Welcome to the third step in our free professional learning series on building your PLN.

In the first two steps, we looked at what a PLN means and how to become a connected educator.

We’re now getting into the specifics of how to use particular tools, beginning with Twitter.

The aim of this step is to:

  1. Explain what Twitter is and how it’s used.
  2. Explain the benefits of using Twitter as part of your PLN.
  3. Helps you set up your Twitter account and connect with others.
Should You Use Twitter Flowchart Sylvia Duckworth
Sketchnote by Sylvia Duckworth

Introduction To Twitter

Most teachers who are using Twitter would probably agree that it is their number one way they build and connect with their PLN.

In fact, a 2016 study showed that the most popular tool K-12 teachers use to connect with others was Twitter.

What Is Twitter?

Twitter is a social networking, news, and microblogging service that allows you to send out short messages called tweets.

Along with text and links, tweets can also contain media (up to 4 photos, a video, or a GIF).

Tweets used to be limited to 140 characters but this increased to 280 characters by 2018.

Twitter is a place that you can just lurk, by reading others’ tweets, or contribute, by sending out your own tweets. Obviously, the latter is what you work towards as the more you put in, the more you get out!

You can read tweets without having your own Twitter account (as long as the accounts you’re following are public — and the majority are). To contribute, you will need an account which we will explain below.

One of the great things about Twitter is that it is accessible on your computer, laptop, tablet, or phone. You can use the native Twitter website or app, or there are many other popular third party apps that aim to improve functionality and accessibility.

Tweetdeck was once an independent app that has now been acquired by Twitter. Many users enjoy using it to organize their feed.

Twitter is used by people in nearly every country around the world. 83% of 193 UN member countries have Twitter a presence. For teachers, this means you have access to thousands of teachers with rich backgrounds and experiences that can contribute to your professional growth.

Anatomy Of A Tweet

Twitter is made up of tweets. We created this diagram to help you understand tweets better.

You’re welcome to share it with others or display it on your blog.

Anatomy of a Tweet | Edublogs Teacher Challenge

Interacting With Tweets

When you see a tweet, there are certain things you can click on:

  • The person’s name to see their profile page. You can look at their bio and see all their tweets.
  • Follow to have the tweeter’s future tweets show up on your homepage.
  • A link (if there is one) to open a website in your browser.
  • A hashtag to see other tweets that are categorized with the same hashtag (regardless of whether you follow the people using that hashtag)
  • Like (the heart) — this shows your appreciation, agreement, or acknowledgment of the tweet. Simply, tap/click the heart to like the tweet (tap/click again to undo).
  • Retweet to share the tweet with your own followers. This demonstrates that you found the tweet interesting or shareworthy. You will also have the option to add a comment to the retweet.
  • Direct message — you can message someone privately or start a private group conversation. Depending on individual settings, you might only be able to direct message someone if you both follow each other.
  • Comments — this allows you to either read what other people have said in a public reply, or add your own reply.

Think You’re Not Interested In Twitter? Think Again!

Twitter is more than just “another social networking tool”.

It generally isn’t about reconnecting with people you knew in high school or sharing what you’re cooking for dinner. Of course, some people only use Twitter for fun, although for most educators Twitter is about connecting with like minded individuals for personalized and ongoing professional development.

There are millions of tweets flying around in the Twitterverse 24-7 but the good thing is you can use Twitter as your time and inclination permits!

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach has shared an analogy of Twitter being like a river. The river keeps flowing but sometimes you might just walk past and have a quick look, sometimes you might hang around and dip your toes in, other times you might spend hours swimming around.

The choice is yours.

In this three minute video, Alec Couros explains how Twitter is used effectively in education.

Benefits Of Using Twitter

Twitter is like a virtual staffroom where you can catch up with your PLN. It’s a place where educators can find advice, give advice, find great links, share work, and engage in general musings about education.

Want examples?

  • In this post, Chris Betcher describes what he got out of tweeting for just 10 minutes.
  • Similarly, in this post Edna Sackson describes what she got out of 30 minutes on Twitter one morning.
  • In this post, New Zealand teacher Juliet Revell explains some fantastic professional and personal opportunities that she experienced thanks to building a PLN on Twitter.
  • This video by Matt Miller offers snapshot of some of the things you might see on Twitter in any given session.

While these examples aren’t new and some minor functions of Twitter have changed, the basic premise remains; there are countless ways educators are using Twitter to benefit themselves and their students.

