GUEST POST! Twitter and Professional Development

A big thanks to Kelly Wachel (@KellyWachel) for this guest post! Kelly is the author of the book Parents and Schools Together: Blueprint for Success with Urban Youth. In addition to being a great director of public relations at Center School District, Kelly has a great sense for connecting with people. She's visited with my classes several times about community service and community building. Recently, Kelly has been working with several others at our district as we talk about the role that Twitter can play in our district's professional development. Kelly agreed to turn her thoughts into a guest post! 

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Twitter and Professional Development
By Kelly Wachel
 
When I think about professional development for people working in schools, I think about a bigger picture of how does an activity contribute to learning more about my job?  If you think about professional development in that way, then there are lots of ways to actually participate in it.  Because my daily thoughts revolve around public relations and how I can help our schools be better, I like to think that professional development is also a way to show how we want to be perceived.  I think a lot about perception.  The professional development that we participate in is a reflection of who we are.  How do we participate?  In which ways?  What do we choose to learn more about?

Lots of people say that Twitter has provided them with the most relevant professional development they’ve had.  This is not a knock on previous, or even current, district-organized professional development, but it’s a measuring stick to show where people are going to feel connected.  Twitter is an avenue for people to feel connected to someone in their own school district or someone half-way around the world.  And when you participate in the Twitter conversation, then you are participating in a form of professional development that is solely picked by you.  You have a choice, and that choice is a direct reflection of who you are.

One of our principals, Tyler Shannon (@tshannon49), told me once that “every day is a test.”  I love this comment because it directly relates to the whole perception thing.  Every day is a test of who you are and how you present yourself to the world (your colleagues, your students, your parents, etc.).  By picking professional development that stretches you and challenges you, it forces you to grow.  The challenge is to find that activity that is interesting, fun, and growth-oriented.  How do I get better?  How can I learn more about my job?  There are lots of ways to answer these questions; the tricky part is figuring out how to do it while representing yourself professionally and personally.  Go out there and make the perception of yourself – do it well and help contribute to a bigger picture of your colleagues, your school, your school district, and your community.

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