When I stumbled upon Twitter chats back in 2013, they were like a breath of fresh air. First, they gave me new information and ways to improve my teaching practice. Next, when I began to put my own tweets out there, they gave me connections and friendships. Finally, they led me to author my own works and thoughts on education, including my blog and YouTube channel, and helped me to gain admission to the UBCMET Masters program.

I am eternally indebted to Twitter chats and the connections I made there. They brought me multiple opportunities to attend conferences, to learn and share my practice, to become a part of incredible educator communities like Apple Distinguished Educators and Google Certified Innovators/Education Trainers. Heck, I even found my future husband on a Twitter chat! (Though that’s not a typical part of the experience, I hear :)

​But... yes, you knew there was a but... here it is: I am not getting what I need out of Twitter chats anymore.

I know I’m not the first one to write about my fading love for Twitter. But as someone who has enjoyed so many positives from the service, this bothers me. A lot. Especially as a co-founder and moderator of #bcedchat. 

I want to make one thing clear: the mission for #bcedchat has always been to bring educators together. To spark conversation and get people talking to one another across the province. I think that is still happening today, after 2.5 years of existence. We have many BC educators pop in and out of the regularly scheduled Sunday night chats (it’s at 7pm PST for those who don’t know). It’s great to connect with an incredible mod team and educators from all over BC and beyond.​

I'm sitting in the Atlanta airport this morning. As I wait for my delayed flight, I decided it was time to get some thoughts down. At least I was one of the lucky ones who got a seat beside an outlet to charge my devices.

I learned some things from ISTE, but not in the way that you would suspect. Usually people attend conferences to go to every session that they possibly can. The truth is, I've never done really done that at any conference. But then again, I've never been to so few sessions at a conference, either.

I can say going to only a few sessions was one of the best decisions I made throughout the time I spent in Atlanta. Not that there weren't great sessions to attend - the sheer amount of amazing individuals that presented was overwhelming. The point was that the sessions that I would have went to were all people that I'm already connected with on Twitter. The concepts they were speaking about were things that I could learn in my pajamas at home. Why would I waste valuable time that i could otherwise spend actually connecting with these individuals face to face? 

And the cool part? This strategy led to some very cool things. Things like improptu, delicious lunches with great conversations. Things like playing with Little Bits and building awesome stuff in the Blogger's Cafe with Robert Pronovost. Things like actually getting to sleep in a little bit because it was really easy to stay out and talk to people late.

I got to meet A LOT of people. I got to reconnect with A LOT of people. It was super cool just to walk through the conference center, or even downtown Atlanta, and just run into people from your PLN. 

For next year - yes, there will be a next year - I have some recommendations for my future self... and if this can help someone else, then great! 

You cannot be in two places at once... and that's okay.

I struggled a lot with FOMO during my first ISTE. There was so much going on and so many people that I wanted to spend time with that I pushed the envelope on the times that I needed to be in certain places. Needless to say, this plan didn't work out, and it didn't work out a few times. Initially, I had a hard time accepting that I couldn't be everywhere, but what I did get to do was fantastic.

Make time for specific people that you want to connect with further.

If it's important, schedule it. And don't make the mistake of pushing it too close to other obligations like I did. There are people that are on the top of my list to connect with next time for sure.

Blend in some "flex time".

Some of the best parts of the week were those that were unplanned. If someone asks you to go for an impromptu lunch, go. Seriously. The richness of discussions over food and drink was where the magic really happened at this conference. From sharing tech tools to insecurities to bigger picture issues in the edtech world, relationships were built even if there was no expectation to do so initially. That was pretty fantastic. 

Cute shoes are stupid because... walking.

Okay, so stupid is a harsh word, but let's just say I'm sticking with cozy all week next year. ISTE = insane amounts of walking. I wore cute shoes for ONE day - the day of my poster presentation - and experienced my first bl-ISTE-s. And that was Day 2. Oops.

Go to a local sports event or tourist attraction.

