After a long day on Wednesday getting here I was excited to finally start sessions at Timejen12 today. As a little overview of my day, getting there I made it through the morning by myself tweeting like a storm then right before our Keynote speaker I finally started meeting up with #musedchat members ( who I consider celebrities in the music tech and Ed field, I was giddy meeting most of them today!) who joined in on our huge twitter stream while Fred Bogart enticed us with his thoughts of using technology not for technology but as a teaching tool of personal reflection. After that I stayed for a #musedchat member’s fantastic presentation on social networking and connected up with a friend from twitter which ended up in fantastic dinner and inspiring conversation.
With all this today it got me thinking, where would we be as educators without all this conversation and collaboration? Music educators for the most part stand alone in our school communities, the only one in a sea of grade level teachers talking about math and science while we yearn to talk about the world of music. That’s why conferences like Timejen12 are so important, we walk in with high hopes of meeting up with people like us and having those coveted conversations about the state of music and learning about new ways to bring creation and creativity into our secluded classrooms. It inspires and motivates to do what we do and become all that we can be because we have others to help us get to the point where we are truly do.
What if we need a quick dose of inspiration or motivation though? What if TimeJen is months away but we have an idea we need to share now? Social networking. Thats right, I just put a period there for dramatic effect. There are so many sites and apps out there dedicated to connecting us into a giant web. I guess when they say when united, we are stronger it’s correct. I spent most of today sharing the ideas I picked up through the power of Twitter. Instantly connected to hundreds if not thousands of educators waiting for inspiring ideas from the conference some watching from the next room and some watching from home unable to attend.
We get inspired through connection, we get motivated through conversation. We become the educator we want to be with the help of others around us who have been through the same. Here’s to day 1, on to day 2 go #timejen12

Follow the action through the twitter hashtag: #timejen12
Follow the inspiring ideas I pick up from my twitter: @musiccargirl14