Edcamp

When things get tough…

/ Joshua Michaelis / Leave a comment

We have all seen that image which shows the life of a teacher. You know, the one that shows how a teacher’s motivation and stress level goes up and down over the year? Well, for the first time in a long time I think I may be at the bottom of the curve.

As a teacher my desire to reach every student where they are has not changed. It is still there and dominates my day. If I ever lost that then I know it would be time to leave teaching. I’m not even close to that point and I love being an educator.

When we are stuck in a rut, not sure where to go next with your students, I have found it useful to reach out to my PLN (Not, that I am the best at this or that it is easy). The great thing is that I can reach out by becoming active on Twitter, learning and being inspired by other educators. I can also attend conferences and unconferences alike. I just attended my first EdCamp of the year (EdCamp Richardson) and I am glad I used my Saturday to be there. Just being around educators that love what they do and are passionate about sharing their knowledge picks me up and challenges me. I am jealous of all of you at TCEA this week as you soak in all the wonderfulness.

Does all of this make everything better? Of course not, but it does make me realize I am not alone. I am not the only one reflecting upon myself and trying to make themself a better teacher.

Do you have any tips on how to stay motivated?

I went to an Edcamp, now what? AKA Using Twitter Lists to build your PLN

/ Joshua Michaelis / Leave a comment

So, you went to your first (or fifth) Edcamp. Give yourself a pat on the back. No, seriously, do it! You have most likely given up a Saturday or another chunk of what little free time you have. You spent it with other educators who are as dedicated as you, who want to do what is best for our students and colleagues.

Hopefully, you left inspired and ready to take on the world. You may have left with new ideas, new apps, or even a door prize. Most importantly, you left with new educators to add to your PLN. If you are not familiar with a PLN many, more qualified, people have written about them and I link to them here, Edutopia and George Couros.

You have probably heard before that one of the best ways to start growing your PLN is through Twitter. I absolutely agree! But, as a new user you may become overwhelmed with how many people you are following and how hard it is to keep up with your feed. I have found that Twitter Lists are the best way to solve this problem. With a list it is easy to keep track of where you met people, follow conversations about certain topics, and quickly check the feeds of your favorite people.

I have found Twitter Lists to be great, but hard to set up. Finding who I wanted to add to each list and clicking several buttons to add them to the list always felt like there were too many steps. Fortunately, I found a solution that is working for me and hopefully will for you also. The caveat is that you have to be using Google Chrome and if you aren’t that is a whole different post.

In the Google Chrome Store search for List Builder for Twitter and install it. After you do that and are signed into Twitter you will have a box in the upper right of your screen. With this box you can automatically select every tweet on a page or select individuals to add to a list that you created. Awesome, right? It gets better. Let’s say I didn’t write anyone’s Twitter names down at the last Edcamp I went to and want to add them to a list. I just search the hashtag associated with that EdCamp, or any other event or chat, and add the people who posted with that hashtag. I have found that scrolling down the page before I add people to the list gives me more people.

Do you have another way to manage Twitter Lists? Please, share with us.