The Connected World

This morning I was fired up to get going as it's our first inservice day. In fact, I tweeted yesterday that I don't think I've been this fired up since . . . well, honestly, since last school year. But I'm in my element; I love what I do, and that makes all the difference for me.

So I get up extra early this morning, and while I'm making coffee my iPhone buzzes. I look at the homescreen and see that I have a new mention on Twitter. But it isn't just any mention. It's from the author of the new book, Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice, and Clarity in High School Writing, Penny Kittle.

 I've had the her book for some time, ever since I read Tom Romano's essay on writing in the English Journal and saw that he had mentioned it. I brought it home for my summer reading, but started on some heavy, theoretical books first (That Used to be Us, The End of Education, Jefferson's Children, and Grown Up Digital), so I was looking for a text that was more applicable on a day to day basis. 

That's when I remembered Kittle's book. I started reading it just before we left for South Dakota two weeks ago. I found myself so blown away by it, that I started Tweeting some of my favorite lines from it. Then I remembered that I had looked Kittle up on Twitter when I had purchased the book months before and began following her.

 So I sent her a quick Tweet stating how much I loved the book and how it was going to impact my College Comp Classes this year. This morning, the Tweet she sent me thanked me and recommended that we Skype with hwe while my class is reading and writing! Now, that is an incredible opportunity. 

That is the power of the flat world. How often do classes get to work - even via Skype - with an author? Can't wait for this school year to start!