Thursday mornings have become my new favorite! Last week, a tiny group of colleagues from my school and I were chatting on Twitter about a whole bunch of ideas and tools we wanted to share. We decided the conversation warranted more than 140 characters, and so the idea of "Coffee and Collaboration" was born.
The conversation last Thursday morning was simply outstanding! It was like our own little version of a Smackdown. What are you doing in your classroom? What new tools are you using? How are you using them? What do you want to try? It started with just four of us, camped out in Joanna's room with coffee cups in hand. A few others trickled in for a few minutes and promised to join us the next time.
Fast forward to this week... 7 of us started our morning with coffee, conversations, collaboration and Butter Braid (thanks, Kristi!) The conversation was just as inspiring as last week! It made me smile that we now have 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade represented at our morning coffee talk. I made a quick word cloud to share some of our topics...
I can't even begin to explain how much I need this. How much I crave this. I am a huge (HUGE!!) fan of Twitter and enjoy dipping my toes into the waterfall of splendid ideas shared by educators and authors. It's also my hope that sharing my ideas and thoughts will help inspire people in the same way they've inspired me.
Twitter fulfills my need to connect, chat, and collaborate quite often. Conferences I attend fulfill that need for me, especially when I can connect with Twitter friends while I'm there. It is a refreshing feeling to be able to have those conversations in real life right down the hallway!
Some of our Coffee & Collaboration friends are just beginning their journeys on Twitter while others of us have already found the power of Twitter as a professional development tool. If you want to come along for the ride, feel free to click on each name listed below to follow them on Twitter!
4th grade teachers - Laura and Laura (me!)
5th grade teacher - Phyllis
I can hardly wait to see what next week's C&C holds for us!
YES!!!! Teacher collaboration sessions just like this is where innovation happens! Power to the PLN! I'd love to GHO into a Thursday coffee meeting :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout out in the wordle...I think I may need a hard copy of this awesomeness!