Monday, December 29, 2008

REFLECTIONS ON TWITTERING (not the correct verb)

Mary Lee and I joined Twitter while we were at NCTE and have been trying to figure it out ever since. Joining Twitter was partly because of the things we learned at NCTE's Annual Convention and our commitment to really think about what this means for our classrooms. It is all part of Stretching Our Own Thinking.

I have been Tweeting (that might be the correct verb?) for a little over 5 weeks. I thought I'd take a minute to reflect. After the first few days, I was ready to quit. I hated it and decided that it was a huge waste of my time. But I knew that frustration would be part of the learning curve so I decided to give it a good try for 6 months. Now, 5 weeks later, I am pretty comfortable with it, it is much easier to navigate and I am finding it pretty useful and much less time consuming.

It helped that several of my already-made friends joined. It also helped to get some advice from friends who had been part of Twitter for a while. But mostly it was about figuring out how it worked, how to navigate the huge amount of information, what to ignore, etc.

Today, Twitter only takes a few minutes now and then in a day. I find lots of great links and have learned lots from people I would have never learned from.

I'm not saying that I love it yet. But I do see that it is worthwhile and that it will get easier over time. I think sometimes, as teachers and adults, when we don't see the benefit of something right away, we toss it out and that is a huge mistake these days. So many tools we could be using for our own growth and for our students.

So, I am going to continue to keep Twitter as part of my days for at least 5 more months, knowing that I will learn more as the time goes on. And this month, I think I'll explore NINGs just a little bit. See what that is all about.

If you are a Twitter person, let us know. Or find us at Franki22 and MaryLeeHahn.

4 comments:

  1. I just added you two to my network.
    I am dogtrax, if you are interested.
    :)
    Kevin

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  2. I totally agree... when I first started my Twitter account, I used it for a couple of days and abandoned it. But then I read an article (in SLJ I think?) that said you needed to really give it a solid try and then you'd get addicted... and it was true for me. I especially like getting updates from my real-life friends around the country and getting glimpses into the daily lives of authors whose books I enjoy (Sarah Dessen, Maureen Johnson, and Justina Chen Headley to name a few).

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  3. I'm in a book induced coma from trying to finish my pile of CYBILS books (does anyone remember the Alka Seltzer commercial- I can't believe I ate the whole thing!!! I'm feeling that way after reading almost sixty full length nonfiction books in approximately eight weeks!) As soon as I recover, though, I'm going to figure out how to twitter!
    Carol

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  4. I'm on there--teacherninja--but since it's blocked at school I almost never check it. I'm sure there's a point to it--but have yet to find it. Let me know if you do.

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