I had a pre-service teacher, a former student, observe my classes for a few days. At the end of the 3 days, he remarked that I seem to have a story for everything I teach; there is always some nugget or “what if” attached to what I teach. The young student wondered where all my stories cam from. It occurred to me that the stories, ideas, and hooks I have used are all culled from experience, and that by leaving that classroom to take a job in our district’s curriculum office, those experiences risk being lost. Hopefully, the blog provides a chance to share what I know, and pull in new ideas from my new network of friends.

I’m pretty new to twitter/blogosphere but I have some experience with the music community and I’m fascinated by the similarities, both good and bad. As the community grows, so do some complex and potentially negative aspects like Andrew, John have brought up (“time allocation” for bloggers over family and friends, perceived “exclusivity” of twitter communities). I think it’s wise to keep a vigilant eye on my motivation, since questions like “How many twitter followers do I have?!” are good indications that my priorities may be getting a lil wacky!

I know how you feel about the impenetrableness, and I find that the social media realm is just the same as any other social context. You are going to mesh, and therefore infiltrate the community that you most identify with. We may start off with math education, but some of my Twitter interactions have been strengthened simply by un-mathy common interests.

I also personally have a self prescribed rule; if you interact with me, I will try to interact with you. I don’t know if anyone else follows this standard, but I know that a lot of great people have interacted with me once I actually shared. I’ve spent many late nights bugging the heck out of jybuell for help with Science/SBG. I have e-mail fnoschese for advice on modelling. I’ve pestered Dan about who knows how many different topics, and they are all kind enough, willing enough, and overjoyed to see some teachers trying to make a worthwhile change in education, that they interact.

This tells me that, once again, like any other social circle, people will invest in you as much as you invest in them.

I agree with Timon’s claim that intimidation can creep in and kill the drive to put oneself out there. Influenced by Seth Godin’s work, I jumped in. I’m no where near the type of blogger I want to be or can be. But I started. That’s the beginning. Dan was was inspiration.

I’m going to say something else that I’ve felt in the edublogosphere, which may or may not resonate with others. I often wonder how well certain bloggers know each other. It can be tough to show up to the party alone. If Twitter is an indicator, it seems that there are seemingly impenetrable pockets of exclusivity that do not engage with the newbie, and then there are surprising pockets of inclusivity that invite the newbie into their circle with welcome arms and maybe even give a helpful boost. I favor that tight-knit community feel.

It wasn’t until 2008 that I started blogging for a personal educational purpose (as opposed to a classroom blog), and I can honestly say, I wasn’t following other people’s work at the time. I don’t have any links in my work to anyone else’s stuff for most of a year.

I wonder how many people started blogging on their own, without being part of a support network in advance. The survey was interesting, but it certainly seemed to suggest that any “family tree” we might construct would only start with one root system. Surely many of us started blogging before we knew there were other bloggers out there?