Well, if I'm going to Tweet, I've decided I might as well jump in with both feet and blog as well! After watching with fascination the events in Tunisia and Egypt during the past couple of weeks, I have new understanding of the power of social media, Twitter in particular.
Two weeks ago, I attended the Conversations Among Colleagues/Math in Action conference at Grand Valley State University, as both a presenter and attendee. I was a bit late for the Keynote speaker, and didn't realize there had been a change in the schedule. That change turned out to be serendipitous for me. Dr. Zalman Usiskin, from the University of Chicago was talking about the new Common Core State Standards as they relate to mathematics. His talk motivated me to begin taking a more active role in speaking out about issues in education. As I contemplated just how to do this, Tunisia and Egypt came to mind. I decided to turn to Twitter as a way to connect with others in education and have a voice myself.
Since beginning to tweet, I have been able to link to a wide variety of blogs that have inspired me to begin my own. I hope to blog at least once a week about a variety of education issues, and at the very least, this blog will help to make my thinking visible and serve as a record of my journey.
What I enjoyed about Kathy's Math in Action presentation was how she was able to speak about a very concrete activity she does with magnets and shrinky dinks, and use it as a context to talk about the big ideas behind her teaching, like immersion and approximation. I'm really looking forward to this blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words, John! I'm looking forward to blogging. I have to admit, writing is harder than it would seem. Ideas and thoughts come to me at the worst times, like in the middle teaching! No time to write them down, then they're gone!
ReplyDelete"Ideas and thoughts come to me at the worst times"
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of part of Elizabeth Gilbert's TEDTalk on Nurturing Creativity - catching the muse.
Good Writing!