I had the opportunity to go to the Atlanta Braves vs. New York Mets baseball game while I was at ISTE. I absolutely adore live sporting events and love checking out different stadiums/field/arenas. I could have done without the Braves fans' Tomahawk chop, though. Seriously... that's messed up.

Do a photowalk.

Photowalks are great for helping you explore the city and all it has to offer. Our group shot some beautiful spots and fabulous architecture in Atlanta. And more than that, we found out where the places we wanted to visit were. I wish we would have had more time to actually do so... I'd love to check out the Aquarium and the Civil & Human Rights Museum.

I'm sure I could come up with many more things to recommend to myself for next year, but my lack of sleep is protesting against my will to write. Until next year, ISTE. It's been a slice!

I’ve always known that I’m NOT the best teacher for every kid in my class. However, I've always been someone who’s worked to be the best teacher that I can be for them. At different times in the year, I've learned that I'm falling short of being the best that I can be for some of my kids. So what can I do? ...It’s not like those kids are going to disappear from my class!

Like any effective teacher, I will change my approach for them. I will mold. Adapt. Flex. Find new and exciting projects or activities that will pique curiosity, motivate, and engage those students. We all know that these changes don’t come easily, or even quickly. They take hard work and determination.

But what happens for me when I try these new things… these new pedagogical tricks and strategies? When I give the integration of a new technology a go? When I experiment with passion-based projects and their associated organized chaos?

Well… here’s the long and short of it: It just might not work.

Actually, most of the time it doesn’t work. Sometimes this is because I am a self-proclaimed ‘program skimmer’; I don’t like to read the instruction manual before attempting to build the model. More often than not, it’s because the technology that I’m tinkering with doesn’t work the way I had envisioned it to (the NERVE!). But the bottom line is that I fail in my classroom in front of my kids... ALL THE TIME.

So why am I sharing this? Isn't a teacher's blog a place where shining and celebratory ideas are shared? Where pristine examples of lessons are glowing with positive commentary and reviews?

Umm, nope. Nope, nope, and nope. And if yours is like that, you’re not sharing the hardships. We all have them… And we need to share them.

Just like me, you’re probably not the best teacher for every kid. That’s okay. Remember: that which we share is that which will allow us to learn, grow, and expand. Let’s celebrate and embrace moving out of our comfort zone in teaching. 

Bill Selak and I have been chatting a lot on the topic of modeling innovation and educational risk-taking on Voxer. We both feel that it is important to innovate within your teaching practice, reflect, and have a space to share and feel supported in BOTH your eduwins and edufails. Join us on Twitter by using the hashtag #EdFailFwd as we try to help ourselves and others to deal with the everyday obstacles we encounter in our jobs and move forward. Let’s #EdFailFWD together! 

The inaugural EdCamp35 was held in Langley, BC at R.E. Mountain Secondary this past Saturday. I had a lot of fun preparing for this event with the rest of the EdCamp35 planning team, who dedicated countless hours to ensuring that the event would be a success. 

I have to admit that leading up to the event, I was extremely nervous for the day to come. This was the first edcamp that I'd really had a hand in planning (I did a tiny bit of work for EdCampWest Online last year) and of course, I wanted it to be a progressive and useful day for the attendees. The planning team worked very hard to emphasize the adoption of suggesting and voting for professional development that you wanted and/or needed, of open conversations rather than presentations, of voting with your feet, and of building empathy and networking with different educational stakeholders in order to find alternative perspectives on education.

There were plenty of registrants from our own district representing all areas in education - teachers, administration, support staff, student teachers, parents, students, school trustees, and district leadership. (When your District Leadership Team shows up AND sits in sessions to listen, you know your district is headed in a good direction!) We also had incredible representation from all over the Lower Mainland, the island, the Sunshine Coast, and we even had an international showing! 

So, the actual day? It rocked. The honest truth is that any edcamp is driven by the participants in it... of which, as I mentioned earlier, we had a lot of awesome ones. Here are my awesome eduwins, thanks to those folks:

Getting to hang out and throw together the details with an awesome planning team? Check.

