I am the type of  person who sees the glass as half full. I have my days when I can be an extreme pessimist, but for the most part I am a very positive person. When I encounter those bad situations and experiences that we all face from time to time I try to find the meaning in them. I try to find at least some good in every situation no matter how bad it is. I am having trouble finding the silver lining in things that have been going on lately.

I  just started my fifth year of teaching three weeks ago. Usually by this time I have gotten into my groove, but not this year. I have felt overwhelmed since the year began. (Actually, I have felt overwhelmed for a lot longer than that.) So why does it feel like my job is getting harder and that I am losing ground? I keep trying to do too many things. Why do I do this to myself? Because I am the Nebraska Change Agent, and if I don’t keep pushing the envelope in Western Nebraska, who will?

The problem is that I just don’t know if I have what it takes to keep going.  I have experience some personal and professional setbacks recently that have shaken me to the core; events that have made me reevaulate who I am and what I believe in.  I am desperately searching for the silver lining in these situations, but it just isn’t there. Please forgive me if I seem a little out of sorts in the coming weeks.  I will be back. I just need to take some time to focus on my students, my college class, the Newbie project, our ISTE 10 proposal, and of course, my family.  At some point in there I have to take care of myself, too.  I will do that…..right after I track down that silver lining that I am so desperate to find.

Last week I wrote a post on how to get a newbie started off right in Twitter. Then I started thinking about all of the educators who have already fallen through the cracks. The ones who gave Twitter a try, but were really never given a proper demonstration on the ins and outs of Twitter. What about the ones who were left to figure it out on their own and felt so overwhelmed that they gave up?

Here is my challenge to you. Find someone who has tried Twitter, but who dropped out. Send them a message to let them know you want to help them rediscover Twitter. Help them make sure their profile and bio is complete. Invest some time teaching them how to use Twitter. This is something we wrongly assume people will figure out on their own.  Teach them how to do things like send “@” messages, DM’s, and add links and images. Help them bookmark different sites so they can reference them down the road.

Perhaps the most important thing is helping them find people to follow who are the right fit for their PLN. It might look like they are following a lot of people, but what really matters is the quality of information that is coming across. Help them find 30-40 good people to follow. Show them how to find people in different directories such as Twitter4Teachers and WeFollow. The next thing you need to do is help them make some meaningful updates. After a week or so reintroduce them to the Twitterverse! Add them to a Follow Friday list to help them grow their PLN. Once they see that a couple of dozen people care about what they have to say it might just hook them on Twitter permenantely!

All of us on Twitter know the routine. Someone in our PLN introduces someone and they ask us to say hello. We take a few seconds knowing that someday we will want them to return the favor. We might even go to their profile to see if it is someone that we want to follow. We make a snap decision to follow or not follow very quickly. So what factors determine why we follow some newbies and not others? More than likely we make this decision based on their look and feel of their profile and recent tweets.

The biggest mistake we make when getting someone started on Twitter is we don’t help them complete each step of setting up their profile. For some reason we introduce a new person and ask our PLN to welcome them before they have completed their profile.

Yesterday Glenn Hilton tweeted that 60% of new Twitter users quit within the first month. His tweet was very timely because I had just been asked to welcome several people to Twitter. I said hello to all of them, but did not follow a single one. In fact, I rarely follow people who are new on Twitter? Am I a Twitter snob? Of course not! Why would I follow someone that has not told me anything about themselves? Under most circumstances I will not follow people who violate the following unwritten rules:

1) You must have an image on your profile. The ideal image is one that is a clear shot of your face and you should be the only person in the picture.

2) You have 160 characters to make a first impression. Take full advantage of it and make a good one! Use keywords to identify your passions and interests. Take this opportunity to let people know what you teach, what grade levels you work, and other things that might help you build your PLN.

3) Keep your account public. By setting your tweets to private it gives the impression that you are not trusting. This might sound harsh, but if you are one of those people who is scared some weirdo freak might follow you then you are probably not ready for the power of Twitter.

Those of us who love Twitter sometimes get ahead of ourselves and do not remember that it is not about how many people are following us, but it is about who we follow. We need to keep this in mind when introducing someone to Twitter. If we do not help them with this critical step then they will quit! Make sure you share resources for where to find people on Twitter. Liz Davis started a spreadsheet with names of educators on Twitter. Gina Hartman started Twitter4Teachers, a wiki to help educators connect as well. Both are incredibly valuable and should be used by even seasoned Twitter veterans. Follow Friday tweets are also a way to find educators to follow.

After the person you are mentoring has made some meaningful updates and contributions then introduce them! Throwing them to the Twitterverse before they have had a chance to build their network will hurt them much more than it will help them. Not to mention the fact it will overwhelm them! It is also important to remind newbies that they do have important things to contribute. The people I have introduced to Twitter get hung up on the the thought that they have nothing to share. Patience and encouragement are key when using Twitter.

Also, remember to talk to them about Twitter etiquette. When do you send a DM as opposed to an “@”? What is an RT and when do you do it? This is second nature to veterans, but to Nebiews it is very confusing.

I think following these simple rules will help keep more teachers enough to stick with Twitter.

