Twitter is a strange place sometimes. It can lead you to have an inflated ego, a greater sense of self importance and the view that your thoughts are more important than any others. I read a thread from the wonderful @Alienwife99 last night that struck a chord with me.
I have somehow developed quite a large following on Twitter (almost 25K!) and I do not know how this has happened. I do not tweet anything profound, I do not share the most amazing ideas and I do not try to show off and say how amazing I am. However, I now feel a sense of responsibility to my followers. With my large following, my voice can have some clout. I could shape people's views on a debate. I could accidentally cause somebody to be "attacked" by disagreeing with them in a discussion.
I like my Twitter profile, I try to keep my tweets light-hearted and fun (with the odd gripe I must admit). I do not aspire to be a hero head. In my opinion, everybody who steps up to the plate to do the job is hero. There are some who like to portray themselves as "super heads" and I am certain that they love the adulation and attention that their following gives them. However, I would much prefer to keep my head down, do well for my school and help people when they need support. My platform does not give me any right to show how brilliant I am - because I am not.
We live in a social media generation, where we only share what is good. We are not encouraged to show our flaws. This can make Twitter seem like a place where everybody is so much better than you! Trust me, that is not the case. We all have the same doubts and insecurities - even the ones with the biggest profile and the loudest voices. Basically, what I am trying to say is don't let others bring you down.
Looking back through my recent tweets I have posted about some of the additional things I have done at work this summer. Other heads will have done this but not made a song and dance about this. This is the same with teachers. Some will post their amazing classroom spaces. Others will not. Others will not have even thought about their classrooms. Whichever camp you are in, don't worry about it! Be the teacher or leader you want to be, not one that social media makes you feel you should be. I still have a tonne of work to do, but that does not make me a bad head.
As I said at the start, Twitter is a strange place. I appreciate every one of my followers and I have to admit I do sometimes check my numbers as I am somebody who craves external validation. However, the job of being a head teacher is not about the numbers on Twitter; it is about what I do at the school. So even though I tweet a lot, never feel inferior or look up to me - I am just a normal person doing the same job that you do. The same can be said for the self proclaimed educelebrities - although I do sometimes feel that their numbers are more important to them than anything else.
NB - this blog is not targeted at anybody, so please do not take any personal offence!