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Bearden, S. (2013). 13 great twitter chats every educator should check out. Media inc. Retrieved from https://thejournal.com/Home.aspx

Hammond, L., Hyler, M., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development. Learning Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/

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As I go back to professional development platforms that I participate and plan in my district, I have taken away some ideas from this experience moving forward. First, I plan to encourage early childhood educators to post about their experience in the technology world with their young students. During the sessions I have planned in my DTTP, I can easily be sure to share small and large successes of the innovators and early adopters with appropriate hashtags. I think this would be a step in helping the ECE community to grow in sharing relevant resources and ideas related to technology. Another takeaway I have found is to allow time in a professional development session that I plan for teachers to explore hashtags on twitter. Through this activity I realized how twitter has an unlimited amount of resources that are shared by everyday teachers looking to improve their practice and connect with students. Giving participants time to explore this online network will promote personalized learning as a way to allow teachers to connect with the community including relevant professionals and resources.

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Not much activity happening in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) world

Tried a variety of hashtags separately and together and the most recent posts were over a month ago (see below)

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Constant posts in popular common hashtags

Powerful research tool

Immediate feedback in a twitter chat

Variety of material/resources/experiences shared

Easily able to search and find professional needs

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From this experience, I have learned the need for connection and balance as I begin to design and implement professional development sessions. Participants need opportunities to connect with the content and with other professionals. Hammond, Hyler, & Gardner (2017) share, “By working collaboratively, teachers can create communities that positively change the culture and instruction of the entire grade level, department, school and/or district.” (Defining and studying effective professional development section para.5). The Twitter community is filled with educators that connect and collaborate with one another in order to better their teaching. Many different resources and materials are shared everyday, allowing educators to have plenty of opportunities to connect with a variety of content. In a professional development session, participants should have a balance of how the content is presented to them whether using lectures, handouts, webpages, podcasts, and more as they determine what resources are right for them, just as Twitter offers.

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My attitude changed for the best as I dug deeper into this weeks activity. As I have used twitter and posted minimally, I felt uneasy in the thought of putting myself out there. However, the more I was on TweetDeck, the more I was able to connect with the community. This overall motivated me to want to add my personal experiences as I connected with related chats. As I grow in my PLN, the more I connect and share, the more comfortable I will feel.

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I noticed many observations about the educational Twitter community. It is clear that the community allows for personalization as users are able to follow and unfollow educational interests and philosophies. The community is filled with resources, ideas, and questions related to the users educational needs. The community is filled with ways that educators can improve their current practice in the classroom.The twitter world for education is definitely a need for teachers as they build their PLN.

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I began my Twitter hashtag chat experience by using the TweetDeck tool for the first time. I like how TweetDeck allows users to be aware and active in the Twitter environment at all times. It was simple for me to enter a hashtag in twitter search and begin interacting with what connected with me. Using TweetDeck, I chose to follow the hashtags #blendedlearning, #elemchat and #ece. I noticed quickly how lively the community is.  While searching and browsing, in the #elemchat hashtag a teacher posted a 10 minute podcast sharing ideas to level up elementary math using technology. The podcast shared great ideas that I could definitely tweak and use with my pre-k students. I decided to reply with how I have recently used technology during my math block with students. Feeling like I had connected with this teachers podcast, I felt motivated and interested in sharing my thoughts and experience. In my #blendedlearning hashtag search a first grade teacher shared a wonderful article discussing why in today's classroom we must educate children as global citizens. I connected with this article as it shared examples of how often children learn from each other. I could not agree more with this point. As I connected with this article, I was excited  to get back to my classroom to use technology as a way to capture my students success.
Podcast: http://10minuteteacher.libsyn.com/
Article: https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/49391/why-even-young-students-benefit-from-connecting-globally?utm_content=bufferfefde&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

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For this activity, I decided to go with a Twitter Hashtag chat as my platform for online social networking. Professionally, I have a Twitter account in which I participate minimully and use more as a way of lurking. Bearden (2013) shares, “It’s okay to lurk (which means to follow the discussion, but not participate) at first. Lurking is learning! (para.4). I have used Twitter previously to share some experiences and successes in my classroom but definitely am more comfortable using it quietly as an educational resource. I use my personal accounts similarly. I have Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date with friends, and fitness ideas/motivation, posting minimally about my personal life.  Being moderate in my experience with social networking professionally and personally, I was not overly comfortable with the thought of this weeks activity.