Wow. Never thought I would actually create a blog. I always loved to write, but there is something scary about posting it for anyone & everyone to see, read, comment....judge.
The 2011-2012 school year is about to begin.....my 5th year teaching special education. I finished my Master's degree....oh.....a good......5 years ago. During that time, I was surrounded by a built-in community of learners, something I've missed since then. Even when surrounded by great colleagues & co-workers, the structure of that graduate school community has been lacking for me.
UNTIL.....I went to the Jostens Renaissance Conference in Anaheim, California a few weeks ago. There were so many enthusiastic, foward-thinking educators gathered in one place that you couldn't help to be inspired and re-invigorated. There were many great break-out sessions, but the one that caught my interest in particular was lead by Dwight Carter (@Dwight_Carter) and focused on the use of twitter for educators.
I had never tweeted a thing in my life, but I tinkered on my smartphone & suddenly, I was tweeting. [It stills sounds funny....tweeting....I say it sometimes just to amuse myself...] I fumbled at first to figure out exactly what all this was about, but quickly started to catch on, loving the constant stream of ideas, information & inspiration on my twitter feed. Hundreds....probably thousands....of educators were on twitter!! How did I not know this?? I mean, @cybraryman is a good friend's DAD....and a well-known "cyber-librarian," yet I had no idea. What rock have I been under?
So long story short, I'm going to try The 30 Goals Challenge from Shelly Terrell (@shellterrell, starting with the 2010 edition. Check it out at: 30 Goals Challenge- 2010 I'm thinking this is just what I need to make some steps forward in my professional development and push me out of my comfort zone a bit.
This blog post is Goal #1. Accomplished. Check. Done & Done.
And FYI- Follow me on twitter @jennifer_lepore