Adam Simpson’s Twitter Challenge - 10 people I follow and why

This post is in response to one made by Adam Simpson on his ‘One Year in the Life of an English Teacher’ blog, listing 10 people he follows on Twitter. As I’ve connected with some great people over the last 4 months or so and learnt a lot from them, I thought I’d participate. Obviously, as I follow 350+ people at the time of writing, I can’t mention everyone so apologies in advance if you’re not here – everybody in my PLN is important in one way or another!

follow (pieter mustard)
Can you guess which one is me?

I won’t re-list anyone from Adam’s 10 but I would like to send special mentions to: @NergizK, a fellow MA student of mine who helped get me started on Twitter in the first place; @ozge and @burcuakyol, who both provide some invaluable local context; @englishraven, one of my favourite bloggers; and @harrisonmike, a great TEFL teacher as well as an all-round ‘nice’ bloke.

Anyway, in no particular order, here’s my 10:

1. @tombarrett – Tom is the king of all things EdTech in the UK and a great educator as well. He is the creator of the ‘Interesting Ways…’ collaborative slideshow series, which can be found on his blog, edte.ch

2. @jasontbedell – another EdTech specialist, this time from the US. He offered me encouragement in my early days of tweeting and blogging and his Professional Development 2.0 series on his blog is well worth a read.

3. @ShellTerrell – anyone working in ELT or education who is serious about professional development should already be following Shelly! Always tweeting fantastic ideas, advice and links, backed up by her award-winning blog and present at every online event, some people even speculate there must be two Shellys for her to be able to do all the great work she does!

4. @cecilialcoelho – Beyond being English teachers, Cecilia and I have little in common: she’s a Brazilian teaching in her home country, I’m a native speaker teaching abroad; she works in a language school teaching teens and adults, I work in a regular school with 4th graders. However, as she pointed out in our recent collaboration, we seem to share a lot of the same beliefs and ideas about teaching. Also, for some unknown reason, she is one of the few people on this planet to find my jokes (especially the puns) funny! And her blog, Box of Chocolates, is always a good read.

5. @vickyloras – Same as above, Vicky and I teach in very different settings but she’s a valuable part of my PLN. Always good for an insightful convo and a regular re-tweeter of my blog posts! Vicky hasn’t been very active on her blog recently but I’m looking forward to more posts from her soon.

6. @nutrich – Richard is someone I have more in common with: we are students at the same university (albeit me by distance and him onsite), we both support Manchester United and we both appreciate the humour of Monty Python. He’s also a regular contributor to ELTchat and he has possibly the best blog title out there: I’d like to think that I help people learn English

7. @DavidWarr – I only started following David recently after discovering his blog, Language Garden, which is already one of my favourites. His ‘language plant’ images are eye-catching and his blog posts are well-written and thought-provoking.

8. @hoprea – Another teacher from Brazil with a great blog, Henrick can always be relied upon for high-quality blog posts, interesting tweets and great convos. I look forward to a round of Devassas with him and Cecilia one day. Mine’s a Ruiva!

9. @gret – Greta’s love of teaching and love for her students shows in everything she tweets. She oversees a blogging project for her class, Sharing Good News, as well as her own blog, About a Teacher. It’s also great to share a connection with another teacher of young learners as well as with a San Lorenzo supporter!

10. @michelleworgan  - Another recent but valuable addition to my PLN. Again, it’s great to connect with another teacher who works with kids, especially as she shares such great lesson ideas on her blog, So this is English…

Hard to pick out only ten as there are many more people I enjoy following, especially all those involved in and contributing to ELTchat and the Dogme Blog Challenge.

So, come on then – name your ten!

Here's Cecilia's list: Only Ten??? 
And Mike Harrison's: Ten twitterers to tweet

Comments

  1. Thank you Dave!!! I'm flattered to be in your list and in such fantastic company!!!

    I want to do my response to Adam's challenge (you know I can't resist a challenge ;-)) but you made my life very difficult, since my list would be almost an identical repeat of yours!!!!

    I'll try to do it with different people... try!

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  2. That's a great list. Although I already follow most of this gang, it was good to check out their websites many of which I hadn't visited.

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  3. No need to be flattered Cecilia - you deserve the mention and I'm sure you'd be on many people's lists.

    Glad you got to at least see some different websites Adam!

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  4. Wow. Great list and I'm honored to be a part of it. I'll write one too as soon as I can figure out how to narrow it down to 10. :)

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  5. Thank you for including me on your list, Dave! I wasn't expecting to be on anyone's list really since I'm not such a great tweeter!
    I guess I should probably do my own list - this seems to be like the Vale a pena ficar... blog challenge last year, but this time with "Twits". Again, very hard to choose only ten!

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  6. Honoured to be mentioned, Dave! Thanks.

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  7. Jason - Thanks to you again. You helped me both directly & indirectly when I was new to Twitter and it was all a bit overwhelming! Looking forward to your list - choosing just ten is the hard part!

    Michelle - It's not the quantity, it's the quality! Besides, your tweets led me to your blog, which I really enjoy.

    David - the pleasure's all mine! I tried some word plants today. Expect a blog post on it some time in the near future.

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  8. Thanks so much Dave. I'm really honored! What a great list! Thanks for your support and encouragement. You're definitely one of my favorite people on twitter. I love learning with and from you. You're an amazing educator! Go San Lorenzo ;)

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  9. Hi Greta. Think nothing of it - you deserve a mention for all the great blogging work you do with your kids as well as your new venture with Shelly!

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  10. Hi Dave!!

    Really happy to have made it to your list! I honestly couldn't get myself to do one, but mainly for the same reason I couldn't get myself to post all my answers to the dogmeme challenge and many other posts I have percolating. AND, most importantly, the same reason that's been preventing me from posting more comments. It's the end of the school year in Brazil, so lots of things to do... phew!!

    Anyway, you'll also be introduced to a different kind of beer, besides Devassa. This one is from Minas, and it's called Backer. They've also got different kinds of beer, but my favourite lately is their Medieval - simply delicious! :)

    Looking forward to the day we all we'll be able to meet. :)

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