Here’s a tweet from a high school history teacher who joined Twitter in 2019.

Check out Why Teachers Are Turning To Twitter by Brendon Hyndman for more research and examples of how Twitter is used in the global education community.

Twitter provides a modern platform for teachers to share, network, gain emotional support, build professional learning communities and make a contribution to their profession.

Five Steps To Building Your PLN Via Twitter

1. Join

The sign up process is easy. Just follow these steps:

  • Go to http://twitter.com and click on the sign up box, or go directly to https://twitter.com/signup.
  • You will be required to enter information such as your name and email address as you’re guided through the sign up process.
  • Once you sign up for an account, you can select a unique username. Try not to make your username too long and make it something that identifies you, like your name, rather than a complex nickname.

Once you’re signed up, you can customize your profile.

  • Complete your bio so people know who you are. You have 160 characters for your bio. Educators often share the age group or subject they teach, and particular interests.
  • Add a profile photo. Real photos can be a better choice than a cartoon avatar. It helps you to build your relationship with your PLN. Bios and photos can hold a lot of weight in virtual relationships.
  • You’ll also be able to add a header photo. Popular header images for teachers include landscapes, a classroom photo, or a quote. Tip: You can make a personalized Twitter header image with Canva.
Twitter Profile Page Example
Your Twitter profile page offers a snapshot of what you’re all about

Refer to the Educator’s Ultimate Guide to Twitter for more detailed step-by-step instructions on how to set up and use Twitter.

2. Follow People

Following someone on Twitter means:

  • You are subscribing to their tweets and their updates will appear in your home timeline
  • That person is able to send you a private direct message if you’re following each other

Following isn’t necessarily a reciprocal relationship, like Facebook friendships. Someone can follow you without you following them back and vice versa. You don’t need to wait for approval to follow someone either, as long as their account is public.

There are thousands of teachers around the world on Twitter, you just have to know where to find them!

No ideas?

Start with our Edublogs team like @edublogs @suewaters @ronnieburt @Edublogs_Eugene and me, @kathleen_morris

There are many educational thought leaders who thousands of people enjoy following such as:

Additionally, there are many popular sources for keeping up to date with the latest news, trends, and research in education, such as:

The examples listed above are only the tip of the iceberg and far from an exhaustive list!

Once you have a few people to follow, look at who they are following and you will start to build up your PLN.

You can also adopt some Twitter regulars as your mentors and ask them to put a tweet out to encourage their followers to connect with you.

Twitter also regularly shows you suggestions of people you could follow.

Watch this video to learn how to follow and connect with people on Twitter.

3. Lurk

You’ll need to spend some time checking out the stream of tweets and getting the hang of tweeting, retweeting, direct messaging, and hashtags.

Some people say Twitter isn’t as intuitive as other web tools but it doesn’t take long for it to make sense. Give yourself a few weeks to try it. Whenever you have a few spare minutes, open Twitter, scroll through your feed, click on some links, watch how people are interacting with each other.

If the people you’re following don’t interest you, it’s fine to unfollow them. Remember, you’re in charge of building your own personal PLN.

4. Contribute

When you’ve lurked for a while, jump and contribute! Like or retweet a few tweets, reply to tweets that resonated with you, and send tweets of your own. You could try contacting a few people via direct message too — ask them a question or introduce yourself.

It may take some time to get the hang of how Twitter works. We’ve made this cheat sheet to help. Feel free to share it with others or use it on your own blog.

Twitter Cheat Sheet for Teachers | Building Your PLN Edublogs Teacher Challenge Course

Remember, the more you put in, the more you get out.

Don’t be afraid to start replying to people, retweeting tweets, asking questions, and striking up conversations.

Many teachers on Twitter are very friendly and always happy to help newbies find their feet!

What To Tweet About

Still not sure what you could be tweeting about? How about:

  • A photo from a lesson
  • A link to something interesting you’ve read
  • A question about a topic you’re interested in
  • A request for a resource
  • A link to something from your own blog or someone else’s blog
  • A favorite online tool you like to use with students

5. Stick With It!

Many regular Twitter users have commented that it took them a few attempts to get going with Twitter. Sticking with it is so important. Make yourself check into Twitter daily for a month before you make any decisions about whether it is for you.

It takes time to build rapport with people. When you do, you’ll find your professional world will be so enlightened and your students will be better for it!

Remember, you definitely won’t be seeing everything that’s tweeted, so don’t feel like you have to. You’ll receive notifications when someone replies to you, mentions you, tags you, or direct messages you. Otherwise, Twitter works fairly serendipitously and you’ll just see what you see!

