The Connections Have Multiplied!

Today I was honored to have my review of What Connected Educators Do Differently published on the MiddleWeb website. I was surprised to notice that several things have changed since I wrote the review, (almost) all for the good!

I'm a pink blur near the back.
Photo courtesy of @PrincipalStager

1. I traveled to #edcampLdr in Chicago on July 13. I was able to meet both Jeffrey Zoul and Jimmy Casas, two of the three authors. They could not have been more gracious and welcoming; the entire day was very empowering and inspiring. As a plus, I got them to autograph my book. It figures: the one author whose signature I'm missing, Todd Whitaker, is the one who lives in my state.

2. I got out of twitter "jail". I mentioned in the review that I was limited to following 2000 other twitter accounts. Apparently my following grew enough that I was able to break through that barrier. However, I still recommend using twitter lists, which is one of the things I did when following more was refused.  For example, if colleagues or friends started following me, I added them to a twitter list that I could check periodically and interact with them. I didn't anyone to think I was rude by not following them back.

3. I finished (completely finished) my participation in our wonderful state department of eLearning summer book club on Connected Educators. I found myself looking forward to Mondays to see what that week's questions would be. This was one case where I finished the entire book ahead of time.

4. With nine weeks of school complete, I still feel pretty connected, although I'm spending a great deal more time with my Voxer groups. My first experience with Voxer was through the #BFC530 group last November. Now I belong to more groups, and have even started two on my own. My daily commute is filled mainly with listening to the voxes, and today I even found myself slowing down at a yellow light so I'd have more time to listen. My liveliest Voxer group is edumatch (which now has far more than the 33 members mentioned on the website)

One thing that hasn't changed: my description as a sporadic blogger. Yikes! My last post before this was July 1.