This is a guest post written by Katherine Haun, a third grade teacher at York Township Elementary School. Tweet! Tweet! Tweet!
By now, you have heard of Twitter. You’ve seen the hashtags, like #edchat, and the @ symbols. You’ve even got your own account and username. But what good are they to you? Here are three reasons to ring in spring with Twitter.
First and foremost, build your Personal Learning Network (PLN). As an educator, the fastest way to learn about new topics in education is to follow other educators. You will feel even more connected if you join in a Twitter chat session with other educators. Scared to join the chat? Start easy, by reading others’ tweets, marking your favorites to reference at a later time. Then, tip-toe a little farther by retweeting something that is interesting to you that your followers might also be interested to read. Once you’re comfortable with that, start tweeting! Share useful websites, your own blog updates, even your animoto videos. To read others’ thoughts and resources on education topics, here are some hashtags to search on Twitter: #edchat, #edtech, #edpolicy, #edreform, and #digitalliteracy. The following are some people I follow on Twitter for ideas about education: @peteandc, @thenerdyteacher, @AngelaMaiers, @edutopia, @ChrisBiffle, @readingrockets, @readingsecrets, @web20classroom, @globalearner, and @kathyschrock. These are just a few to get you started…
Second, get your students involved! Create a class Twitter account and invite student volunteers to tweet a 140-character or less summary of each of your lessons throughout the day. Get your parents involved! Have them follow your class. Make sure that you adjust your privacy settings appropriate for your grade level, send home permission slips, and double-check your school district’s acceptable-use policy.
Third, are you interested in topics aside from education? I don’t know about you, but I basically missed the #GoldenGlobes. Now that football season is over, I’m not up-to-date with the most recent #NFL news, either. How often do you read before bed? Or over your morning coffee? Try searching your favorite topics on Twitter this spring, and I bet you’ll find that you will be reading for pleasure much more often than you did during the winter!
If you like this post, join our mailing list for more digital literacy tips. I would love to hear how you use Twitter for your classroom so take a few minutes to join the conversation on my facebook page.
I love twitter! What a better way to get and stay connected. I have my own twitter account but find myself going in an out of posting phases. I need to make it more apart of my routine.
ReplyDeleteToday, when working on a school-wide project, the students wanted to tweet our progess and the responses to the piece. I thought it was a great idea, but I did not have all of the proper pre-screening items in place. This is something I will consider putting into place at the beginning of the year next year after talking to my principal.
Katlyn
I was looking for more people to follow related to education on twitter. I was very pleased to see your list and added them right away. I find now that when I have a spare moment during the weekend, I take a second to check out my twitter PLN and usually find a pretty cool idea for the classroom or something new to check out. I will take your suggestion and work on this more over the summer.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Joanna
Thank you so much for the suggestions on people to follow! It definitely cuts down on some searching time on my end! I honestly have not had the time to get on Twitter much and explore! After reading this, I am now inspired! Thanks :-)
ReplyDeleteKristin D.
I agree with Kristin- great suggestions! What a great way to use the resources we already have in our classmates & fellow teachers! It's definitely something I want to get better at following so I can use those resources!
ReplyDelete~Kelly