Meeting the #bcedchat mod team face-to-face -- the first time all four of us were ever in the same room? Check.

That feeling when all of the technological workflows that you set up for the day actually work? Check. (Okay, so this was a personal win for me, though my PLN did get involved a little bit. Also, see our shared documents here.)

Having awesome conversations that expanded my thinking? Check.

Getting to meet so many members of my PLN that I had talked to extensively online? Check.

And now, 2 days later, there has been a particular influx of poetry on social media (yes, poetry - you know who you all are) in reflection on the EdCamp35 experience, so here is my little contribution:

I would like to end this post by thanking the planning team for EdCamp35. Events like these would never be made possible without the amazing support that we received in our district. A special thanks goes to Magdy Ghobrial, Ngaire Leaf, Nick Ubels, Chris Wejr, Shawn Davids, and Katherine Mulski for their devotion, attention to detail, sense of humour, and pure awesomeness that you brought to this experience. I can't wait to work with you all again next year.

Thank you to all that attended EdCamp35! I'm loving the incredibly reflective blog posts, emails, and feedback that our team has been getting from the attendees.  Keep 'em coming!

Happy "connected educator" anniversary to me!  It's been exactly a year since I stumbled into my first #edchat and #patue chats, which inspired me to start my own blog. 

That's where this journey of transformative career growth truly began for me. On this day last year, I think I was following 30 people and probably had the same amount of tweets. One year later, I find myself reflecting on the professional journey I've taken and I am considering some thoughts:

• I became seemingly unconnected to suddenly connected; what changed for me that day? 
  
• Why did I keep coming back for more?
  
• How did Twitter and blogging transform my practice?
• How do I feel now?

Unconnected To Connected: What Changed For Me That Day? 

Nothing really changed about me as a person that day. Or the next. Or the next. 

What changed was the tools I used to get the job done (the job being to find resources and ways to professionally develop myself and grow as an educator).  I came into that situation with a growth mindset and I learned about a place that would feed that motivation. Most social media users are motivated to be present, participate, help, and share. Some watch from afar (AKA lurking), and that's cool, too, but the general idea is that everyone there is trying to grow their pedagogy and practice.

Why Did I Keep Coming Back For More?

Twitter was easy, fun, and I could access what I wanted, whenever I wanted, through the power of a hashtag. I could connect with educators I didn't know, chat with ones that I did, and even make new connections in my own district through it. 

Because of the list of Twitter educational chats curated by Jerry Blumengarten, Chad Evans, and Thomas Murray, I had access to several topical areas in education that I may be interested in. This list guided me on many occasions so I knew which hashtags to use for specific questions I had.

How Did Twitter and Blogging Transform My Practice?

When I jumped into the Twitter world, I dove in head-first and prolifically tweeted for the first 4-6 months...

Twitter chats. Impromptu discussions. Questions to hashtags. Late night work crew. Google HangOuts. Online edcamps. 

The pedagogical ideas and philosophies that are offered through these networks of educators on social media only scratch the surface of what became a transformative change in my practice. Blogging helped me to reflect on how I designed learning opportunities with my students and how I approached specific situations. Discussions with educators from varying regions helped me to gain a huge appreciation for my own province, district, and school settings by being exposed to other educational climates and their respective challenges. Connecting with these peers at local and global levels also held me accountable to my word -- when I told someone that I was going to try something, I really had to try it -- I did say it on the Internet, after all!

Advice for newer edu-folks taking this road: The tools are aplenty and the ideas can be overwhelming. Take what you need and take a break when you need it. Social media and those motivated & sharing educators will still be there when you come back. Check out this post by David Truss that outlines (literally) everything you need to know about tapping into Twitter as a professional development tool.

How Do I Feel Now? 

My feelings, one year later? One word: grateful.

