Thought of the Day: Thursday, October 30th, 2014

The power of social media in connecting like-minded practitioners

Just last weekend I was fortunate enough to be invited to do a keynote speech to kick start the PhysEd Summit 2014. In the keynote, I spoke about the power of social media in helping to professionally develop physical education teachers by bringing them together for online learning. There is not a doubt in my mind that being a connected educator (virtually) can and will make you a better educator, especially if you implement the steps in setting yourself up in the right way. 

However, I'm going to take it one step further and say that these connections that you make online can lead to so much more when you take the time and energy to meet members of your network face-to-face. I've been lucky enough to meet a number of physical education teachers from our network face-to-face over the past year and it is always so rewarding to do so. In the last year, I have met Joey Feith, Ross Halliday, Dean Dudley, Toby Summerfield, Adam Llevo, Osama AbuJafar, and today was very happy that Susan Flynn took the time out to come and see me at my school here in Nanjing. 

Susan is an energetic, positive, and very passionate physical educator with loads of experience. She currently teaches at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. She was invited to come and present to some of the best PE teachers in China and help them to deepen their practice by sharing her wonderful experience. Although we just met for a couple of hours, she was able to observe my classes, get a feel for my program, and even teach some dance to my grade 5 students. I always feel so blessed and fortunate when I am able to meet educators who are so passionate about what they do and are making a difference in our field. THANK YOU to Susan for taking the time out of her very busy schedule to come and see me at Nanjing International School. 

If you haven't had a chance to meet educators you are connected with on Twitter and have a chance to do so, you should jump at it. If you been able to, I'd love to hear your experiences in the comment box below. Thanks for reading!

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