I'm coming out! (Well thinking about it.....)

And I don't mean declaring my sexuality!

I have pretty much had an anonymous presence on Twitter. I go by the name of @mathsatschool and next to the part where you write your real name, I've put MathsTeacher@School.

Why the anonymity?

When I first joined Twitter I was tweeting and blogging about my unhappy experience at my previous school. I didn't want anything to bite me on the bum (so to speak!) so I stayed anonymous. I also kept my profile public so anyone in the world (including pupils and parents) could see my tweets.....and rants.....and moans......and whines...... (you get the picture).

But I have made 'proper' contact with a few people. I've exchanged emails and linked up with other 'tweechers' on NCETM. I've shared files on Googledocs and someone even gave me access to their dropbox files.

Now, with #mathsjam fast approaching (in 3 days!), I wonder if I really need to stay anonymous. Lots of fellow twitterers will be there and meet the real me, so why not be me on Twitter itself?

Another thing I've been thinking about is encouraging others at my school to use Twitter as a means to push forward their own Professional Development. Why keep this wonderful resource to myself?

And despite a big department, and an even bigger school, I know no-one from school is on it already because they would have come across me - I have a reasonably good presence on there and a respectable following.

(That's not to say they don't have personal accounts - I mean creating their own PLN of teachers from around the world.)

So.... I am seriously thinking about 'coming out' and just putting my real name up there. I still, however, have reservations about pupils and parents seeing my tweets.

AND I have some contentious comments on there, so I would have to go back through my entire timeline and delete off anything that could be remotely attributed to a real life person. There's no names of course, but if any one person from my department reads some of the things I've written, they would know immediately who it is about!

So what to do? 1. Stay anonymous and admit my real identity to people I have no day to day real life dealings with? 2. Stay anonymous and let real life people know my Twitter identity but keep hidden from other interested parties? Or 3. Come out completely and add my real name but run the risk of people reading my comments (however banal).

I sense that eventually more and more people will create a PLN of their own accord, so I may have to delete off old contentious tweets anyway.

Hmmmmm - what shall I do?