I'm grateful for my PLN and all that they've done for me. I'm grateful that they are better than Google or any educational database out there when I'm looking for that one thing that's going to make that lesson pop. I'm grateful that I have support locally and globally on my students' and school's initiatives. I'm grateful for the opportunity to travel, present, and share the stories of my students and to learn about the students of others. And most of all, more than anything, I am grateful for the connections that have blossomed into incredible friendships. 

So, PLN, thank you. We all stand on the shoulders of giants, and you're mine. 

Things that don't suck: "Things That Suck" sessions in EdCamps. 

Before I attended EdCampDelta today, I was pointed toward this post on Things That Suck sessions by Bill Selak, an awesome educator from California. Then I received a demanding tweet from Karl Lindgren-Streicher and Kristen Swanson saying that a Things That Suck session had to go down at EdCampDelta today.

Problem: I had never even been to one of these sessions before, let alone facilitating one of these conversations! But hey, why not just dive into learning something new? After all, isn't that what EdCamp is all about?

So I downloaded Bill's slidedeck of topics to cover in the session and tweaked a couple of them to be more relevant to our work in BC schools. If you didn't read Bill's post, the basic premise is that the room is divided into two camps - things in education either SUCKING or ROCKING - making clear your stance on the specific debate topic based on where you stand in the room. I did give a nod to the grey area crowd as well, where I stand on quite a few issues myself. The facilitator then would have folks justify their opinions on the topic at hand and have a friendly debate about it. Participants can move about the room as they choose based on the points coming up in the conversation.

BUT. There's always a BUT... 

Most of the participants in the room were students. In a room that was quite full, I would actually say that well over half of them were students. Some of them had NO IDEA what some of the topics even were, including topic related to technology! After having to explain a few topics to them like Technology Carts, the New BC Curriculum, Interactive Whiteboards, and ePortfolios, I made a quick realization:

Cue the cool idea in my head that has a lot of potential:

EdCamp is based on the idea that we should come choose our own conversations to have around professional development, right? So why not have participants select topics that they actually want to have a debate about before the session begins? It's really no big deal to discuss and throw those suggestions into a Google presentation or a Keynote in a matter of minutes as the participants trickle into the room! And voila - your conversations are tailored to the needs of the participants - it's like an EdCamp within an EdCamp! (#MetaCamp? :) I digress.)

More than that little idea, Chris Wejr later pushed me to consider that the "fence-sitters" should have to decide at some point on which side of the topic that they're going to pick to debate. Keep in mind that they can move as the discussion continues, but this promotes an increased amount of conversation and thought, even if one is forced to play devil's advocate (I did for a few topics, and it was really fun). 

Either way, our Things That Suck session was incredibly infused with ever-valuable student voice, insightful parents, and amazing educators. I had a lot of fun and learned a ton! 

Thanks to the organizers of EdCampDelta for a fun-filled day of conversation, discovery, and learning. My other three sessions were also fantastic and I just can't wait for EdCampWest and EdCamp35 coming up in the spring! 

You've read it, you've watched it. If you know me, you'll know that I think Twitter is an amazing place to build an educational PLN.

But lately I've noticed something. Something that, if changed, might change everything as us Twitter-ers know it…

That “something” is a something that I, too, have experienced: A tweeter’s voice tends to be only as big as its follower count. We typically revere and idolize those who have large followings and set them on a pedestal, especially when we are just at the beginning. “They must be smarter and more brilliant; they must have more to offer than... me. I’m just me, after all...” I remember saying these things to myself six months ago. And sometimes, I catch myself still doing it. 

I’m not here to say that the folks with large following counts aren’t brilliant or worth holding in high regard - we know that is not true in most cases. But I am here to say, in the most sincere and respectful way that I possibly can, that we all need to listen to different voices and perspectives, regardless of their follower count. Behind every educator’s Twitter handle, there is a person with a valuable opinion and outlook on education.

So in my reflection of this, I got thinking… Can you imagine what would change on our PLNs if no one knew how many people were following you?

Ask yourself these questions...

