Skip to main content

#ncsnowchat Yea, that happened!

Last Friday winter storm Jonas paid a visit to a good part of North Carolina, and school cancelations spanned across numerous districts. The first ever #ncsnowchat was being tweeted about on Friday morning as I was scrolling through my Twitter feed, and I was stoked to join in, cause let's be honest 8pm for #nced chat is way too late for this mom of two. Ha! 

 Friday's topic was "Things I Wish I had Learned" and the questions were phenomenal, and the conversations even better! I saw this tweet from Lucas Gillispie and knew early on that it would be a simple task:

Educators that spend part of their day off to make new connections and continue learning are my people!  The chat moved at a blinding pace, and before long we were a trending topic! That's pretty awesome!  It's a powerful thing when one can connect with so many motivated individuals that are working hard to do the best for students.  The topic made me think about just how lucky new teachers are to have Twitter available to them.

Monday's #ncsnowchat discussed "Trust in Schools" and we all shared how we earn it, maintain it, and gain it back after it's lost.  So many of us shared that we know that the personal relationship we establish and nurture with our students is the most important aspect of our classroom.  That trust and relationship is what enables us to help our students connect with the curriculum. Again, all of us participating in this conversation across the state, by choice, and on a snow day! 

We had #ncsnowchat number three today, discussing "How to better achieve your Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (BHAGS)" I semi participated in this chat, as I actually did go in to work today.  But the content was great!  @lisahervey hosted this chat for us and had us share our BHAG's, what's holding us back, and shared a framework for what we'll need in order to achieve them!  Super powerful!  I emailed the staff at my school to come to the media center for some hand-holding to participate in a Twitter chat, and while I didn't get any bites, maybe I'll make that my BHAG to reach for.  

Twitter has been the most powerful catalyst for change in my educational career.  I've discovered and implemented numerous ideas that I've learned about from Twitter in addition to learning from many educators all over the world.  I'm excited to continue to learn from my PLN, and share with others the power of Twitter.  The best impromptu PD out there.  So thanks to the hosts, and I look forward to the next state-wide winter storm.  Until then I'll try to stay up for #nced as well as others. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BreakoutEDU, YES!

Plan. Schedule. Print. Prep. Hide clues. Set locks. Test locks. Double-check clues.  Breathe. Engage. Breakout! I won't sugarcoat this, the process of preparing for my first BreakoutEDU session took me a long time!  (I used a pre-made game, Grammar Guru, it was great by-the-way!) However, every bit of time I spent printing, cutting, re-printing, scanning, and building was WORTH IT! Cyndi Childers, a 6th grade teacher at East Burke Middle School, was looking for something to get her students engaged, and I knew Breakout was just the trick. We ran two simultaneous games in two rooms, with Cyndi facilitating one room and myself in the other.  We had groups about about 12-15 students in each room.  The group size worked, it could have been smaller, but it really wasn't bad at all.   This game has a progression of clue finding, one leading to another, so they were all somewhat forced to be working together on 1-2 clues at once, which I liked.  This help...
5 comments
Read more

September, eesh!

Back to school season is full of events, changes, new people, meetings, and for the Wolfhope family, a periodic fever syndrome for our younger son.  The stress of handling 'all the things' is often tolerable for me, until it's not. I love my job, and the responsibility and the freedom to try and fail, but ultimately succeed. I like knowing how to do things, things that are really kind of over my head, but I think I may be addicted to learning new things. That quest for always knowing more, the love of figuring things out, and the genuine joy I get for solving problems and helping people has really carried me through one of the most eventful Septembers I can remember. But... I'm no superwoman. I have failed, and failed, and failed over and over again. I have let stress and a workload carry-over at home, often distracted, or saying, "I'm almost done." I was overcome with tears, just days prior to my son's surgery date. He's fine. He's a champio...
1 comment
Read more

Blessings and Insomnia

It's 3:24 am and I have been wide awake for a least an hour. It was the coughing that woke me. Not mine but that of my seven year-old. He was diagnosed with influenza A this morning. His three year-old brother was diagnosed with influenza B and is sleeping fitfully next to my husband. Friday, today, will be day five of me staying home with sick kiddos. Two different strains of flu sick kiddos. Super irritable, not so sick that they can't annoy one another, sick kiddos. Super hungry, and attention craving sick kiddos. And in moments, it seems overwhelming, like too much at once.  I have not yet succumbed completely to the stress and exhaustion, and it's because of unyielding grace, understanding, and compassion from both my family and those surrounding my family.  Tuesday night, I went with a bunch of girlfriends to dinner and a movie, and that Brandy wouldn't take "no" for an answer. She knew! Self-care is important, and she made sure I took care of myself. ...
Post a Comment
Read more