Thank You...

Last week I shared our classroom Twitter account with my students and set them free to tweet with abandon. I had learned the year before that the first few days on Twitter are a bit insane, kids tweet non-stop. They are beyond excited. This was true this year as well. I shook my head, silently apologizing to the authors that were being bombarded with incessant tweets of “I love your books. Write more.” It was the first experience for these kids where they could reach out and “touch” an author, and they were a bit giddy. I knew if I just rode out this wave, their Twitter use would calm down to a manageable amount of tweets, so I stayed quiet.

Friday I went to grade their writing journals for their slice of life writing. Flipping through entries, I saw posts on football games, playing outside, grandparents, etc. Looking through Drew’s, I stopped when I saw an entry marked Twitter. I looked closer. Drew had tweeted Dan Gutman sharing how much he loved his books and asking him to write more. Dan tweeted back and told Drew he would.

Drew’s entry goes on to say how beyond thrilled he was that Dan said his name. He goes home, tells his parents about it, and decides that one of his life goals will be to meet Dan Gutman in person.

This happened over and over last week. Jenni Holm, Gordon Korman, Tom Angleberger, Kazu Kibuishi, Raina Telgemeier, Lisa McMann, and more tweeted my students back when they sent out their bazillion tweets. I don’t know if they realize the impact of that. These kids would shout out when they saw a tweet favorite or replied to. They’d run around, showing everyone their iPads and say, “She tweeted me back! She tweeted me back!” It was awesome.

I always say we live in a tiny little hamlet here in Monticello. Surrounded by cornfields, thirty miles to the nearest bookstores, much more than that to a bookstore that would actually have author visits. These kids don’t often have the chance to interact with authors and I wanted to change that. I grew up here. I never thought I could be an author because that wasn’t something that happened to “real people.” Because of Twitter, my students can get to know authors as people and that can become a real dream for them. That makes me happy. Having authors tweet my students back and make their day or week? I can’t even begin to say how grateful I am for that. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

The Kindness of Strangers

I joined Twitter in June of 2009. I remember joining on a whim, not really thinking anything about it. It was right around when Ashton Kutcher had bet Ted Turner that he could beat CNN in the race to a million followers. Ashton won and now has over fifteen million followers, CNN just over eleven million. Not sure what this says about our society.

And yet, I joined. A teacher in my area said that Twitter was excellent professional development. I logged on, started following that teacher, the teachers she followed, some authors, some tech folks, and I waited. Slowly, I began sending tweets. I became online friends with some of the folks I met. I grew as a teacher. I found my tribe.

It is not a flippant remark to say that Twitter has changed my life. Because of it I have traveled to national conferences, presented at those, began a blog, became published, began the dream of a book, and met some of my closest friends. Even knowing all of that, I am still floored on a regular basis by my Twitter community.

Yesterday I found out that a friend will begin teaching in a middle school classroom after Christmas break. I was beyond excited to learn this, but wondered how I could possibly help her out. When I started thinking about it, I realized she wouldn’t have much of a classroom library, if there was even one at all. I started scanning my shelves of my bedroom for YA books I loved, but don’t need to keep. It wasn’t much, but I got a small stack started. Then I thought of my twitter friends and sent out this tweet:

I didn’t expect much, but I knew many of us were just at NCTE. Sometimes I grab some YA ARCs and read them, but then pass them on to others since they can’t go into my classroom. I figured if anyone else did the same, maybe I could grab a few books from a couple of friends and send those to her too. Within minutes of my posting the tweet, author CA London sent me this one:

And on it went. So many people have messaged me, so many more will. I am humbled and grateful. I knew my friends would likely send a book, but folks I’ve never met beyond the world of Twitter messaged. I am grateful for my friend, for her students, and just for myself. This past week I saw some ugliness on Facebook, folks being mean to be mean. I despaired for our world. Yesterday and today have served to remind me that there is so much kindness, so much goodness out there. You just have to decide where to focus. I choose kind.

Happy Holidays!  

Reflections from All Write - Mentors

Last week I attended the All Write conference in Warsaw, Indiana. This was my third year in a row that I had the chance to attend – and it was as wonderful as ever. Over the course of two days I attended ten sessions, each one teaching me something new. Tomorrow I hope to write up a blog post highlighting just a bit of the learning I walked away from this conference with. Today, however, I wanted to share some ideas from the Thursday night dinner.

Each year at All Write they invite an author to speak at a dinner on the first night of the conference. Two years ago we listened to Gordon Korman. Last year we were honored with Ralph Fletcher. This year it was Kate Messner.