If no one knew how many people were following you, what would change?
...Would your voice change?
...Would your contributions change?
...Would you tweet more? Less? 

Could you begin to inspire others if no numbers were attached? Or could you continue to?
...Would people listen?

Could conversations be further enriched? 
....Would more educators feel safer in making contributions?

Would there still be "rockstars"? 

How would leaders emerge? Is that a natural process?

Would more people decide for themselves rather than going with trends?

Would our connections with one another change?


Just some food for thought. Some consideration. Some questions. If we didn't see quantitative follower/following information, I genuinely believe that the attitudes of the learning community might change.

It doesn't matter if you have ten followers or ten thousand, everyone has something to add to the conversation. Twitter is a tool that I use to share with, learn from, and offer help to other educators. What do you use it for?

This is a video project that I created for my Mobile Technologies class (ETEC 565M) in the UBC Master of Educational Technology program.

My personal journey with this social media has opened up and transformed my educational world. Because of Twitter, I have enjoyed several professional experiences over the past six months like connecting with colleagues at edcamps, traveling to California to attend conference and collaborate with other educators, and establishing online communities and conversations through hashtags like #bcedchat. I am passionate about the use of this tool, among many, to help educators connect and transform their own professional learning experience.

Check out my video below to find out more!

Thanks for reading, watching, commenting, and sharing! Happy tweeting! 

Oh, man.  September is over.  Queue the music.  Breathe.  ... Right?

This first month of school has brought with it many adjustments in my world.  I'm at a new school, teaching a new grade, working with a new staff on technology goals, and getting used to the workload involved with two graduate courses. Needless to say, September has been a bit of a whirlwind.  Mix those together with all of the things I was already doing and that is a recipe for an imbalanced disaster.  A month later, I'm just starting to finally feel like I'm on top of these new demands.  My absence from blogging has been due to my attempts to normalize my new realities.  Something had to go on the back burner for the month.  But now, I'm in control.... for the moment.

People often ask me, "How do you have time for all of that extra stuff?" These questions always spin me into a state of reflection.  Of course, I've asked myself the same thing.  How do I have time?  Is my life in a perpetual state of imbalance?  Am I happy even though I work practically every waking moment of the day? Is burnout inevitable? 

If you've ever been in a similar situation, you'll relate that reflecting on this is extremely difficult.  When you're so entrenched in the status quo, it's hard to see how far you can bend before you break.  While connecting to new people and ideas is important, it's also important to take a step back to understand what you're capable of and why it matters to you.  That's what fuels my passion -- the "why" I do it, not the "how".

So here's why it all matters to me:

1. I absolutely adore my students and want to deliver the best educational experience they can possibly have.
   
2. I love learning.  I love finding out new information.  Between my PLN and the MET Graduate program, I am consistently forced outside my comfort zone, and that's a good thing.
3. Growth is essential in our profession.  If you don't set out to improve yourself, no one is going to do it for you.
4. I am passionate about meaningful technology integration in the classroom.  It needs to be relevant for the future, not the present, and certainly not the past. 
5. Throughout this journey, I've made incredible connections who have given me consistently overwhelming support every step of the way. I want to pay it forward and inspire others to connect.
   
   

 With those things in mind, I can confidently say that I'm very happy with my life and the time that I dedicate to my work and studies.  Should I be making more time for other things?  Sure.  I'd argue that most educators could use a little more balance.  But just as September did, this, too, shall pass.

The educational realm of the Internet: A place where sharing is encouraged, but for the newbie, the audience can be perceived as a pack of hungry wolves idly waiting to tear your ideas apart...

If this is your thinking as someone new to educational blogging, tweeting, or sharing of information, I want to stop you dead in your tracks.  There is certainly a scary notion to sharing your ideas on the Internet, particularly through the forum of blogging, where what you share can be accessed and criticized at any moment.  At least a tweet disappears down a feed and is less and less likely to be accessed again after some time has passed.  I would argue that easy access and susceptibility to criticism is the #1 reason that the "newbies" and "lurkers" don't share their work in passion areas in a blog format.  While that reason is certainly valid, I have several reasons to counter that thought.


