I have become quite the Twitter evangelist in my class discussion boards. Whenever I see the opportunity for a plug, I throw it in there.
The latest attempt actually fulfills an assignment requirement. As part of my Multimedia Instructional Design class, I had to create a video tutorial. It was recommended we use Jing, but as it turns out I was lucky enough to win Camtasia at #edcamp Philly, so I used it instead.
I wanted to quickly show how effective Twitter can be and to challenge the perception of Twitter that many people have. I know it was a perception that I had as well, right up until I downloaded Tweetdeck after EdCamp. I was instantaneously converted.
To illustrate the effectiveness of Twitter, on Sunday I tweeted the following out to #edchat and #ntchat:
"show my preserv classmates the pwr of twitter. if ur reading this,reply w/content area, locale, blog url & RT #edchat #ntchat"
Over the next 24 hours I got responses back from 22 different people from all over the world. A huge thank you to everyone who responded (see the list below).
Here is the end product of my assignment. I'm happy with how it turned out and thought I would share it. Please pass it along if you think it may help others get started in Twitter. - Andrea
1katty
English, HS
Pakistan
http://www.katherinemaloney.blogspot.com
chrisnilsson
physics, instructional tech
Texas
http://cafe.lcisd.org/blog
stangea
5-6 Grade
Saskatchewan
http://bit.ly/a85jr6
senojc76
instructional tech
Texas
http://chadtheteacher.com/blog
rfgrasso
history, 8th grade
California
http://www.rgrasso.blogspot.com
mrstephenwolfe
elementary
Alabama
http://www.MrStephenWolfe.wordpress.com
tronward
2nd grade
Minnesota
http://bit.ly/dvSFRZ
hshawjr
special ed
Maine
http://bit.ly/djRqHN
ron_peck
social studies, HS
Oregon
http://historygeek29.blogspot.com/
kellyhines
3rd grade, PD trainer
North Carolina
http://thefilecabinet.pbworks.com She works on a Cherokee reservation.
drgarcia
educational psych, college
Washington DC
http://gnagarcia.wordpress.com/ http://tcpcg2011.wikispaces.com/
mrdfleming
2nd grade
New Jersey
http://mrdfleming.blogspot.com
stevefitzwater
Math
United Kingdom
http://www.learning2learnandteach.blogspot.com
teachingwthsoul
New Teacher Support
California
http://bit.ly/9HEtfF
grade1
1st grade
Ontario
http://bit.ly/95mi7N
http://bit.ly/ci77PF
http://bit.ly/cefoTd
http://bit.ly/boUqPI
soingirl
2 - 3 grade
British Columbia
http://bit.ly/d4WnNz
msgajda
Math, Science, Bio, Chem
Manitoba
http://msgajda.wordpress.com
gret
ESL, Elementary
Argentina
dancallahan
technology specialist
Massachusetts
cmdecarolis
history, HS
New Jersey
danseabra
languages
Brazil
havalah
kindergarten
Massachusetts
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
My how they've changed
My dream was always to be a teacher. When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be an elementary school teacher. In junior high, I wanted to be a junior high school teacher. In high school, well... you get my drift.
I started college with the intention of being a physics education major. I even started down that path and took my first education courses. A mentor of mine at the time, advised me that if I ever wanted to pursue a Master's degree in physics I would have about 2 years worth of classes to take before that would be possible (at my school, the education curriculum replaced most of the upper division physics courses). That made sense to me so I switched to a physics major and never looked back.
Now, 10 years after graduating with my physics degree, I'm back at school pursuing a Master's in Science of Instruction with the end goal being to teach physics.
My excuses all these years for why I wasn't pursuing teaching have been pretty set The 2 big excuses I used were not being able to relate to the kids and discipline issues. It was back in mid-February 2010 that I finally realized that these were the excuses that were keeping me from pursuing my childhood dream.
Both of these are potential concerns but I realized the needed attitude shift was mine to make first and foremost. A friend of mine from church kindly pointed out that I struggle relating with kids in part because I'm not yet a parent and in part because I didn't really have a childhood. I won't go into the speciifics but I spent much of my childhood trying to be mature and responsible partly because anything else wasn't accepted in my household.
During the past 2 years, interacting with children in my church community, I've noticed my attitude towards children start to change. Although I still feel awkward at times around children, I am more often inspired by them and even empathetic to the challenges of being a young person in our society. My how kids have changed now that I've changed my attitude towards them.
I no longer automatically see kids as disobedient troublemakers whose intention is to consume my time and energy. Instead, they are individuals I can probably learn from if I take the time to slow down and pay attention. My interactions with young people have changed so dramatically since the evolution of my attitude began. This change made it possible for me to see my excuses (not relating to kids and discipline issues) as the work of my imagination rather than a fixed reality.
I know that it wil take me a while to learn how best to interact with young people. Fortunately, I've got about 2 years before I'm teaching and a great network of people that will support me through my growth.
I know that I made the right decision 10 years ago, when I changed my major to physics and chose not to pursue teaching at that time. Knowing how much I've grown in the past 10 years, I'm confident that I wouldn't have liked teaching back then. I think dealing with the students would have been a constant struggle - in reality some of the time but in my mind all of the time.
Now, I'm pursuing my dream and my imagination is driving me forward rather than holding me back.
Until next time, Andrea
I started college with the intention of being a physics education major. I even started down that path and took my first education courses. A mentor of mine at the time, advised me that if I ever wanted to pursue a Master's degree in physics I would have about 2 years worth of classes to take before that would be possible (at my school, the education curriculum replaced most of the upper division physics courses). That made sense to me so I switched to a physics major and never looked back.
Now, 10 years after graduating with my physics degree, I'm back at school pursuing a Master's in Science of Instruction with the end goal being to teach physics.
My excuses all these years for why I wasn't pursuing teaching have been pretty set The 2 big excuses I used were not being able to relate to the kids and discipline issues. It was back in mid-February 2010 that I finally realized that these were the excuses that were keeping me from pursuing my childhood dream.
Both of these are potential concerns but I realized the needed attitude shift was mine to make first and foremost. A friend of mine from church kindly pointed out that I struggle relating with kids in part because I'm not yet a parent and in part because I didn't really have a childhood. I won't go into the speciifics but I spent much of my childhood trying to be mature and responsible partly because anything else wasn't accepted in my household.
During the past 2 years, interacting with children in my church community, I've noticed my attitude towards children start to change. Although I still feel awkward at times around children, I am more often inspired by them and even empathetic to the challenges of being a young person in our society. My how kids have changed now that I've changed my attitude towards them.
I no longer automatically see kids as disobedient troublemakers whose intention is to consume my time and energy. Instead, they are individuals I can probably learn from if I take the time to slow down and pay attention. My interactions with young people have changed so dramatically since the evolution of my attitude began. This change made it possible for me to see my excuses (not relating to kids and discipline issues) as the work of my imagination rather than a fixed reality.
I know that it wil take me a while to learn how best to interact with young people. Fortunately, I've got about 2 years before I'm teaching and a great network of people that will support me through my growth.
I know that I made the right decision 10 years ago, when I changed my major to physics and chose not to pursue teaching at that time. Knowing how much I've grown in the past 10 years, I'm confident that I wouldn't have liked teaching back then. I think dealing with the students would have been a constant struggle - in reality some of the time but in my mind all of the time.
Now, I'm pursuing my dream and my imagination is driving me forward rather than holding me back.
Until next time, Andrea
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