Last year I was fortunate enough to be able to attend NECC for the first time. I barely had a half dozen people in my professional learning learning network (PLN) at the time, but by the end of the conference that number had grown to include a variety of people from around the country. Over the last nine months, I have created an amazing network that has taught me so much. In December I learned that my proposal to present a poster at NECC had been accepted. I started asking around to see who from my PLN was attending. The responses were disappointing. It soon became evident that many people were not going to be able to attend this year due to both personal and school budget constraints. I started feeling guilty because I was going to get to experience this amazing conference again. It hardly seemed fair that I was able to attend twice when there are so many people who have not ever attended once.

An idea for a project started to come together in my mind. I started wondering how much a PLN could accomplish if it came together to work toward a common goal.  What if we came together to help send one of our own to NECC? Would it be possible to get several hundred people to donate a few dollars each to help send a “newbie” to NECC? My PLN is by far the most powerful tool in my toolbox, but there are some who are still skeptical of the idea of the power of social networks. The purpose of this project is twofold. First, I want to see someone who truly deserves to go to NECC get to go. Second, I want to raise awareness about the benefits of professional networking. I want us to show all of the doubters out there that social networking tools can make a difference in education.

I shared this idea with a teacher in my PLN named Jason Schrage (@oswego98). With his help I decided that Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) was the “newbie” that I wanted to send to NECC. Richard is a Social Studies teacher in Maine who has worked tirelessly to help ensure his students and coworkers are able to work on a network that is as open as possible. He also maintains a blog called Free Tech 4 Teachers that recently won the 2008 Edublog Award for the  Best Resource Sharing Blog. Mr. Byrne is a top notch educator who invests countless hours in compiling resources for teachers in all subject areas. He is truly a selfless educator who deserves the chance to attend NECC. Richard is far from being a “newbie” when it comes to using technology in the classroom, but he has never attended NECC.

Richard has told me that he wants to share his experiences while he is in Washington DC. He will be blogging and updating on Twitter to keep everyone informed about what he is experiencing. I imagine he will probably be open to streaming video once in a while when he is able to do so. If you have any suggestions for how to share this special event with the folks who could not attend please leave a comment on this blog.

So what do you say? Are you willing to donate a few dollars to help one of our own? I also need your help to spread the word about this project. Please tag any tweets associated with this project with the hash tag #neccnewbie so we can track the conversation. The goal is to raise $1500. Please add your information to the spreadsheet. You do not have to add your information, but it would be great to see the names of everyone who helps with this very unique and special project.

Donations are being collected using PayPal which is a fast, easy, and secure way to send funds online. All donations will go directly to Richard’s PayPal account. In the unlikely event that we do not raise enough funds you can elect to have your donation sent back to you or allow Mr. Byrne to put the donations toward improving his classroom. You can mark your option on the spreadsheet.

(Please note that this is a private endeavor which is not associated or endorsed by ISTE or NECC. )

I have used Twitter for nine months now. During this time I have had some amazing conversations with people from all over the world. This map shows the location of the people I follow. I think it is safe to say that I have the “breadth” covered. The bulk of my “tweeple” are from the United States, Europe, and Australia, but I also follow people in South America, Africa, and Southwest Asia. Currently I follow about 275 people. Approximately 35 of the people I follow are my current students. I have gained an entirely new perspective of the world thanks to the ecelectic group of people I follow.

One of the most common complaints I hear about Twitter is that relationships that are deep and meaningful cannot be formed with people when you have superficial conversations in 140 characters of less. Well, you can’t! The depth does not necessarily come from the conversations that occur on Twitter. The deep connections come when we jump off of Twitter to continue conversations that are started on Twitter. Depth in a relationship comes from a true understanding of what makes a person tick. What better way to get to know someone than by reading their blog? Skype is also a great way to continue conversations that start on Twitter. Talking or chatting in a one-on-one space is a perfect way to achieve a level of depth that cannot be found on Twitter. Email is also a convenient way to continue conversations, especially when the person you are communicating with is in a completely different part of the world.

That brings me to another question that has come up recently. What do we call the people who are in our PLN? Are they colleagues? Are they acquaintances? Are they friends? According to TwitterAnalyzer these are my “Top 10″ friends:

At first glance I was really surprised by this graph. I never would have guessed that some of the people on here would be part of my “top ten” friends and there were people who I was sure would be on it who were not. Unfortunately, there was no explanation for how TwitterAnalyzer determines my top ten friends. From the looks of it I would say it is based on both direct and “@” messages. It is interesting to note that I have continued conversations outside of Twitter with eight out of these ten people. With two exceptions, all of the conversations have taken place in emails or on Skype. However, I have not had a voice or video conversation with anyone on my Top Ten list.

Is it possible to be friends with someone that you have never actually spoken with? I guess that depends on your depends on your definition of the word friend. I feel like some of the people I have connected with through Twitter are truly friends. We share our accomplishments, failures, and frustrations. We turn to each other because we “get” each other. Sometimes we are comfortable enough to share information about what is going on in our personal lives.  Like any friendship, the more that is shared the deeper the connection becomes.

I think it is obvious that a successful PLN is dependent on breadth, but is it necessary to have depth as well? Absolutely not, but the rewards that come from nurturing a few individual relationships is priceless. Over the last month I have had the chance to collaborate with one of the teachers in my PLN quite extensively—-probably way more than they want to! I am certain that I have gotten way more out of this relationship than I have given. If you are reading this and you have not yet taken the time to get to know someone from your PLN better, I highly recommend that you take the time to do so. It does mean investing not only time, but part of yourself, but the payoff is HUGE!