Twitter Teacher Tues PRACTICE Chat with Author Angela Watson

TONIGHT! TUES TEACHER TWITTER! 

Weekly PRACTICE Chat Continues!

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Does it seem like I'm shouting?  

I am just that excited!

Tonight we will host the incredible Angela Watson as our guest. 

She will be talking tweeting about building RESILIENCE as a professional, 

as a teacher!

From the BTS {back-to-school} season through burn-out. 

She will address the concept of keeping your passion {for teaching} on fire!

Here's Angela's insight on tonight, from her blog!  

Angela will be giving away a digital download of her book, 

"AWAKENED."

The lucky winner will have it in a heartbeat! 

Angela asked me for a brief history of our PRACTICE chat #TeacherFriends so that she could best grasp what has unfolded correctly. Alas. There was no such article to bring to her attention. Here goes the condensed version of what has unfolded this summer.

I will say it right here. This is my baby. MOI! @Kweezlequeen!  

Twitter is an acquired taste to be sure. I LIVE in the visual world of Pinterest and now splash in on Instagram, but TWITTER is da bomb dot com for INSTANT professional support. Support is all about the hashtag {the number/pound sign: #.} Twitter is also all about building your #PLN {professional learning network.} That being established. There are those who do and those who don't. Tweet. That is. 

Not that I really 'get' Twitter, but I can grasp how important it is to attempt to navigate there. What better way to learn something new, than to jump in with some friends? [Want to lose weight? Want to learn a new language? Want to launch a new creative adventure? What better way than to have a group to hold you accountable!?!] 

Twitter has evangelists who truly understand and are intent to light the way. I get that. So it was with some of that same sense of urgency and intent that I encouraged some of my fellow bloggers to join me in an adventure! What if I moderated a PRACTICE chat for the Twitter unconvinced? What if we could create a warm, fuzzy, supportive place for the uninitiated to be willing to jump their shackles of fear and ridicule and attempt something NEW?

Twitter is perceived as something the UBBER-tech highly sophisticated cyber-borgs grasp and we mere mortals are left on the outside looking in. What if we could change some of that perception? There are incredible chats taking place ALL the time, between like minded folks all sharing the same hashtag. BUT. If you're not on Twitter, you're literally NOT a part of the conversation. I have heard people say that they do not enter these BIG-TIME chats for fear of 'doing-it-wrong.' 

What if we could PRACTICE chatting on Twitter, just to get the bugs out? What if there was a 'safe' place to learn to chat? What if some of the fear of attempting something new could be promised? What if there were prizes? 

[Some more back-story: I am a cancer survivor. I am a two-time, early Breast Cancer survivor. It was the CHAT function of BCO {Breast Cancer dot Org} that saved my sanity. Literally. I dedicated a couple years of my life to supporting other newly diagnosed women on that chat line. I met amazing women from around the world. I am a HUGE fan of real-time chatting!] 

How to translate that experience to Twitter? 

Tonight I will be giving away a signed and PERSONALIZED copy of my picture book: 

"You're Wonderful!" 

***Here's a VERY clever blog article for Teachers-to-Tweet, brought to my attention HT (hat-tip) to our guest for next week, @Matt Gomez. The author's analogy is that of Skittles, the visuals are super insightful and the article is FILLED with resources and insight. 

Twitter for Teachers Part One the SkittleFall