Sunday, April 8, 2012

Twitter in Person

Twitter is pretty incredible.  Really.  I know sometimes I sound like a freak when I sing my praises of Twitter but I can't help it.  I have interacted with so many incredible educators since I joined in July 2011. I have read blog post after blog post and my thinking is continually challenged.  It has changed me as a teacher, and I know it will continue to do that.

But the best thing about Twitter is the relationships you build with people.  And yes, I know that I may never meet many of the people I consider my twitter "friends" but I do feel that many of the people I interact with on a regular basis are people I would consider my friends.

Yesterday I had the chance to actually meet one of those people.  I first learned about Carrie Gelson when she wrote a letter expressing the needs of the students in her class.  Carrie works at an inner city school in Vancouver.  The letter went viral and she was thrown into the media spot light.  While I followed her story closely I never really thought we would ever have any type of interaction.

Well then there's Twitter.  Carrie and I connected during an #edchat several weeks back.  We connected on many different issues and our conversations flowed.  But back channel messages of 140 characters or less were getting frustrating when we actually live quite near one another.

So yesterday we finally met, live, in person.  We ended up talking for almost four hours, and if the coffee shop wasn't closing, and she didn't have important things like a husband and children to return to, we would have kept talking.  The live conversation was just as inspiring as the conversations we've had in the back channels.  It was a really positive experience and I feel confident that we will meet up again.

So my question is... who am I going to meet next?


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