How to Tread Water in 2009

In 2009 I significantly increased my PLN by taking Twitter seriously. I initially started with Twitter in October 2008. To start with I didn't embrace it completely and was a little shy in using it, I thought it was a bit gimmicky . I've found in useful in bringing traffic to my class site, but it was only after paying close attention to my Google Analytic information that I realized even with a limited PLN how valuable it was. 8% of the traffic from my 2009 site accessed it through Twitter, and that's without me being particular to advertise every post.

At that point I had about 200 educational followers. However the advent of the 'lists' for twitter has been something of a revelation for me. By selecting a dozen or so educational lists I have nearly tripled the number of followers. Potentially therefore I am looking for Twitter to have a serious impact the the audience that it could attract for my students class site in 2010. I know that there are educators who have a classroom Twitter account. I'd be a little reluctant myself to do that at this stage given the random tweets (Hello Britney et al)that you can receive. I defiantly think that twitter has its place as a useful tool for increasing your online audience.

My 2009 site Melvilleroom8.blogspot.com has 7,800 unique visitors in a 12 month period but on personal reflection there's not a particular strength to the site. It's the very essence of 'treading water', there's ideas on but too much starts and not enough endings. I was throwing a lot of material at the proverbial wall to see if it stuck, and a lot didn't. If anything its a repeat of what my class from 2008 did, but at that time it was fresh and I was incredibly motivated because as much as the students I was going through the process for the first time. This year at times I was a little jaded and also comparing the apples and oranges of 2008 to 2009, and I think that was passed on at times to the students in my room.

I was also trying to convince my staff to take blogging on board by covering as much of the school activities as I could. Having just changed schools after six years I was hoping that my new school would embrace some Web 2.0 technologies with open arms. I felt a new teaching environment would enable me to bring everyone on board with a real willingness to be involved.
However I was also moving to a location that other than a standard website had no previous history of being online. I think that professionally the steps that I had to take frustrated me somewhat. In addition to that despite my keenness, and my motivation a lot of the patterns from the staff that I had seen in the past repeated themselves in my new environment.

Refreshed from the end of year break that's currently in progress I am determined in 2010 to develop as an educator and continue personal online development. Upon reflection I didn't do enough to ensure that I was developing as an educator in 2009, that I was challenging myself and that I was evolving in an online sense.

Collaborations inspire me, people inspire me.

There have been times recently when I have reflected on the journey that I've gone through as an educator in the last two years. Joe McClung inspires me, and I hope he dosen't mind me saying this but I marvel that someone so relatively young in the teaching field can do so much. Having another 12 years of classroom experience on him I just wonder where he will be at in 2022! Just as much as Joe inspires me for what I've seen from him and I really hope he dosen't mind me saying this but Dr Strange and what's been ongoing with his work in Alabama is something that I am watching with interest from afar.

This year it will hopefully come to pass that Jarrod Lamsheds Class in Adelaide who we've shared some very special collaborations with this year, may even make it to New Zealand to meet our school, which would be a huge, huge moment. Last but not least Wm Chamberlain is someone that I aspire to be a shallow imitation of, his work online his effort and ethic are something that I consider to be outstanding.