Useful Video

To walk you through getting started with Twitter and to demonstrate some of the tips mentioned in this post, check out Starting a PLN on Twitter: A Quick Guide For Teachers by Common Sense Education.

Conclusion

Effective teaching and learning doesn’t occur in a vacuum. To be the best teacher you can be, you need a diverse and innovative network.

As we outlined in Step Two, traditionally, the staff at your school was your main network of teachers to collaborate with. This network may be fantastic but can become an echo chamber for the same ideas, values, and perspectives.

With Twitter, the barriers of distance and access are broken down and the world is at your fingertips!

In our next step, we explore Twitter further by looking at hashtags and Twitter chats.

Your Task

PLNs are about sharing, collaborating, and learning from and with others. Here’s your chance to ask a question, comment, and get involved!

We’d like you to add your voice and ideas to our ongoing conversation on building your own PLN by undertaking one or more of the following challenges:

  1. Video Reflections: Watch How To Use Twitter Effectively In Education with Alec Couros or the Common Sense Education video on Getting Started With Twitter. Leave a comment on this post to share your ideas on how you might use Twitter to build your PLN.
  2. Join: If you haven’t joined Twitter yet, head over to twitter.com and sign up. Leave a comment on this post with your Twitter username so others can follow you. If you’ve joined in the past, now could be a good time to review your account. Do you need to update your images or bio perhaps?
  3. Find Someone: After browsing Twitter, find someone who you think you’d be interested in following. Leave their Twitter username in a comment and tell us what they’re tweeting about that you find interesting.
  4. Go Deeper: Write a blog post about your initial impressions of Twitter. You could include — what you see as obstacles to taking part in Twitter, what you have learned from being on Twitter, or who you have connected with via Twitter. Don’t forget to leave a comment here with the link to your post. You might even like to document your own journey as a new Twitter user to inspire others to do the same!

Also, feel free to leave a comment to ask any questions or share your tips.

How to leave a comment: Scroll down to find the comment box. Write your comment, then enter your name and email address (email addresses are not published). Enter the anti-spam word. Press submit and we will moderate your comment ASAP.

772 thoughts on “Step 3: Using Twitter To Build Your PLN

  1. I followed @ TeacherGoals because they post funny seasonal activities for students, comic relief for teachers ass well as motivational quotes that would be great for the classroom. This page is followed by and retweets many other educators so it is a good place to find/build a network of people similar or different from you.

  2. After watching the video with Alec Couros, I definitely learned a lot about how Twitter can be used to build a PLN. I’ve had a twitter account since 2011, but have used it for personal reasons. I never even thought to use it to connect and explore educational content. One way to use Twitter to build a PLN would be to use hashtags, like mentioned in the video, to focus on specific content areas. A hashtag could lead you to other professionals in the field and also offer a means to share content with one another.

  3. Video Reflections: I might use twitter to connect with other teachers and also find different ways to do lessons or get ideas for activities within the classroom. There are so many different ways to connect and find different resources that teachers can use to improve connections with others and resources for their classroom.

  4. I have been using the same twitter for about 9 years now. I have continued to revamp my same personal account, but I have been advised to create a professional account. My twitter handle is @tiararenee_ and I use my account for personal interest and follows. Although, my followers do include my network of teachers, other VCU students, and other professional interests of mine. It has been a while since I have posted a picture, but during undergrad I used my twitter for promotion and ideas. As I move into my career my Twitter platform can be used to engage my students, and I can post flyers, homework, and other cool activities. I also follow pages that give me ideas of what to use in the classroom. Twitter is also a platform for other professions to express their concerns and get their opinions. Until I revamp my page I plan to keep it private until I have a profile that is worth the views of others.

  5. One person that I found is @Price_3rdgrade. Katie Price is a 3rd grade teacher in a county neighboring mine and what I found interesting about her page is that she tweets examples of her lessons and how she modeled them differently for remote learning. As a new teacher, these examples are extremely helpful for me to serve as a guide for one way that I can model information. Remote learning is something that is not going to go away any time soon, so learning new tricks is always something that I will value.

  6. Twitter can be full of a accurate and inaccurate information. I think that twitter is a great space to share opinions and to be able to read other opinions but it is not for everyone. Personally, I do not like twitter nor have an account as I would feel that it would not benfically support my teaching career nor offer me the resources that I would seek.

