Twitter

Twitter

Who should I follow? What are your recommendations? - Megan

__Who to follow:__ @cybraryman1-Cybraryman1 provides great resources for teachers and those who need ideas for their classrooms @MrMatthewRay-Elementary special educator @mbfxc-Marialice Curran-Assistant professor at Saint Joseph-arranged iCitizenship21 seminar @Grade1-Aviva Dunsiger. We Skyped with her and her students an afternoon! There are many more educators and administrators to follow. Check to see who they're following and if it's someone or an organization you think you will benefit from their tweets (resources) follow them!

@Education_IEP- Provides resources for Special Ed teachers and parents of special needs children @TeachPaperless-Blogging a conversation about teaching, learning and the digital revolution @SkypeClassroom-Provides teachers with ideas of how to incorporate Skype into the classroom with the students globally @Schoology-online learning, classroom management and social networking platform that provides educators and students with effective ways of learning-Rubi



I would like to share my blog post I wrote about Twitter - [|Who's afraid of the big bad, Little Bird]. This is the basic on how to get started with Twitter. I would suggest that if you are looking at who to follow, follow some hash tags (click the link below for suggestions) and click on some of the links that people are sharing. If and when you find some people that are sharing things of interest to you and your content area, then hit the follow button. You can always unfollow people.-Kate

[|20 Twitter Hashtags Every Teacher Should Know About]

What are you posting? I don't know what to post - Megan

When you begin to "lurk" or just look around at people's twitter accounts, you see that they post articles, opinions, thoughts or quotes-in essence they are "tweeting". Or they "re-tweet" something from another person or organization From Twitter Help Center: Like a Tweet? Retweet! Sometimes you come across a Tweet that you just have to share.
 * Twitter's Retweet feature helps you and others quickly share that Tweet with all of your followers.
 * Sometimes users type RT at the beginning of a Tweet to indicate that they're posting a Retweet.
 * [|Twitter Help Center]

Using my google reader, I have come across great information that I think others would benefit from. So I tweet it by saying a little about the article or story and then provide a link that goes directly to what the website I found the story or article. Because I am using it for professional development only, many of my tweets are related to education. -Rubi Here's an example of what I've been posting and how I've been using the "Re-tweeting" feature:

Ahh Twitter just freaks me out. I guess I am just not as Tech savvy as I thought I was. It's great to have a place where people are talking about current issues and new ideas, but I honestly don't have any desire to get on and see what is happening. I also don't like having so many accounts in my name, is it just me? - Brianna

I am glad I am not the only one Brianna! I know Twitter has educational benefits, but to go on and see what people are doing every second of their life is just not for me! My sister has an account and she lets me see who she follows and what they say. I could care less if her friend is standing in line waiting to see a concert (or whatever). People are just to open with their lives now. I am debating just opening an account to follow only people in the educational field and see what ideas they have. But thats all.-Sara

I agree too! In fact, before I made the account, I posted a status on FB letting my friends and family know that I was not going to follow them on Twitter and that I was only going to use it for professional development only. I have benefited from what educators from around the world have shared and am willing to share as well information. I'm still getting the hang of Twitter and love to see what kinds of resources are available! -Rubi

Rubi, Like you I am only using it professionally. I'm not as comfortable tweeting. Not sure why??? I'm feeling like I've acquired more accounts in the last 2 months than I have my entire life. No, Brianna it's not just you. Although I've learned to tweet, and like when someone else tweets, I rarely tweet. Thankfully I haven't experienced the mundane tweets about daily life, but rather great ideas and hyperlinks to check out. Are we being graded on how much we post tweets? My 15 year old son likes Twitter better because he says it's quicker because of the limit as to how much you can type. I like having a 9 year old and a 15 year old whenever I have a question for this class. It's proved helpful. Has anyone else had their own children try out websites or tools we are learning about? ~Michelle

I use Twitter for professional collaboration. I do not do much tweeting at all, occasionally I will add a tweet her and there or re-tweet something I enjoy or think is important to share with others. I do follow other people or groups on Twitter that are not related to education, however, I just read what is going on with them or in the World, never tweet to them. I recently read a great article regarding incorporating Twitter into the classroom at the primary level. I will bring it to our next class to share. There are some interesting ideas and after reading I found myself wondering how I could use this in my own classroom. I have been in contact with our Technology Specialist in my region and are looking for other teachers to get on board and give this a try. Overall, it is really getting the young students to tweet during the day and have their peers respond through tweets and then also their parents. -Rosanne

I am so happy to say that I am getting more and more familiar with twitter!!! I have figured out how to search for people to follow and I have learned a lot about how to tweet people. I have been practicing tweeting back and forth. I'm so happy I finally got used to it! -krysta

I have played around a little bit with Twitter and some of the Tweets are useful. What I am still not getting is when people just tweet random one liners, are they meant to be inspirational? I understand this when people are following a specific event. But I have found Tweets that offer links to other resources to be more worth while than just following the feed. Has anyone found any useful links? I think using this to communicate between parents and students would be great, since we can specify who can follow your feed. As always, this would be fine as long as the proper protection measures are in place. -Brianna

Rockin' Robin - "Tweet Tweet!" I enjoy logging onto Twitter to see the posts that the people I am following are positing. The posts I find most valuable often provide me ideas for a future classroom. I feel that I will probably only continue to use Twitter if it feeds me new ideas on a regular basis. Here is a YouTube video that shows high school students using Twitter in the classroom: [] - Anne Marie