Introduction #edtechccp1

This is my first post as part of the Educational Technology Creative Collective #edtechcc. My first task is to introduce myself and what I aim to get out of this project.

Who am I?
My name is Helen and I am Course Leader for Creative Media Production and Photography at the City of Stoke on Trent Sixth Form College. I took on this role before the summer though I originally trained as a Design Technology teacher. I now teach a wide range of Btec and Alevel subjects including Graphics, Photography and Art.

Why am I taking part in this project?
I spend my days trying to encourage creativity from my students and staff around me. I have found that now I have taken on a more managerial role my own creativity is not being encouraged to the extent it once was, (I am not finding enough time to play with tools/ideas and generally geeky things). I wanted to take part in this project to rectify this balance and set some time aside for my own learning and experimentation with technologies and ideas.
I have also tried over the last few years to reflect regularly and publicly on my own practice through this blog though this has not been terribly successful so I am hoping this project helps me form a habit of sharing and reflection.
The final reason is it is coming up to my second 'Twitterversary' and felt that recently I had stopped contributing as much to the community due to work pressure. I felt I needed to find a way to begin giving back again. Twitter has been very important to me over the last two years but I am very aware that you need to contribute and collaborate to keep learning.