British Columbia is behind most every other province and state in North America in getting remote learning going for students. I don't mean we're behind as in we're lagging; the COVID-19 travel restrictions and face-to-face instruction suspensions came down to us in BC while most of us were enjoying our 2-week spring break in March. This gave our instructional leaders time to plan while other stakeholders were all encouraged to continue enjoying their break. (Thank goodness we have leadership and government who care enough about their educators and students not to revoke their spring break, like New York).

Our break meant that others were already forging ahead with remote instruction before we even began. It meant that BC would have the opportunity to learn from other people who were already knee-deep?... chest-deep?... over their heads?... in the reality of what remote learning might look like for their respective communities. Educators across Twitter and other social media feeds were already sharing their work and thinking widely. From shouts of problematic inequities for families to development of best-practice philosophies during crisis teaching, it was all already out there. While we had our own fish to fry in each of our BC districts and school communities, those problems would hypothetically be smaller in scope: we didn't have to reinvent the wheel, because that work was already out there in the open. But...

No amount of powerful philosophy, guiding documents, or support from leadership could strip away the complex emotions within the work we did this week. 

In my district, we have been given a broad runway to get things going with remote learning. With a brilliant focus on "connection," educators of all walks - teachers, educational assistants, youth care workers - were all tasked with phoning the families of their students to check in with them. Our goal was, first and foremost, to find out if everyone was doing okay, but also to identify any inequities that might be experienced in the home: parents who are essential service workers and who require childcare, families who lost income who may need basic support with groceries or bills, families who had a lack of devices or access to the internet, etc. The following week (this upcoming week), is intended as a week to plan, collaborate, and to get a framework up and running for your families to access. Then, after Easter, remote instruction officially begins. 

I had seen so many other educators share about these experiences we were about to go through. While I didn't think I was immune from the emotion, I was certainly prepared for it because of what I read from others... right? By the way, I'm probably not going to say anything new here that hasn't already been sad. However, it's important that our community in BC processes this experience together, just as others have been able to in other parts of the world.

People wanted something for their kids to do, but they were largely feeling patient about the amount of time that teachers needed in order to prepare. They wanted to know how my family was doing and to make sure that we were all right, too. I felt so happy to get this support but so sad that we never really got to say goodbye. 

​After I was done my calls, I wrote a thread on Twitter that I thought had captured some of my feelings, but it didn't fully do the trick. I was emotionally exhausted from the balancing the joy of community support we were receiving with the grief of losing this special time with my class. 

In the end, I took all day Saturday to decompress, thinking of nothing professionally, and my "breakdown" for the day consisted of a 4 hour midday nap.  I'm okay now, but I know another emotional workweek lies ahead and no matter what I read, hear, or see, I'm not going to be able to stop that. 

Let's feel through this. Bring it on.

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!

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. 

My students have been busy learning the rules of the road for posting online and representing ourselves appropriately.  As we have become more comfortable with replying to posts, using hashtags, and knowing who to follow, I have begun to pose more difficult challenges for my kids. This particular challenge is one that I would like to invite you and your classroom to be a part of: The #Grammar911 Project.

#Grammar911 is a hashtag that the @EduMinions (my class) will be using to learn about appropriate grammar and punctuation when posting online.  All too often, I have to remind my students to use capitals, periods, spelling, and appropriate subject-verb agreement in their written work. Through social media, students can create and complete their own collaborative "Daily Oral Language" exercises.

The coolest part is that my kids are very engaged in completing this task as a part of their Daily 5 work in Language Arts. I can offer bite-sized, contextual grammar lessons and my students can immediately experiment with their applications.

1) Begin by modelling. Post teacher-created "messy sentences" with the #Grammar911 hashtag attached. 

When beginning this project, error rates in your modelled messy sentences should start small with one or two errors per sentence.  This way, students will get used to the idea of searching for specific things to correct. Make sure the #Grammar911 hashtag is attached to your messy sentence.

2) Have students correct errors to create a "clean sentence".
     
Here is an example of how we have complete this in our class:

The clean sentence author should begin with an indicator that it the sentence is fixed.  We use two stars -- ** followed by the student's initials so I can track how many contributions each student makes. 

Here are the steps my students typically take: 

1. Select a tweet and hold down your finger on the "messy sentence"
2. Click "Select All" and then "Copy"
3. Tap the Reply arrow
4. Tap and hold in the tweet box and click "Paste"
5. Move the cursor around the tweet using the magnifying glass - hold down and move your finger on any part of the text (students who are unfamiliar might need practice to get used to this feature)
6. Fix the errors, ensure ** and initials/name are attached to "clean sentence"
7. Check with a teacher before tweeting (Some students may not even realize that they haven't corrected all the errors, either!) 

If you want to aim messy sentences directly at your class account, you can do so as I have in the second example below.

Things can also get increasingly difficult as time goes on by adding extra grammatical elements like quotation marks, spelling errors, etc. You can get creative -- as long as it is generally readable! 

You can also create your messy sentences with classroom context in mind. 

3) Have students create messy sentences for each other.

Once students get comfortable, have them begin to create the messy sentences.  Mine started asking if they could post their own almost immediately! Again, they still need to check with their teacher before sending out tweets, and should only be including 1-3 errors per sentence to begin with.  Don't forget to add the #Grammar911 hashtag!

Here is an example of a student-created messy sentence with another student correcting the tweet:

4) Students can create, find, and clean up messy sentences on their own by following #Grammar911!

This is the phase I'd ultimately like to see the project get to.  This would happen when students understand the rules of the road around the project and are using the hashtag appropriately.  My class is getting a point where they are completing the task in a self-directed fashion, and this is where YOUR class comes in!  I'd like to invite you to join the #Grammar911 conversation so our classes can interact and work together on the online language-editing process! 

If you would like some more examples about how this project works, check out this Storify of a few #Grammar911 corrections from my class. 

If you have any questions or would like to contact me, please feel free to comment below.

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!