This professional development idea started with a book--How Full Is Your Bucket?--to get some staff members thinking about growing our culture. (Not that our culture is bad--it's not. It is good. It is very good...But how can we make it better?! Culture can ALWAYS get better!) How Full Is Your Bucket? embodies the ideas of being positive, taking care of each other, celebrating successes, recognizing the "good" in our students, staff, and school, ADDING to people's buckets, and taking our culture to the next level.
In a Twitter chat a few weeks ago, one of the last questions was how we could improve professional development. My response: Try to have our next book club do a Twitter chat...A response from a colleague in the chat: Don't try--do it! :) Well, that sounded like a challenge to me...So, two days later (the Monday morning following that chat), I e-mailed the teachers who were reading How Full Is Your Bucket?, and I asked them if they would be willing to try a Twitter chat.
So tonight, we had our first #CCMSChat on Twitter. Eight teachers and I spent about 35 minutes online sharing ideas, replying to each other, talking about a GREAT book that can have IMMEDIATE impact on our students, school, and culture. We answered questions while sharing personal experiences, creative ideas, and plans for making a difference in our school. It was AWESOME!
I am a little addicted to professional development on Twitter. It is energizing; it is exciting; it is positive; it is networking and learning; it is connecting and building relationships. As educators we are #BetterTogether! What better way to connect with people ALL OVER THE WORLD?! Tonight was special because it was professional development in a format that I really enjoy with people who I consider my #FalconFamily! I love our school and our staff, and I am so excited to keep learning with them--in school and on Twitter--as we look at professional development in a fun, engaging new way!