  7. After reading about the benefits of Twitter from this blog, I have noticed that Twitter can be made out to be much deeper of a resource than previously considered. The professional backgrounds and organizations that can be followed on the platform offer new outlooks, ideas, and resources at your fingertips. To go deeper, my initial impression of Twitter was that it was simply used for millennials to post random thoughts and comical ideas. However, the possible professionalism that Twitter can provide is something that I look forward to looking into.

  8. A Twitter account that I find personally relevant is @jcarrollhistory. Jim Carroll is a history teacher and working on his PhD in Education, which makes him very knowledgeable about his subject field. As someone who wants to teach secondary social studies, most of his tweets focus on how to better support my social studies students. He even shares a lot of his own research and interacts with all of his followers, so he would be a great resource to ask questions to or even share my own perspective with.

  9. I think utilizing Twitter is a great way to build a PLN and see what other teachers have to say about certain topics or subjects. It is super helpful to be able to search or click on a specific hashtag to see what items come up. Additionally, reaching out or tweeting is a great way to engage with others and being able to ask questions that might be helpful for my own classroom.

  10. 3. Join: If you haven’t joined Twitter yet, head over to twitter.com and sign up. Leave a comment on this post with your Twitter username so others can follow you. If you’ve joined in the past, now could be a good time to review your account. Do you need to update your images or bio perhaps?
    – I did not have twitter so I am using this as a push to get it. I made one and my username is Garen133.

  11. @jmattmiller was someone who I came across on Twitter. Initially I was looking for inquiry based learning post that would be related to math. When I came across Matt’s Twitter I was intrigued and agreed with his idea of making effective lessons, meaningful to the students all while integrating technology. Interestingly enough he has this concept of “ditching the textbook” which I think is something we might be moving towards since everything is becoming digital and we see education evolving.

  12. Video Reflections: Watch How To Use Twitter Effectively In Education with Alec Couros or the Common Sense Education video on Getting Started With Twitter. Leave a comment on this post to share your ideas on how you might use Twitter to build your PLN.

    First of all, I loved the video that Alec Couros made on YouTube with ideas of how twitter is effectively used in education. I think it ties in very well with how I am going to use Twitter to build my own PLN. The first thing I would do is look for different hashtags that have to do with the content area I am going to teach. For example, I could type in #SpanishTeacher or #ELLTeachers to see what pops up. I could browse through those
    Another thing that he mentioned that could potentially help me is by sharing my own lesson plans as well as finding others who have already posted their own. I could use that tool to gain ideas and present information. The biggest thing to remember when posting your own lesson plans is to be open to feedback.
    The final thing I took from the video is to SHARE YOUR IDEAS. Most people think they should just keep all their knowledge and reply on themselves for everything. Instead, it is better just to share your ideas, learn knew things from people with different perspectives, and get feedback.

  13. I actually have a personal Twitter account but haven’t used it in a while because I found that it takes to much of my attention. After reading and watching the various clips it open my eyes more on the many opportunities in which I can expand my use in the educational aspect.

  14. After browsing Twitter, someone who I am interested in following is @wellnes_mh. Jen was a speaker during a PD day at my school where she gave an inspiring keynote titled, ‘When coffee is not enough.’ She is a director of Mental Health & Wellness and is passionate about advocating for educators. I was so inspired after her talk, and I found myself wanting to connect with her so that I could learn more about mental wellness. I found her on Twitter and he page is full of positivity and life-giving advice specifically curated for educators. I find her tweets fascinating because in a space that sometimes holds a lot of negativity her page is a bright light. She cares for others, provides comedic relief, and highlights the amazing things happening in education. In my opinion, she is definitely worth a follow on Twitter!

  15. A person worth following on twitter is @LissaBrunan! She was a fantastic PD leader I have worked with and now runs her own PD group. She usually posts tips and tricks about using the G-Suite, but also offers up great tips and apps for use in the classroom regularly. Plus, she offers a few virtual sessions for free that count as continuing education credits or SCHECHs if you are in Michigan!

  16. I joined twitter quite a few years ago and my username is @tmunter23. I rarely use twitter because I spent too much time on it and cut myself off. After watching the videos and reading the benefits of using twitter to build a PLN, I updated my account and began following influential people I feel will be a positive addition to my account. My goal is to focus on using this account more to construct an educator PLN.

