TWITTER

  TWITTER. I remember the first time I heard about it. There was a contest going on between the actor Ashton Kutcher and someone else to see who could get the most "followers". I saw this on the news. So I decided to see what it was all about. I set up a Twitter account and so did my teenagers. We sent tweets to each other for a few weeks, and then I practically forgot about it. Over the course of the next couple of years, it really exploded onto the social media scene. Every show, actor, news person, product, company, and pretty much anything in between had a Twitter. I began to hear of teachers using it, so I tried to have a class Twitter. It seemed like a great way to get info. to parents quickly. So I sent home the info., and a week later I had one parent following me! So using Twitter as a parent communication tool wasn't working.  I then began to notice on my favorite blogs that teachers had Twitter accounts. So I began to look at them and I began to get so many great ideas! I started following a lot of teachers who were doing amazing things in their classrooms! I realized that my teaching had really gotten stagnant! It was just the same old thing every day. I was on auto-pilot.  I got so many great ideas and found out about so many neat websites and resources, new ways to do things, great articles to share with colleagues and parents, etc. It has truly revitalized my teaching, and it has been essential in keeping me up-to-date on all the latest and greatest in the area of technology. I get ideas for really great lessons, and I'm so excited about presenting them to students. I find that I can hardly wait to try things out with the kids. It has made my job so exciting - for me and my students! I guess the greatest thing is that I get to decide what I want to learn about and pursue. It is professional development on my own terms. I now call all the people I follow my "PLN" because I truly learn from this network professionally every day!  Below are some great Twitter links that I've stumbled upon. Please leave a comment and share any great ideas or thoughts you have about using Twitter in education. 

http://www.cybraryman.com/edhashtags.html  Great hashtags for educators


http://plpnetwork.com/2012/04/20/growing-your-pln-with-twitter-2/  Great start-up info.


http://edudemic.com/2012/04/100-ways-to-use-twitter-in-education-by-degree-of-difficulty/  100 ways to use Twitter