#edchat #educhat #engchat
Okay, confession time. I've had a Twitter account for over a year now, but until recently I never really "got" Twitter. It was clear to me that Twitter had potential for something, but I didn't know exactly what that something was. So, while I waited for a Twitter epiphany I hung around on the outskirts of the virtual community, waiting. I felt like a new kid in the school cafeteria waiting for an invitation to sit down at a lunch table. But that was exactly my problem. Everyone who teaches in a high school would agree with me when I say that if you wait around for an lunch invitation from a high school kid, you'd better get used to eating your lunch standing up. So I told myself the same thing I'd tell the new kid: stop waiting for an invitation and sit down at a table of people who look interesting.
Finding a Table of Interesting -
In my previous post I mentioned that I spent most of last Friday watching the #bitsofbyte feed. I wanted to contribute to the presentations I was watching, but distance stopped me from doing that. I couldn't just pop up my hand and ask the presenters a questions. Consequently I did the next best thing, I tweeted at the presenters. I'm pretty sure my first Tweet sounded something like "I'm watching you on video" which did sort of sound creepy. Perhaps it wasn't my best opening line . . . But my point is that I found a table of interesting, and sat down.
Hashtags are Your Friends -
Sunday evening I was reading my Twitter feed and came upon a post with #titletalk attached to it. I was intrigued and decided to investigate. What I found was fast paced discussion between teachers sharing recommendations for Historical Fiction titles for various grade levels. I waded into the conversation and what resulted was amazing! We debated where (and if) Steampunk fits into the genre of Historical Fiction, and I was introduced to the term/genre Historical Fantasy (who knew?) All of this came out of a hashtag search. If I had just been following one person I would've missed out on all the other voices participating in the conversation. The #titletalk conversation had dozens of people participating, and was extremely fast paced, and even a bit hectic. This leads me to my next Twitter epiphany.
No Matter How Many Times You Re-Read a Tweet Before Posting . . . -
You are bound to Tweet out a few typos. And you just need to get over it. As an English teacher, this is a tough one for me. Despite the fact that I can never remember the whole " i before e" thing, I still feel a huge pressure to be a perfect writer. This is completely unfair! I don't error-check the tax returns of all the Math teachers I know. Nor do I expect them to be able to mentally calculate at my whim. We are people not robots. Errors happen, move on.
Pressure to Perform-
Work smarter, not harder! Use your other social media platforms to your advantage. I often find the 140 character limit difficult to work around. I'm an English teacher, I love words! How do I narrow down all the thoughts I'm having into the 140 characters I'm allowed? I don't! If I feel wordy I post on my blog, and make the first words in my blog entry the appropriate Twitter hashtags. My blog automatically connects to my Twitter account, and I tweet out the link to the longer text on my blog. The hashtags at the beginning of the blog entry allow the text to integrate into the Twitter community to be searchable by those looking. Sometimes it's the opposite end of the spectrum. I'm busy (lazy, tired, procrastinating) I don't have time to ponder and write a post. Instead I snap a pic of what's going on in my classroom and post it on Instagram. I tell my Instagram account to tweet the link to pic. Voila, I participated in the Twitter universe simply by posting a photo!
I guess what I really "got" from this whole Twitter epiphany is that you've got to bring something to the table. Nobody wants to eat lunch with the perpetually silent, new kid. At some point you've got to open your mouth and contribute to the conversation. Keep your ears (and eyes) open for the voices and conversations that you find interesting and "Tweet" in your perspective.
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