  17. Upon watching the video on How To Use Twitter Effectively In Education with Alec Couros, I was able to understand how I would go about using Twitter to build my PLN. Through the use of Twitter, teachers are able to connect, see better practice, share lesson plans, etc. I would use hashtags. With hashtags, if you are interested in a subject area or a grade, you are able to search it through a hashtag and find information. Teachers are able to connect in new ways.

  18. I did sort of use Twitter at my last employer because that was one of the main PLN that they used so I do have an account already.

  19. As was mentioned in this little lesson, there are many ways that Twitter can be helpful. The hashtags piece that was discussed in the videos were especially important for building a PLN. I am sure there is some jargon to learn in the Twitter education world, but as with most user friendly technologies, I am sure it is easy to learn. I do not yet have a Twitter account, so that would be a good place to start. I could use this resource to follow world history and civics teachers. This will be the first year I teach civics, so the ideas will be very much needed!

  20. I didn’t even think of Twitter being such a connective resource for educators. I always saw social media as being separate, so I can’t wait to use it now to connect with other educators for optimized opportunities!

  21. I found Teacher2Teacher on Twitter; their username is @teacher2teacher. I like the account because they post frequently and many of their posts include an activity for students, as well as a reflection question for teachers to consider how they will use it or what they could be doing more of.

  22. I was not aware of how big of a role Twitter plays in the lives of educators. I have a Twitter account but I rarely use it. If I do I may scroll through my feed and exit the app in a couple of minutes. I now know all of Twitter’s uses and the section of this lesson called “What to Tweet about” is very helpful. I think new educators could find this useful if they’re new to Twitter or want to start connecting with others/expanding their PLN. I think that Twitter could offer good ideas and tips. One downside I think would be that with so many hashtags and posts being made, it may get overwhelming or you won’t be able to find specific things you are looking for. That is why it is important to follow the users or hashtags most relevant to the topics you want.

  23. I’ve had Twitter for years now and I see both advantages and disadvantages associated with it. An advantage from using Twitter is you can use it to get in contact with other educators. You can share ideas, get advice, give advice, and so much more. These conversations will lead to increased learning and growth. A disadvantage I see from using Twitter is that it’s easy to get distracted on the app.

  24. My Twitter handle is @AJH_Ray . As mentioned in my comment on Step Two, Twitter is not my favorite social medium because I’ve found it’s too easy for me to get sucked into a “doom-scroll.” My current Twitter profile is largely focused on the publishing world because I initially joined to connect with other writers and literary agents. My bio does mention that I am an educator (and a librarian), but I need to work on following more education-focused accounts to curate an educator PLN.

  25. My Twitter handle is @SimmonsFelicia8, however I would like to change it to something “techie”. Some of the most interesting educators that I follow are @Microsoft, @FlippedLearning, and @TeacherGoals.

  26. I just followed many different authors and I also followed Colby Sharp who always has video book talks. His talks on encouraging students to read are high energy and awesome!

  27. Join: If you haven’t joined Twitter yet, head over to twitter.com and sign up. Leave a comment on this post with your Twitter username so others can follow you. If you’ve joined in the past, now could be a good time to review your account. Do you need to update your images or bio perhaps?
    I joined Twitter a few years ago because I had a wonderful administrator, @AngeloErinn, who regularly challenged our staff to participate in tweeting using a school hashtag. With new administration came new challenges and I stopped tweeting. I am excited now to restart and to use Twitter to develop a PLN. I’ve never used it as a personal account so it is already a snapshot of my educational experiences. My handle is @giftedkidsrock.

  28. I am very new to the Twitter scene and initially signed up in the last couple of weeks to assist in growing my PLN network. I was initially never intrigued by Twitter, because in my own words, “I didn’t see the point in having anther social media account.” What I believe that I missed out on was the ability to grow a community of followers and those to follow that will be more focused on my career rather than my personal life and what new things are happening like I tend to share on Facebook or Instagram. My hope is that I can continue to spend time on Twitter lurking about (@KeslarAmanda) and then become more familiar and comfortable in the space and then begin to start asking questions and offering advice to others.

  29. Task 3:
    I have had Twitter for years, however, I have not utilized it very regularly, and definitely not for my personal learning network. After browsing Twitter, I followed other teachers I know from my district, administration members from my district, as well as many of the schools in my district. I was surprised to see how many other teachers, administration and schools in my area had their own twitter pages. I found that some are more regularly active than others, but it was still interesting to look through the different pages.

