My Follow Forever

Many of you saw and contributed to my google doc/spreadsheet with “Who To Follow” on twitter. I was blown away by the response and it truly shows the power of social media and crowd sourcing. With that in mind, I wanted to point out that this list is public and therefore editable by anyone. I do not have the time to go through and check every single name on the list for quality and appropriateness. I know there are some amazing educators on this list and can be a great place to start for newbies. However, I would urge you to make sure you are following people that fit your needs as an educator and feel free to unfollow those that do not.

Many twitter users know of #FF which is a hashtag that indicates #followfriday which is when people post lists of great people to follow or folks they have had worked with that week. Instead of a #followfriday, I am going to share my #followforever. These are people that I rely on within my PLN on twitter. They are in no particular order… :)

@L_Hilt – Lyn is a forward thinking elementary school principal that shares freely of her experiences with a thoughtful and compassionate voice. She is a kind person and you can tell she loves her job and her focus is always on her students.

@gcouros – George is another administrator with an eye for making things better. He regularly tweets and blogs about his experiences and those in his PLN. Again, his focus is always on the kids and how we as educators can make learning better for them.

@cybraryman1 – Jerry is an educator with many years of experience and seems to be the man with all the answers. You will often see him moderating and participating in chats and sharing his innumerable education web pages.

@Becky_Ellis_ - Becky is an instructional coach that moderates the #sschat and can also be seen on the #ecosys chat as well. She offers a fresh perspective and always seems to be asking questions that cause me to think and reflect.

@MZimmer557 – Michael is my go to guy with new resources and ideas. He regularly shares resources from all the major core subject areas and provides reviews and how they can play out in a classroom. I look forward to reading his weekly core subjects updates.

@ktenkely – Kelly is another great resource as she reviews tools and resources on her blog that she shares with teachers. She also participates in numerous discussions throughout twitter and various online conferences with a voice of reason and practicality. In addition, she is working on creating a new school based largely on the principals learned, discussed and shared on twitter.

@kylepace – Kyle is a great person to follow that is constantly sharing resources and challenging educators with reflective questions. You will see him active in #edchat discussions and is always challenging teachers to be better for kids.

@web20classroom - Steve is a great educator and sharer of all things education. He is a down to earth tweeter that is clearly well read and in tune to what is "in" and fresh in education and technology. I always like reading his tweets from conferences as you often feel as though you are there learning with him.

New Additions:
@rmbyrne - This guy blogs and posts regularly about free tech resources for teachers. I have yet to come across a post of his that I do not pass on to another teacher. Even if you don't follow Richard on twitter you need to add his blog to your reader.

Please use my spreadsheet to help yourself start a great PLN, but be sure you follow people that fit your needs. Don’t be afraid to unfollow if the person is not what you need or the quality you seek. With that, don’t be afraid to follow people you disagree with…it is often through those conversations we learn the most!