The Power of Social Media

by Education Blog

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Posted on January 9, 2018

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I am a fairly regimented person, and I’ll give you an example of this.  When I go out to eat there are usually two things that I will order off the menu.  Cheeseburger or Chicken Fried Steak.  This year has been a year of firsts for me, I completed a half marathon and I finally created my own facebook account, and I have enjoyed eating ribeye steak.  Trying new things, especially when it comes to food can be difficult for me.  The one exception is when my wife cooks something and the kids are watching me, I eat everything on my plate.  So this brings me to the title of this blog,  “The Power of Social Media.”  

Mr. Feely, Washington Early Childhood Principal, kept telling me how I needed to get a twitter account.  I was already a little familiar with Twitter because our district uses it as a tool for communication.  Before this I thought Twitter was just a way for someone to share a thought to the social media world or talk to someone, which in my thinking is why I have a phone.  I tried to explain to Mr. Feely that I’m not cool, I wouldn’t know how to tweet, and social media scares me! He sent me a list of educators to follow, and explained all of the cool “school stuff” I could find on twitter.  After much trepidation, I decided I would give twitter a shot.  I must admit, it has been a great professional development tool for me.  The articles, tips, and general information that I have found regarding the education profession are amazing. Reading the thoughts of other educational professionals and business leaders has really helped me to self evaluate my plans, ideas, and thoughts regarding education.  The question I asked myself, is why am I so scared of social media?  Why did it take me so long to create a Facebook account or Twitter account.  I think there are two main reasons:

One, coming to terms with the fact that social media is what you make of it.  I guess to put it more plainly, I have always only looked at the negatives and not the positives of social media.  Opening myself to something new has allowed me to grow professionally.  I found other educators and administrators who share the same passion for student learning and staff development, and social media has opened up a new avenue to exchange those ideas.

Two, learning something new is challenging.  I caught myself saying over the holidays “I never had that as a kid, there is no reason…” and I’m sure you can finish the rest of that sentence.  I use to wear my lack of spontaneity and willingness to always keep everything in an orderly fashion never deviating from one thing to the next as a badge of honor.  Although I have to stay orderlery, I realized that this has held me back from learning something new that may benefit a student or colleague.

As we begin 2018, I look forward to challenges, but I’m still not sure on the food thing…#cheeseburgerorchickenfry.

Sincerely,

Tim Argo

 

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