Kate is one of the first people I “met” on Twitter. I still remember being in awe when I learned that she was writing a book – The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z – AND teaching middle school. That first year she Skyped with my school, shared insights from her classroom, and wrote more books. Amazing.

Kate’s talk at All Write dealt with the idea of mentors. She had a picture of Dumbledore up and said we often think our mentor has to be an old wise man, but really it can be anyone. Kate shared that it is important to look for your mentors, learn from them, and thank them. Mentors can help enrich our lives while helping us to grow and learn.

I sat at the table that night and reflected on this idea – who were my mentors? Truly, I am blessed with many. I have mentors that show me how to be a good parent, friend,

teacher, wife. The mentors in my life help me to grow, push myself, reflect. When I lose confidence in my abilities, there are mentors I turn to and gain guidance. And while I have fabulous mentors in my town, the mentors I thought of while sitting at Kate’s dinner have all become part of my life through Twitter.

Starting Twitter four years ago, I don’t think it would have dawned on me how important it would become. I attended this conference because of Twitter. Two teachers from my own district came for a day of it because I knew about it to share with them. I sat at tables, in sessions, or at dinner with people I consider close friends and those friendships began on Twitter. Leaving the conference, I brought my friend Donalyn to my home for a night to meet my family and talk books. I wouldn’t have known her without Twitter. And Sunday she and I drove three hours to meet two friends, shop for some books, and share a meal. Guess where we all met? Twitter.

These friends I have met through Twitter have become my mentors. They have shared ideas for teaching, helped me to solve issues in my classroom, and encouraged my own professional growth. They have pushed me out of my comfort zone and nudged me to think of writing a professional development book when I was sure that was impossible. They have become more than friends on a screen, they are my friends in real life and my mentors. So, as Kate suggested, I want to thank all of those Twitter friends for spending time with me at All Write and more – I’m grateful to you all.  

Opening up our classrooms

Students checking out Mr. Sharp's video

I love opening my classroom up, showing my students that the world is bigger than our tiny piece of it. Skyping has helped in that endeavor – and I cannot wait for my first Skype session this year. I also love to collaborate on units and lessons within my own district, creating lessons with other teachers, working with specialists to pull in their knowledge and teach my students that people beyond their crazy reading teacher love literature and technology. But today I was reminded of one of the biggest collaboration tools I’ve come across in the last three years, Twitter.

I joined Twitter three years ago this summer. Signing up, I didn’t think I would get much from it. I think the only thing I knew about Twitter was that Ashton Kutcher had a lot of followers. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

I immediately began following educators and authors. Twitter has become, as Donalyn Miller puts it, the best “armchair PD” out there. I can ask questions, get assistance on a lesson issue, or just discuss books. I’ve made friends through Twitter, people that I communicate with on a regular basis. I’ve grown as an educator through Twitter. Probably the biggest shock was that through Twitter, and my friends there, I’ve also begun to realize my dream of writing.

Today as I taught a lesson in my reading class the beauty of Twitter was brought home to me. I’m reading R.J. Palacio’s Wonder to all three of my reading classes. The kids hang on Auggie’s every word. (For those of you that know the book, we hit the “Bleeding Scream” scene today. Oh boy.) Today I pulled up a blog from my friend Jen Vincent talking about her student, Michelle, who shares some of Auggie’s medical complications. (HERE) Wow, the discussion was amazing. The kids were kind, insightful, curious, and made connections that I was astounded by.

Then we switched gears and talked about how to share books with each other and how some people wear their love of reading on their sleeves. To illustrate this I shared Colby Sharp’s opening day video from last year. (HERE) The kids giggled, talked about what it would be like to be in Colby’s class, and discussed why he was a “cool” teacher. I pulled about six books that I said would be some of Mr. Sharp’s favorites (Bigger Than a Breadbox, Hound Dog True, Babymouse, Hatchet, The One and Only Ivan) and book talked them all. All of these books were checked out by the end of the day.

Educator friends from Twitter like Donalyn Miller, John Schu, Tony Keefer, Frankie Sibberson, and so many more have come up almost daily in our classroom. I’m thinking of grabbing a map of our country and pinpointing friends’ classrooms on it so kids can refer to them easily. Hopefully once my Skype operation is working again we will Skype in their classrooms because as I watched my students reading about Jen and Michelle today – and laugh with Colby  – I realized that my classroom is a richer place for because these amazing educators are part of it.