Twitter Chat, Pt. 3 (Most Useful)

I write, now, the blog post I should have waited to write before. My post Monday night is the definition of "knee-jerk" reaction, with the emphasis on "jerk." I apologize to anyone I may have offended, although I believe what I said needed to be said; and I have already seen the positives beginning to emerge. But it took decency and forbearance by many of my colleagues to make that happen. I should have said it differently.

But I was mad; and I shouldn't have been. The ILEdChat was not arranged for my benefit. Although I was invited, I did not set the agenda. Many high-level admins from across the state were a part of that chat, and they had extremely important details to work out. And I don't think everyone's answers are ever going to be provided in a one-hour chat format. I need one of those epic question-and-answer events like you see on C-SPAN about 2 o'clock in the morning.

The next day I was less mad, and slightly less stupid. Still, I sensed that I was making a difference somehow. I had gotten some people's attention, and not in a negative way. Like I said, my colleagues deserve the credit here. They could have sent me to Twitter Hell somewhere, but they sensed my honesty I guess.

I was being honest. Maybe too honest. But as long as I make a difference, then I'm happy. I saw a conversation that I didn't think was helping any student in Illinois. And I couldn't imagine a conversation between educators that didn't do that. But for admins in the education system, these are the things they are responsible for; so they were doing their jobs. And I was doing mine.

In the end, it's all good. I made some new connections, and I sense a real desire, collectively, to make a difference in the lives of Illinois students. (People seemed to genuinely care that I felt like I was left in the cold.) But we must make these differences in our own way. I won't criticize others for the way they work; and I expect they wouldn't criticize me for the way I work, as long as we're on the same proverbial page. The positives here already have surpassed the negatives. I plan on being in on the next statewide chat, and I know that I am welcome, so it should be productive. I know more about what I'm getting into, and hopefully they know that listening to me is at least as important as me listening to them. I think that's the only way it will all work. I think that is the objective of the 5Essentials.

I did participate in another chat Tuesday night, and this one was much more mellow. It was just between us classmates (MBU 543) and our esteemed professor. It went very well, I was able to spout off several times and all of our questions were answered and discussed. I think that's kind of how it's supposed to go, but I am still new at this, so I'll wait and see. It is interesting that our group is made up of educators in various stages of professional development. As a group I think we're very strong and able to solve all of the educational problems in this country if we were allowed to do so. I'm only kidding a little bit. I truly believe we all care very much about the students we are involved with. Unless they are disrespectful, then it's a paddle to the behind. Yeah, even the adults. Ok, now I'm kidding. Sorry.