitter.
Now that I am fully aware how amazing Twitter is and how it is filled with such useful tool and resources, I am eager to get into a classroom. As a teacher, I hope to use Twitter weekly. I would love to look back at this post and know that I do get new idea or alter my lessons based off ideas that are shared on Twitter. Mostly I hope that I share my successes and what I do in my class with my PLN. I hope that on days where I am drained I can find inspiration from others, and remind myself why I am teaching in the first place, which is to make a difference in students lives.