Greetings from #NAESP14 in Nashville, Tennessee! Elementary principals from all over the place are here to network, broaden their knowledge in focus areas such as Common Core, Instructional Leadership, School Culture, and Technology, and also to listen to some very dynamic speakers such as Robert Fulghum author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten; Differentiation Instruction guru, Carol Tomlinson; and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Don’t get me wrong, these folks are ALL great speakers! BUT…I was PUMPED UP to meet in person, Todd and Beth Whitaker!! Even though I was presenting today and had to get ready (thank you to my hubby for helping me with this), there was NO WAY I was going to miss it!! And trust me when I say…it was SO worth it! 🙂 I gave both of them a hug like they were longtime friends whom I hadn’t seen in a while. How is this possible since this was my first time ever meeting Todd and Beth?

TWITTER!! That’s how!

It is amazing the people you can meet if only you will tweet! [Click to Tweet]

I have had incredible opportunities to meet some pretty amazing people just because I am a Twitter user (Hello…my name is Wendy and I am hooked on Twitter!! Hooked on Twitter works for me! You educators who are my age—you get that 🙂 ). I ‘follow’ these amazing people on Twitter, and they are gracious enough to follow me back.

I was thrilled to meet face-to-face and get a hug from the one and only REAL PIRATE @burgessdave, well-known speaker and author of Teach like a PIRATE. When I got my hug from Dave, he looked at the gentleman next to him and said “I can hug her because I met her on Twitter.” 😉 I require Dave’s book in my Social Studies Methods course…a book every new teacher should own! He Skyped with my college students last fall and plans to Skype with them again this fall—how cool is that? My students can’t get enough of Part II of his book. Read it to find out what these future teachers are fired up to put into practice.

I was honored to meet and have lunch with classroom management guru @BrianMendler which led to a Skype date with my college students during the past two spring semesters—awesomeness! I require his book, Taming of the Crew: Working Successfully with Difficult Students, in my Classroom Management course, and my students especially like Chapter 4. Curious? Read it to find out the great classroom management tips given.

I had the privilege of meeting @RickWormeli at a professional development day for teachers in Pipestone, MN. Rick is the author of Summarization in any Subject: 50 Techniques to Improve Student Learning, which is a book I refer to often in my teaching at SMSU, and a favorite technique is the Bloom’s Taxonomy Cube.

Today, I was doubly blessed to meet Todd and Beth Whitaker, authors of Teaching Matters: How to Keep Your Passion and Thrive in Today’s Classroom, one book I rely on for help when preparing for my presentations—especially presentations for principals!! I also require What Great Teachers Do Differently in my Intro to Education course.

Because my presentation was shortly after Todd and Beth’s lunch date…I had to ‘flash and dash’ (eh hum…flash as in camera 🙂 ), but, meeting Todd and Beth was a great way for me to get pumped up before my presentation so thank you Todd and Beth for the hugs!

To @NAESP14…so far the conference has been FABULOUS! Keep up the outstanding work!

To my special colleague, friend, co-blogger, and our newly elected department chair, Dr. V, I hope you are enjoying your MN lake vacation with your family!!! :-).

To all my Twitter friends…I appreciate you SO much and it has been a great adventure so far. I hope our paths cross soon if they haven’t already! To those of you who are not on Twitter yet…what are you waiting for? Oh, the people you will meet if you are willing to tweet!

Virtual hugs, everyone, and hope to chat with you soon! ~Wendy

Stay Calm & Lead On!
Profs Dr. C. & Dr. V.