A New Year-A New Me...Thank you Twitter

A most marvelous thing happened to me last May.  I needed to accumulate 2 more hours of inservice or have those two hours removed from my pay.  Hm...I really didn't want my pay decreased, but inservice offerings were hard to find.  Why is this such a marvelous thing...because I attended two Twitter inservices led by a few teachers in our district (@bqcasey & @mjuech27)..  I convinced myself to take these inservice classes seriously and use the new learning to improve my teaching.  Wow...I couldn't be happier!

As Chris Lehman (@iChrisLehman) said at the Wisconsin Reading Summer Institute, "Twitter is the best professional development out there." That is pretty powerful coming from a someone who spends his day working at the  Teacher's College & The Reading and Writing Project!  I have immersed myself with all kinds of new learning with educators from all over the country.  I have rethought my best practices and gained new insight from different perspectives.

So I am calling this a New Year-a New Me as September fast approaches.

• I read many, many middle grade books, YA books and picture books this summer based on recommendations from people I follow on Twitter.  I have participated in the #bookaday challenge, reading a book a day all summer.   I look forward to sharing them with my students. 
• My last post also reflected my opinion of the Top 10 Best Picture books shared at #pb10for10, where I found numerous other picture books to read.  Thank you to @CathyMere and @mandyrobek for organizing this!
• I learned about Teaching Like a Pirate (@burgessdave), primarily as an ELA teacher #elatlap (now #elachat, hosted by @JoyKirr, @BHomel1, @KrinerMom, @JayhawkTN)  and hope to infuse more creativity and engagement in my lessons. 
• I have also joined numerous chats and connected with administrators and lead learners who inspire me to be a positive, productive teacher leader. (#TCRWP, #wischat, #satchat, #mschat, #colchat, #titletalk, #tcrwpcoaching)
• I was also fortunate enough to meet two brilliant people I follow on Twitter this summer Chris Lehman (@iChrisLehman) and Jillian Heise (@heisereads).  It was fantastic to connect with them in person.

I am so thankful for connecting on Twitter, and for changing into a "NEW" me.  I am also so excited about trying all the new ideas I learned this summer with my students and also with the wonderful team of teachers I am a part of.