Who Are You Blogging For? 

Blogging should first and foremost be of value to the sharer.  My personal mission with blogging is to better develop my educational ideas so that I can better educate my students.  When I began writing my blog posts, I found that my motivation to make my ideas "airtight" increased - to rethink all possible angles, to craft my ideas and transform them from something good into something great. My ideas became more than a simple thought that floated through my mind just as I was about to fall asleep; they became strategized published works and they developed further than I could have imagined some of them developing.  Reflective processes are greatly strengthened as a result of sharing because you anticipate the criticism before it even comes.  It should be considered that you are very likely impacting and helping others through the sharing of your ideas, but it should not be your primary focus.  While it's great to help others as a result of your blog, you should be helping yourself first! 

I Don't Have the Gift of the Written Word!

What if I don't have the ability to "box up ideas" and tie a bow on them? Guess what?  That ability doesn't develop overnight.  Worse yet, what if I don't have any ideas?!  Relax!  The best writers in the world didn't learn their craft by opening up a webpage, slapping random ideas onto it, and clicking "publish."  They brainstormed.  They dreamed.  They wrote.  They re-wrote. They threw it out.  And then they started again.  Even as I write this very post, I'm keeping notes for myself at the bottom of the text box of what I need to accomplish in this post and things I've cut out because they just don't fit.  Some of those cuts have even given me ideas for future posts.  As an added bonus, blogging has helped to further develop my writing abilities and to forge my own personal style .  As you, too, continue to practice that craft, you, too, will become better at it. 


What Are People Going To Say About It?

Of course, we have to touch on criticism.  Criticism is a tricky concept to address because everyone takes it differently. Personally, I've always been the person who has focused on the single piece of negative feedback swimming in the greater sea of positive feedback.  I'm finding that there are a ton of people like me who practice that bad habit.  However, something that Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like A Pirate, writes about criticism rings mighty true in my ears: 

Through blogging, I've learned to take criticism as an opportunity to better myself.  Instead of viewing it simply as criticism, I view it as constructive criticism.  If a person is taking the time to pick apart my idea, then it is in my best interests to explore why that is occurring.  Perhaps there is an avenue I hadn't considered?  Or perhaps the context of the idea is not well-communicated through my writing style?  I always try to spin that commentary into a positive question that will help me learn how to better develop and communicate my ideas.  Educators are not meant to be islands; let the criticism of others remind you that you can be better tomorrow than you were today. 

The last thing on this topic: there typically isn't that much criticism to be had in the blogosphere.  As mentioned earlier, the tendency to focus on the negative that might happen is what instigates the fear to post in the first place.  The truth is this: the online educational world is FULL of positive and amazingly supportive individuals who will undoubtedly extend that same courtesy to you.  Feel comfort in knowing that they're anything but the "hungry pack of wolves" that I alluded to at the beginning of this post. 


How Do I Start?

That answer is simple: Pick a blogging tool and GO!!!  

I use Weebly because I love the drag and drop interface (very easy for beginner bloggers), but there is also Blogger, Edublogs, Wordpress, Tumblr... I'm sure the list goes on.  Pick one that fits with your tech abilities and/or workflow.  Once you have it set up, draft a bunch of different working titles based on your ideas and topics of interest.  I usually have 5-6 saved drafts going at one time and I'll add pieces to them here and there as I see fit.  Honestly, though, most of the time I just get an idea and complete the post in the same day.  It really helps me sort out the weaker topics that I come up with and builds relevance for my day-to-day observations of my world or areas I need to build upon for my teaching practice. 
 

It is my hope that this post can inspire new bloggers to take the plunge and start sharing their innovative ideas.  I invite all of my readers, whether new to blogging or a seasoned blogger, to continue this conversation and share feedback with me by leaving a comment below.  Thanks for reading!

- Victoria