Professional Development 140 Characters at a Time

Photo courtesy of: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BXgqEd7CIAAerju.jpg

Welcome back my friends today I've been reflecting on a topic that we all have experienced and that is professional development.  As educators we all are expected to participate in PD and we have all been a part of PD days that were poorly planned, over planned, boring, or the subject of any number of other complaints (to be fair to the individuals responsible for planning PD days teachers are a notoriously difficult audience who'd all rather be in their classroom "getting work done"). It's not that I was opposed to participating in professional development days just that I wanted to know that there was going to be something noteworthy that I could take away from the experience. In short I did not want to see my time wasted. This brings me to the subject of today's blog and that is meaningful professional development.

Over the past week I have been talking with a friend of mine @STLinOK on Twitter and something she said caught my attention (full disclosure I have scribbled a little on this blog but have little experience in the way of social media) she said that Twitter was like perpetual professional development. The skeptic in me immediately thought "what meaningful thing can be said in 140 characters?" Anyone who knows me or has sat through one of my lectures knows how much I love to talk and tell stories. 140 characters? I thought "you have got to be kidding me." Up to this point I assumed Twitter was for kids who wanted to post tweets about what they were eating for dinner or for celebrities to say something stupid. The answer to my question though is that apparently a lot can be said in 140 characters. After diving in I immediately gained access to colleagues that were sharing their ideas and their struggles and who were simultaneously willing to help me with my own. As I participated in a couple twitter chats I noticed a few people retweeting what I had posted which told me that somebody out there saw value in what I had to say.  In these chats other educators were sharing ideas and perhaps due to the fact that Twitter limits the length of your post nobody was dominating the conversation. Maybe even my favorite part of this experience was the fact that it was free of much of the negativity that colleagues sometimes express during professional development days. These educators were excited about what they are doing and were eager to get me involved as well.

This experience brought something to my attention that I had never stopped to consider (yes I know this is about to be a roll your eyes moment) but YOU as an educator are ultimately responsible for YOUR own professional development. Nobody but you knows the kind of teacher or administrator that you want to be and it is your responsibility to seek out the training you need to be successful in your goals. Our districts/schools try to provide us with quality PD (maybe because if they didn't many teachers would never bother) but as I said before teachers are notoriously tough customers and nothing the district/school is going to plan is ever going to be what every teacher on staff needs or wants and to be fair even if it was we'd still complain. 

Twitter has given me the ability to network with colleagues globally as well as seek out people interested in the same professional goals that I have. In essence Twitter has given me ownership of my own professional development (which I always had to begin with but was to dumb to see it). Each of these colleagues is a resource with valuable experience that they are excited to share. I have also begun to set new goals and expectations of myself professionally due to the positive influence of enthusiastic educators who truly believe that #kidsdeserveit. For most of my career I have heard the catch phrase "life-long learner" thrown around about as much as "what's best for kids" to the point of both of those phrases seeming more like an insult or threat rather than inspirational; but in these new (to me) communities these catch phrases meant more than the mere lip service that some people (maybe myself included at times) pay to them. Our students do deserve educators who are excited about what they do and who can and will bring that enthusiasm into the classroom.

So what's the first step? For me this was a struggle because when I initially opened my Twitter account a few years ago I had assumed it was much like Facebook and that the people I know would follow me and it would be a relatively closed network. I was very wrong Twitter is a very wide open network and apparently the key to being successful on Twitter is all about being involved and participating. You need to create and share just as much as you take.  The great thing is that there are a number of communities within Twitter that you can easily get involved with related to your goals and interests. I realized pretty quickly that if I wasn't getting anything out of Twitter that was entirely my fault because the content is certainly there. The hardest part for me was actually putting my thoughts and experiences out there to the world. I can be a bit self conscious at times and the idea of me putting out my ideas to my colleagues can be terrifying. Even as I am writing this blog I am considering who might read this and what might they think; but one thing that I have learned is that somebody will find value in what I have to offer.  We all have gifts and talents and the wonderful thing about social media resources like Twitter and Facebook is that we can share those talents with people who will benefit from them and whom will also reciprocate.

The biggest lesson I have learned is that I am ultimately responsible for how I develop as an educator.  The people I choose to associate with professionally whether that is at work, Facebook, Twitter, etc. will directly impact the way that I develop as an educator and as a person. We all are familiar with the phrase that misery loves company and I have jokingly talked about toxic teacher syndrome and how contagious the condition is; however, it is equally important to know that enthusiasm can be as equally contagious. The best thing about utilizing social networks in order to facilitate your professional growth is that YOU have ownership on who you chooe to follow on Twitter or whose blogs you choose to read (btw thank you for reading mine :) ) and how you will grow and develop. I appreciate you taking the time you have spent with me and if you would like to follow me on Twitter you can follow me at @MrShep413.


Below are a few resources that I have found that have helped me:

Why Twitter for Educators

Why Teachers Should Use Twitter

I also would like to throw out a mention to Jerry Blumengarten @cybraryman1 who has a great number of resources for people looking to get more involved in using Twitter to develop professionally.