find people to follow and jump right inThere's about a gazillion math teachers on twitter, and if you follow them all, you're going to have too many people to keep up with. We've created lists of people that you might want to follow, based on your interests.
After you start following these people, read what they're writing. It might not make sense at first -- as they are probably in the middle of ongoing math and non-math conversations with others. But just read what they're putting out there.
Then you're going to start deciding how you want to use twitter. And we've compiled some advice for jumping in. here are the experiences of four twitterers
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@mathtastrophe mathtastrophe.wordpress.com/
When I first joined twitter I was really just doing it so I could stalk my favorite edubloggers and eavesdrop on all their conversations. I soon found myself hitting the reply button, typing something, and then hitting cancel. I wanted more out of twitter but was afraid. At first glance it seems like a private club and I thought I would never make it past the bouncers. I decided I wanted to slowly integrate myself into the community and I did that by tweeting just one person at first. After talking with them briefly about formative assessment books we moved onto other topics. Soon others started jumping in and within a month I had decided this was the best decision I had made since deciding to become an educator. I had just finished my first year teaching and I was laid off due to a reduction in force. When I had interviews who did I prep with- my mom? NO! Twitter. Within a month twitter changed my life. Now it’s not all unicorns and bunnies, it feels awkward. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to jump into conversations but bowed out because I was afraid I was intruding. You are not intruding. If you have something to say – tweet it. These are educators who don’t clock out at 3 and actually enjoy having conversations about the classroom – embrace them and they will embrace you.
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@mgolding kalamitykat.com/
Breaking in on Twitter conversations is intimidating! For some, you'll be good just hearing the advice to "don't fear, just jump in!" But that never helped me. I lurked for about 4 years before jumping in with teachers I admire. I was anxious of being laughed at or ignored. My anxiety is lower when I'm helping rather than being helped, so I waited for a conversation where I could help. I remember conversations between 2, then 3, and eventually 4 teachers. Scary! Twitter etiquette says it's ok to break in on any conversation (by preserving all the @ names already there) and the participants actually welcome it.
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@MrPicc112 mrpiccmath.weebly.com/
When I started in the crazy awesome world of Math Twitterdom, I felt as if I had nothing to contribute, and in all honesty, I really didn't. I read blogs, and followed people to get ideas, to steal and adapt. It was very fly on the wall sort of things, but it helped me realise what was possible in the classroom. Then I actually tried my own lesson. It wasn't the greatest, but I asked some people on Twitter to look at it, and tell me what they thought. I learned that you have to take a leap; you have to take the initiative to get even just one person to look at your work. Yes it is humbling to do this, but the truth is people want to invest in people who are investing as well. Everyone is willing to help and you just have to ask. Once repeat this process, something crazy happens... people start asking you questions. Do them the same favour.
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@MathyMcMatherso mathymcmatherson.wordpress.com/
I joined twitter shortly after creating a blog because it seemed like the next logical thing to do. I was just starting to get my feet wet in this online community of like-minded math teachers and it seemed like everyone used twitter as a legitimate social network - letting technology facilitate meaningful connections and conversations about teaching and mathematics. So many connections - so many conversations - a richness of experience and passion that can be intimidating to dive into. Most of the time, I find myself taking a back seat to these conversations - watching them unfold as a fly on the wall rather than immersing myself in the discussion. Maybe it's because I'm not as connected to twitter as many of my colleagues - I don't have an app on my smartphone to keep track of updates. Maybe it's because I just finished my first year and I don't think I have much to contribute. I suspect a lot of it has to do with the 140 character limit - a lot of my thoughts end up in a blog post rather than a tweet. But even so, just watching ideas develop in a safe space is somewhat magical. I've seen conversations start on twitter (https://twitter.com/ddmeyer/status/137031799061745664) and end as a blog post (http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=12004). I've seen a call for help turn into a plethora of resources (http://drawingonmath.blogspot.com/2012/04/patterns.html). I've seen enough meaningful discussions take place within this virtual faculty lounge that it starts to make up for the vacuum that can sometimes exist in our real-world faculty lounges. All of this and more is why my typical end-of-the-day routine involves jumping onto twitter for a few minutes just to see what everyone's been talking about, becoming the fly on the wall and watching the giants have their meaningful (and usually hilarious) discussions.
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