I use a web site to keep track of followers and those who unfollow. It’s tacky, I know, but I will follow back on almost anyone who is educationally based, and if you aren’t, if I can see how you’ll add value to my feed and my PLN, I’m going to follow you. Likewise, if I see you’ve unfollowed me, I’ve not added value to your feed, so I feel it’s only right for me to unfollow as well. Again, tacky, maybe, but it seems me sane.
My twitter feed is a mishmash of educators, gardeners, edtech nerds, famers, musicians, artists, authors, feeds with awesome quotes, cool pictures, and on and on. My life is not all about education, so I don’t think my Twitter page should be either. I’ve all ready got a feed for my classroom and a coaching feed, so I’m not going to split out my other one into “professional” and “not professional”. I feel my life gets segmented enough, so I have to draw a line somewhere. It’s authentic, it’s real, and it’s who I am. I am a conflicted soul, always wondering, questioning, and never quite sure of anything.
I found it interesting as I checked that site out, the days that I was tweeting about our church annual conference, after I’d said to excuse me because I was going to be doing a lot of tweeting that way, I lost a ton of followers. Ok, not a ton, but enough that it made me sit up a little straighter and look at how I do my tweeting. Do I want a professional and non-professional feed? Do I need that?
No, I don’t! 🙂 I’m not just a teacher. Like my profile says: I’m a husband and a dad, a son and a brother, an uncle and a friend. If I tweet things people don’t like, they have every right to move on from my feed. But I have every right to tweet what I tweet. If it’s educational stuff, awesome! If it’s about sports, cool! If it’s about our church, excellent (though that’s not going to happen too much!).
So, when you follow my twitter page, I want you to know you are part of a wild and wooly network of learners, a PLN (personal learning network) who are crazy, fun, super intelligent, and wanting to gain knowledge of the life around them! That’s what I want too! I want you to be part of that bigger conversation. And if it’s not for you, that’s ok too.
After all, we can’t always agree about everything, can we?
That would be awful boring! 🙂
The Life of a Conflicted Teacher 
June 10, 2015 at 8:27 pm
Darin, I did all of that for awhile – followed, unfollowed, based on who followed and unfollowed me. Then I just forgot about it all, and followed who I wanted. Sometimes I go through my feed and weed out (I think following 3000 people is TOUGH – even WITH TweetDeck!). I used to get upset when people unfollowed me – now I don’t! I don’t even know anymore, as I got rid of that service/email that told me, and I’m REALLY good with that. It makes me feel so much better. Why, I don’t know, as I unfollow others and don’t worry about it anymore, so why should I get upset if others unfollow me? I used to feel TERRIBLE unfollowing! I’ve since realized that I use Twitter for ME – in ways I want to use it. I love that you’re sticking to YOU, and not splitting up personal/professional. Enjoy this journey that is amazing in helping us become better at our profession, and at times better people!
June 11, 2015 at 8:52 am
Hey Joy! 🙂
And I think you’ve hit it right on the head: It’s using it for me, not for anyone else. I’m not sure where I get these wacky ideas in my head, but sometimes, it’s a matter of perspective. People don’t need to like the things I like, nor do I need to like what they like. I’ve got a crazy good network (though I agree, 3000 people is a lot), so why do I worry? I think it’s more my nature than anything else, but either way, I just need to breath and move on!
Thanks for taking the time to comment and leaving your blog! I need to get that added to my list as I’m trying to wrap my brain around Genius Hour on a 52 minute class schedule! 🙂
June 13, 2015 at 10:52 am
Darin, I do genius hour with 45 min class. Dedicate one day a week to it. My kids and I chose Fridays last year. Works well
June 13, 2015 at 9:05 pm
I’ll need to talk with you next week about this! 🙂