The other day I noticed on my mobile app on my phone that I joined twitter on September 16, 2010. I was surprised that I had been on that long, and at the same time was surprised that it had only been a year. Our district brought Will Richardson in for an inservice for administrators about a year ago to discuss the usage of different types of media, including twitter. I really didn’t get it at first, but I gave it a shot. My first tweet went something like this: “So I’m tweeting, now what?” It took a little time for me to see the value in twitter, but a year later, I have a different perspective. I felt like sharing a bit of what my one year journey has been like.

One of the biggest impacts I feel that twitter has had for me is my ability to share information about our students and their activities in a timely manner. Any time we can put more information out there about what is going on with our kids, I think that’s a positive. I’ve developed relationships with local media and community members based upon our sharing information on twitter, connections that were not there at that level a year ago. I like to think that sharing that information makes their job easier, and that it makes it easier for our kids to get recognition. It’s also a quick, efficient way to share lots of information WITH students, as many students follow my twitter account.

Twitter has also given me an outlet to share some free stream of thought, although some people who follow me probably hate that part. In my own mind, I think I am funny. I like to share my (somewhat) funny thoughts. Twitter makes it so that my wife isn’t the only person subjected to my brand of humor. Twitter makes me want to watch award shows just so I can comment. Twitter has also enhanced my sports experience. I interact with tons of Royals and Chiefs fans and it has made me feel more connected with those teams- maybe a closer connection with the Chiefs isn’t something I want this year, time will tell.

To me, the most important aspect of what twitter has given me is the professional connections I have made in the past year. I get lots of professional development in small bites, picking and choosing articles to read that others have linked, and often in short frames of time that I have available (sitting at a ballgame, waiting for a meeting, etc.). I have had the ability to learn and interact from people all over the country and world that I would not have interacted with. I have made personal connections with authors that I admire (Todd Whitaker, @ToddWhitaker) and feel like I have gained friends who share very similar views of education and how we make things better for students (Bill Burkhead, @northeagles) and people who are not educators, but are doing great things to improve their communities (Trish Brown, @TB101163).  These are just a few of the smart, talented people that I count as part of my PLN, a phrase that I was not even familiar with a year ago. I debated if I would list any in this post, because there are so many that I admire and respect in my PLN. I look forward to participating in chats like #edchat and #leadershipchat and being able to get so many different perspectives in a concise format.

As I look back on the last year of twitter (and the slightly over 4000 tweets I have sent), I’d have to say my viewpoint is much different now. I feel that I am more globally connected, but able to act locally with the information I am able to access. Someone once said smart leaders surround themselves with people smarter than they are. Twitter has become an invaluable tool for me to do just that. So I’ve tweeted, and now I really DO know what.