#BeGlitterOnline

Have you ever had an opportunity that meant SOOOOO much, you had to pinch yourself to believe it is real?
 
This week I am the kid keynote for Alan November’s Building Learning Communities (BLC) in Boston, MA. This is a conference with lots of techie people who come from all over the world to learn strategies that grow teaching and learning in innovative ways.
 
How did I get to be the kid keynote? Well, Alan picked me, and honestly, I feel super special that he did. Last year, I presented with my favorite person, Kristin Ziemke. She was one of the grown up keynotes, and she also presented at the conference and invited me to help her. I am not going to lie, it was one of my best days ever. It wasn’t what Kristin and I did together, it was how we felt together. I felt like we shined, like glitter!
 
When you have grown ups in your life that help you grow your passion, share your thinking, and encourage you to dream BIG, you take more risks as a learner. Right before BLC last year, I got an account on Twitter. I learned how to tweet and interact pretty quickly, and before I knew it, my followers grew and grew and grew.
 
Last week I had a call with Alan to go over my keynote. He joked that maybe he would wear a target shirt to let the audience know that soon I would overtake him in followers on Twitter. It is incredible that in such a short period of time, I was able to grow so much on social media. But, really it isn’t the number of followers you have, but how you engage with them that matters.
 
People always ask me for my secret, so here it is: BE GLITTER ONLINE. Stand for digital good and spread it around like glitter because everyone knows glitter sticks to everything and makes MOST people feel happy! Follow people who make you smile about the world; share your happiness and celebrate other people’s joy, too. Challenge yourself to a tweet back with one of your followers, encourage them after they post and see how much that tweet back gets paid forward. Check your emoji line up, and if the happy emojis aren’t to the left, send some to move them up! When you see an injustice, speak up, but do it kindly and with words that help people see another perspective. Pay attention to other people’s words and remember that words are like glitter too, they stick.
 
This week, I want to be the glitter at BLC. I want to inspire grown ups to think more about kid voice and global learning. I hope my words make people’s heartbeep for kids everywhere. My keynote isn’t just for BLC, it’s for the world.
 
I hope if you’re not a fan of glitter, I’ve helped you think about it in another way. Glitter to me means shine, and shine means light, and light means hope.
 
That’s me in a nutshell, LivBit: glittery, shiny, hopeful light.
 
Thank you, Alan November for letting me share my kid voice at BLC17. I will never forget this moment, ever. And, you won't either because I'm the glitter that will shine at BLC17!
 
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