When I was first introduced to Twitter as a professional development tool in my graduate class at Wilmington University, I was amazed at the plethora of information out there. These REAL live people are sharing the same journey as me and willing to share their ideas. I can learn about emerging trends, Web 2.0 sources, ELA ideas, technology integration lessons, and the list goes on. By using certain hashtags designed for educators, I can have the latest updates on what teachers in my discipline are doing in their classrooms this year, or even this week! I researched some hashtags that might be useful and was overwhelmed at the amount of educators using twitter for collaboration of classroom ideas. Click here to find hundreds of educational hashtags. There is even a Google Doc with hashtags listed alphabetically where people from all over the world have contributed. I enjoy watching silly videos on serious topics and thought I would share this one which talks about using twitter as a professional development tool.
Armed with exciting new ideas, I now want to implement Twitter in my classroom for student use. I plan on starting small by creating a username for a character or two in our current novel. Students will then tweet in the first person as that character. They can pose questions to other characters, comment about the situations the character is facing, chat about the problem, etc. I am excited to try this in my classroom and hope to share with you how it works.
In my research, I have found many exciting ways to use Twitter in the classroom. But I realize that it works better for me to start small, work out the problems, and gradually add on as my students and I become more comfortable with the new technology. It is exciting to think that discussions and learning can continue long after class is over. My goal for my classroom is that students reflect on their learning and create discussions on their own outside of class. I want them to take ownership of their learning and analyze the information they are receiving. Yes, they are fourth graders but I am sure that many interesting thoughts come to them later after class is over. Wouldn't Twitter be a wonderful way to jot down your thinking in real time? Currently I am asking them to wait until the next class period to share their thoughts. Can you remember what you were thinking about last night?
Since I teach at the elementary level, I want to set up one classroom account for my students. Most of them do not have emails and I want to protect their privacy and keep track of their tweets. The screencast below shows how:
I have completed the first step and hope to excite my students and engage them in learning. I will continue to expand my Twitter use in my classroom and share my experiences with you as I do. Please share with me your experiences and ideas with Twitter.
References:
Lepi, K. (2012, September 17). 300 Educational Twitter Hashtags Being Used Right Now. Edudemic. Retrieved February 14, 2016, from http://www.edudemic.com/twitter-hashtags-now/
Lalande, M. (2011, December 7). To Tweet Or Not To Tweet. Retrieved February 14, 2016, from https://youtu.be/LXPfxwKkSXM
National Education Association (2015).Can Tweeting Help Your Teaching?. Retrieved February 13, 2016, from http://www.nea.org/home/32641.htm
60 Inspiring Examples of Twitter in the Classroom - OnlineUniversities.com. (2011). Retrieved February 14, 2016, from http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2011/12/60-inspiring-examples-of-twitter-in-the-classroom/
TechGeek83. (2013, April 10). Twitter in the Classroom. Retrieved February 14, 2016, from https://youtu.be/dLg1--PbFGI