Have you Tweeted? Free #TeacherFriends Professional Development

It is so difficult to find time for travel to out of town professional development opportunities, not to mention asking for and receiving funds for doing so. And, if you have been online at all in your search for ideas to help your students, you undoubtedly have seen the buzz word (acronym), “PLC”.
The late summer startup, #TeacherFriends fits the definition to a T of what an online PLC is:
A professional learning community, or PLC, is a
group of educators that meets regularly, shares expertise, and works
collaboratively to improve teaching skills and the academic performance
of students. The term is also applied to schools or teaching faculties
that use small-group collaboration as a form of professional development. Shirley
Hord, an expert on school leadership, came up with perhaps the most
efficient description of the strategy: “The three words explain the
concept: Professionals coming together in a group—a community—to learn.”

Tho we are not physically in the same room, we share, become educator-friends, and enjoy sharing and receiving information that makes us know we are abreast of the newest best practices in education. All of this by just joining in with other educators once a week for one hour (or however long you decide to participate). You can even be there in your jammies–a major selling point to joining in on the fun of an online community.
Refer to this post for some twitter tips:
http://maggieskindercorner.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-little-about-twitterteacherfriends.html

We have several guests lined up for October-November! Check out our schedule:

Each of these educators are amazing in their own right, and have so much to share.

This week:

If you are interested in reading previous guest chats, here is a link to storify, the online log of all tweets from specific chats. Lots of links and ideas! https://storify.com/kimvij

I encourage you to try twitter for your professional community connections. You will not be disappointed! Be sure to join our practice chat at 8:30 p.m., EST each Tuesday (right before our chat) to learn about how to participate. My favorite tip:

Use #TeacherFriends when responding to ANY question or tweet. Also, use http://bitly.com to shorten links you share in your tweets. Twitter is limited to 140 characters, so make your tweet count!

Be sure to read this blog post for more twitter how-to info!

http://kpoindexter.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/twitter-101/

Moderators to follow at #TeacherFriends:

@Kweezlequeen or @DebbieClement from http://rainbowswithinreach.blogspot.com (national presenter, songstress, and amazing artist)

@fuzzlady77 Kristen Poindexter, Shell’s National Science Teacher of the Year 2014

@EducatorsSpin Kim Vij, former teacher, Pinterest guru, and twitter enthusiast

@maggieskinder Maggie Hufstedler, that’s me! Kinder teacher, website developer/owner, teaching resources, blogger, and musician.

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