My Twitter Ego....

Friday was my first day back to school.  Needless to say, the Twitterverse is all a buzz with back to school stuff.  Some of it for the classroom.  Some of it teachers lamenting the end of summer. Some of it anxiety about the return to school.  A buzz I tell ya...A buzz!  (sounds like my husband speaking)

People talk about Twitter being a good professional development (PD) tool.  So here is what Twitter has given me:

• I follow a number of  educators on Twitter; people from all levels of education and administration.  I love to see a superintendent crazy about his/her schools and students or a principal or coach celebrating academic and  athletic victories
• Over the summer I have read tons of blogs and articles that I have gotten through my  Twitter feeds. 
• I like to listen to podcasts so I have picked up a few more educational podcasts to listen to on my drive home from work.  
• I have learned a lot through Twitter about Google Classroom (I am signed up to participate in a PD session in our district on Monday) and bought a book called "50 Things You can do with Google Classroom" (by @alicekeeler and @MillerLibbi)
• I am learning to "Teach Like a Pirate" - another book I bought by @burgessdave.  I am just a few chapters in....I like it....
• I have gotten the late breaking news on education and the world in general.
• It seems that there is not a lot of love for homework at the elementary levels.
• The marching band and football team at the high school where I teach are geared up for the new school year.
• The superintendent of the school district I graduated from writes a blog.  
• Some guy in Kentucky has given me advice about  what to do with my peppers from the garden.

I am sure there is more but this is just what comes to mind as I write this,  besides the every-man stuff like baseball scores, weather updates, pictures of food, silly animals and people, etc.  I know I have posted my fair share of  silly animals (the cat and bird  we live with) and the flowers, vegetables, and interesting visitors to my yard.  If I find something that I think might be valuable in the classroom, I email it to myself and sometimes forward it on to other educators in my district.

One thing that I have  learned about myself is that I have a Twitter Ego.  I confessed in this blog post Houston We have a Problem that I am addicted to Twitter but it has gotten worse.  I replied to a Tweet earlier this week and I have been watching the  "favorited" and "retweeted" counts go up.  It makes me feel empowered to do something to change the issue that 28 people have favorited and 8 people have retweeted.

It all started on 8/12 @ 6:21 pm with someone tweeting out that they wished teachers had recess.  My reply @ 6:40 pm was that I wished high school students had recess to help with their focus in the afternoon.  I got a reply from someone wishing their kids had just 20 more minutes of lunch. it is now 5:12 pm on   8/16 and the most recent "action" on this Tweet  happened this afternoon.

Now I have said it...the bigger question is: What can I do about it?

That is the thing I find kind of interesting about this "social media" stuff.  Lots of words....what about the actions?  I know I and at least 28 other people believe it but what can we do about it?

From Where I Sit

 

Yeah, I have not blogged in a while.  Every Sunday, my husband sits down to blog and asks me: "Are you going to blog today?" and I respond, "I've got nothing to say".

Today, I have something to say.  My husband and I ride a motorcycle.  In reality, he drives and I "ride" on the back. (I learned long ago that "clutching" with my hand and "shifting" with my foot was  not part of my  wiring.)  We gear up to be as safe as possible.  We never ride without our  armored jackets, helmets, jeans, boots, glasses, and gloves.  We always make sure we are in the best state of mind for riding and that the weather is optimum for our trips.  We have ridden south to  Columbus, west to Toledo (several times) and east to Geneva on the Lake.  We are kind of centrally located south of Cleveland so that gives you a general zone of where we ride.

I sit on the back of a 2009 Honda Shadow.
It is our  second 2 wheel vehicle (the first was a Kymco Grand Vista 250 cc Scooter).  From where I sit, which is higher than most vehicles, I am astounded by the number of people who continue to text while they drive.  Just last night we were riding out of our neighborhood and I am watching this red pick up truck kind of drifting  toward our lane.  As we approached a red traffic light, I turned to look at him and he looked back at me lifting his head from his phone in his hand on his right thigh.  ( yeah...I really have a good vantage point)

Maybe it's my Catholic upbringing or my school teacher-ness that makes me  believe that people should follow the rules (laws). I just don't understand why people continue to  let this" in your hand technology" rule every minute of the day. Sometimes I have this little fantasy in my head that I could be like Starsky and Hutch( the original, not the remake); I can slap that magnetic police light on the top of my "undercover" vehicle and conduct a traffic stop when people are breaking the law.  

I saw an excerpt of this PSA on television yesterday afternoon, before our ride.  It's kind of long but worth the watch.

Life doesn't roll in reverse.  We are not the great multi-taskers we believe ourselves to be.  It is not just your well-being/life you are  affecting.  It is everyone around you. 

IT CAN WAIT.