My AHA moment for today

I had one of those AHA moments today. Today I reached sort of milestone, at least for me, I am following 600 and I have 250 followers on Twitter. I asked myself what makes twitter such a great tool for educators and such a popular PLN. There are probably many reasons and I would encourage you to share your own. As I was thinking about it I had my AHA moment. Twitter offers a place that educators can have a stimulating but safe conversation. People may disagree with someone and the conversations can be heated but at least in my experience none of the tweets are out right negative. They may offer constructive criticism but they don’t attack the person who sent it. In the course of tonight’s #edchat almost everyone agreed that in order to increase participation and let your guard down a little you need to feel safe. We as adults are no different than our students and we also need to feel safe as well in order to participate and take risks. I didn't start blogging until I got active in Twitter and the feedback I have gotten about my posts has only been encouraging and positive.
However too often whether it is between a teacher and a student or an administrator and a teacher we offer a compliment or say something positive followed by a negative or a “BUT”. I have been guilty of this at times as an administrator and I have also been on the receiving end of such a “compliment”. Let me tell you there is nothing that deflates a person and makes a person feel insecure than hearing that “BUT”
Therefore thank you to all my followers and those that I follow on Twitter for making it such a positive and worthwhile experience for me and my hope is that we all including me take what is so successful about Twitter and incorporate it into our classrooms and schools.
Akevy