Hi!
Here I am doing a one year intensive Bachelor of Education program at Saint Thomas University in Fredericton, enrolled in 8 courses (what is this thing you call a social life!?), and getting excited about a two month practicum in Grade 2 French Immersion. This Blog is an assignment for EDUC 5973, Integrating Tech in the Classroom. I will be using it to post links to various Personal Learning Networks or PLNs, and reflecting on how they’ve influenced my thoughts on education and about using technology in the classroom.
For the past ten years I have been managing my own career in the music industry. This career path involves an obligation to evolve with technological trends and follow seminars or training sessions to help us keep up with the times at various music conferences. You have to ‘hop on the band wagon,’ so to speak, as soon as new platforms arrive. Although it is not in my nature to take interest in these things (I am a total country bumpkin), over the years I have become tech-savvy. I have been on twitter for years as @stompinmary. I use twitter to post musings, thoughts, questions, and anecdotes. I didn’t realize there was a wealth of education-related hashtags out there. In this blog post, I will share some ‘follow-worthy’ hashtags, folks, and organizations.
In searching #edchat, I discovered Dr. Marcia Tate who is an educational consultant and traveling speaker. She frequently posts inspirational quotes and words of encouragement, things like, “Don’t aim for perfection, aim for consistency!” and, “You’re never too busy to be nice to people!”
I also discovered Dr. Justin Tarte who works in a Human Resources Capacity. He shares a lot of relevant posts so his page is a great way to discover organizations, other teachers, and inspiration.
Next, I found Brian Mendler, author of That One Kid. In his latest tweet he reminds us not to hold grudges, to let every day, hour, and minute be a new one, to always give kids a new chance. “The windshield is bigger than rear view mirrors bc we have to go forward.”
For #ISTEchat, I think the best way to understand what is going on is to follow and read the feed of @ISTE. They post questions every now and then and folks respond, starting their feed with A6, for example, then giving their personal answer to question 6 offered by ISTE which happens to be “How do you include the ISTE Standards in your lesson planning?” As a teacher candidate, I think checking twitter and considering questions like these as part of a community of educators can boost our performance and keep us thinking in fresh ways!
What educators do you follow on Twitter?