500th Follower

I remember exactly when I decided I had a goal of reaching 500 Twitter followers. It was a number of months ago. I witnessed my friend, Julieanne Harmatz, gain her 1,000th follower. (She’s now up to almost 1,500.) I watched Julieanne’s joy at that 1,000th. I thought it both fun and representative of the community she has found on Twitter. She connected with real people out in the world who add support for the very important work she does each day in her classroom. She wrote recently about that community here.

I wanted to grow my community. Twitter is a great place to do that. But, Twitter takes a little time. There’s a steep learning curve. I started and stopped a number of times. I would get Twitter tipsy and overloaded with the deluge of information. I had to learn to pace myself. I had to learn how to read Twitter. It has taken well over a year, but now I’m pretty much addicted. It’s one of the first things I check in the morning. Is that a bad thing?

Twitter is such a positive space to connect with other educators and people who are doing wonderful things. It expands my world exponentially, but it also brings people closer. I have been exposed to thoughts and ideas and resources I would not have discovered without Twitter. I have met soulful, passionate educators, incredibly powerful writers, and researchers. I connected with people I greatly admire and respect.

I realize 500 is a small number when you look at consider great tweeters like Julieanne Harmatz, Anna Cockerille, Betsy Hubbard, Beth Moore, Dana Murphy, Tara Smith, Greg Armamentos, Stacey Shubitz, Cornelius Minor, and Donalyn Miller. But, we all start somewhere. I was sitting at around three hundred something followers when I set my goal. That was about five months ago I believe. Today I capped 500! I watched as I sat at 494, then 499 overnight, down to 498. Shoot! Someone quit me.Then, this morning it happened.  I actually hit 502 before I knew what happened. My 500th follower was Lisa Birno.  Lisa is a “passionate learner, 6th Grade Teacher, and Heineman Fellow”. I want to learn more about that. Her twitter picture looks so familiar. I wonder if we have met. Her tweets from the past few days go straight to the heart of the Saturday Reunion at Teachers College this past weekend:

Want-ability will always be more important than read-ability. @KyleneBeers #tcrwp

Relevance is always personal. Interest is fleeting. Make things relevant for kids, not interesting. @KyleneBeers #tcrwp

The best predictor of reading success is volume of reading. Choice is essential, fundamental #TCRWP @KyleneBeers

@KyleneBeers “We don’t need to think outside of the box. We need a whole new box.” #tcrwp

See what I mean?

500th Follower on Twitter, Lisa Birno, and I’m betting that’s her charming, super smart and adorable son.

Thank you, Lisa for the follow. I’m honored to be in this amazing and growing learning community with you. I can’t wait to read more of your tweets.

I have learned so much this month participating in Two Writing Teachers’ Slice of Life March 2015 challenge. For the first time, I have written and published my writing every day for 31 days in a row. Because of this I have become braver as a writer. I have become richer as a person for having read so many amazing bloggers posts across this month. I hope to continue reading and writing alongside all the slicers I have met along the way. Thank you, Anna, Beth, Betsy, Dana, Stacey, & Tara for providing the place for me to do this. I plan to continue with the Slice of Life Tuesdays throughout the year. I hope all of you do too.

 

To read more wonderful slices, check out Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life blog spot here.