I was reminded the other day by the amazing Mary Swinton that less than a year ago I was standing in the hallway of Sigler Elementary telling Matt Arend that twitter was “not my jam”. I was a Pinterest Girl.

I became a Pinterest Girl because it was a search filter vetted by educators-google became my secondary search engine for things that mattered. A curation of sites and resources and ideas put together by people I followed for easy access. So many THINGS. I have a carefully culled list of educators that I follow, an intentional move-that lets me use their boards and brains as a filter for mine. I have spent an innumerable amount of hours sifting through the THINGS that are collected there.  I use it to grab ideas for non-educational things too…it has truly been my go inspiration for present projects and dreams for the future. If Pinterest was a song, it was on full blast and my windows were down.

Fast forward. Twitter is my new favorite song, and it is on ALL of my playlists…BECAUSE twitter is the Pinterest of PEOPLE!

It wasn’t until a year ago that  I really met twitter, or rather was introduced to tweeters. For me, the power of twitter is not in the THINGS (resources strategies, ideas) you can find using a hashtag, it is in the PEOPLE using the hashtag. Twitter is all about connection. I still have lists of people to follow, but instead of only searching what they have pinned, and I can read what they have penned. I can ask questions. I can get answers. I can connect. Of all the THINGS I found of Pinterest, I never found a new colleague, a new thought-partner, a new friend.

The truth is-when twitter wasn’t my jam-I hadn’t really given it a fair shake. I had app on my phone, true. I had tweeted at a few conferences. I had participated in one chat. There…now I can say that I tried it. Check.

It makes me wonder, what else would I love if I REALLY tried it. If I really gave it more than just a cursory download. Are there strategies that would be beneficial to my practice if I took the time to reflect on my implementation and refine my skill? What of these aren’t effective until they become habitual?  What do I need to rethink, strategically abandon, or revise my usage?

What I have learned from this year with twitter is that I will be more careful before dismissing anything on face value. I will commit to continued curiosity and intentional inquiry. If I have a choice to connect, I will choose connection. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. People are worth knowing: they have stories to tell, perspective to give, value to add, lessons to teach…and I am still learning.

-Ash