Twitter Update

After three days of tweeting, my life is changed! A special thanks to those who left a comment and sent out a tweet about us. Wow, what a warm welcome to a new community.

I can’t say that I have a complete understanding of the genre (exactly what is a hashtag?), but I do know enough to see how Twitter can impact the way I locate, organize, and process information. It is powerful and I realize it is something I want to use more often. In fact, I decided that I prefer to tweet as myself and created a new account. I’ll be tweeting regularly @ruth_ayres. I hope it’s not too much of an annoyance to follow me @ruth_ayres instead of @2writingteachrs. I considered keeping two accounts, but I’m trying to stay true to my don’t-make-things-more-complicated-than-they-need-to-be philosophy.

Here is how Twitter us impacting me as a writing teacher —
1. Warm encouragement makes a huge difference. This comes in many forms: explanations and insider information; a hello from a long-lost friend; and even a little bit of humor (thanks Joel!)

2. Learning is about risk-taking. I couldn’t know everything I needed to know until I tweeter bit was going through the process which led to new understandings.

3. Often I want to boil writing down to the step-by-step basics for students. This is impossible. Writing us an organic process and it us through diving in and giving a good faith effort that we learn what we need to know.

If you’ve not stepped out of your comfort zone recently when it comes to writing, then I would highly recommend it. You could: begin tweeting, start a blog, write in a new genre, publish alongside your students, join Slice of Life Tuesdays.

I know I’m not sorry, and I’m sure you wont be either.