    After I examined people and schools I knew, I followed @edublogs, @gcouros and many of the other accounts listed in the article above. They were tweeting about many resources, programs and podcasts that I found to be extremely interesting. I can definitely see myself utilizing Twitter more now as a way to connect, collaborate and stay current in my teaching practices.

  30. I did not have a twitter account yet, so I created one. My username is: @clarkmc25. As I was signing up for an account, one of the set up screens asks you what you are interested in. You then select topics that meet your liking. I selected “track and field” as I am a coach for that and “education” in the career section. I wanted to stick with the two of those choices, even though there are so many to choose from, because I want my twitter experience to be focused on bettering myself in my career and finding others to connect with through that. Once I selected those two, the next screen brought up suggestions I might be interested in to follow. I followed the Illinois State Board of Education (@ISBEnews) and a 5th grade teacher (@5thGradeTeacher). This is just the start to my journey on Twitter finding PLNs to connect with.

  31. I had joined Twitter for personal use in the past but never utilized it. I re-downloaded the app and updated my profile and username to be more purposeful for PLN use. My username is @grimesPTAedu and I have started following @ISTE, @edublogs, and @edutopia. I look forward to learning how to use Twitter for PLN purposes!

  32. I have used twitter for many years and for a while was quite an avid user. Many professional relationships can be developed and enhanced through Twitter use. Twitter is an excellent way to get quick feedback and to stay on top of current events, teaching methods, and cutting-edge educational topics. Twitter is a wonderful way to see short clips of interesting videos including Ted Talks and other YouTube clips from ‘Blue Check’ institutions that have a wide following. You can also locate true experts in their field on Twitter who are more than willing to be of assistance, give advice, provide information and become a part of a wider network.

  33. Using twitter to build a PLN could be started by something as simple as making an account and following other educators that you know. From there you need to curate who you follow and find people who will help you grow in your education. Following hashtags is another great way to find things and/or people who can help you with your education. Growing with Twitter is something I would have never thought of before watching the Common Sense video or doing this course.

  34. I decided to follow Kasey Bell (@ShakeUpLearning) because she talks a lot about technology and how to use it. She also leaves people resources to use as well. Most of the resources are about how to use google and she also has a few study resources.

  35. I created a twitter account for teaching and connecting with other teachers.
    The username is @Misssmi52116231

  36. Here is my newly created twitter for connecting with educators @teachAlexandria. I’m not really a fan of twitter but maybe this will be a different experience.

  37. I love Twitter I not only use it for education ideas but just everyday life. I do not have a specific one that I follow but all the ones that I have found I love. These people give you so many different ideas on how you can use your room and materials in different ways.

  38. I absolutely adore @AshMarquez620 on Twitter. Some of you may know her for her website Teach Create Motivate. She has so many incredible ideas and is changing the world of education. If you are in need of some lesson plans or even just some inspiration, Ashley’s Twitter account is phenomenal! One idea that I am currently loving of Ashley’s is her VIP table within her classroom.

  39. I’ve just created my new Twitter account! I do have to say that it does not appear as user friendly as Facebook, for example. I am sure I will get the hang of it, after a while. I liked that Twitter immediately gave me suggestions on who to follow, based on the interest preferences I chose. Although, I think I will be lurking for a while, I would absolutely like to get more comfortable and start learning from and with others. I like that I do not need to be “accepted” by someone to follow their tweets. That makes the beginning stages much easier. To avoid becoming overwhelmed, I started with following just 10 people/pages. Besides the popular ones that I had known about, like Edutopia and Ted Talks, I am following:
    @ncte – National Council of Teachers of English, an organization I have been aware of as an ELL teacher. I believe that NCTE will help me connect with individuals that are ELL specialists.
    @SELearnignEDU – they share strategies and resources on social-emotional learning, something our district has been focusing on for the last 2 years. I often incorporate SEL into writing and speaking activities of my ELL classes and I will be excited to get additional knowledge and inspiration.

  40. I have had a Twitter account for years, but I have never thought to use it to connect with other educators. As I get farther into my schooling, however, I realize that it might be a good idea to start now. One page I found to be very helpful was @teacher2teacher. They are a verified page, so I know that I can trust their content and links. They provide various links to articles that will benefit teachers, and the articles are about signficant issues, including racial injustice. They have many resources for teachers looking for ideas with online learning as well, which is especially important during these times. They have even retweeted questions that other teacher pages have asked so that viewers can reply their own ideas. It was a great resource that I know plan on using and recommend others check out.

  41. I created a twitter account for teaching and connecting with other teachers.
    The username is @learnwmsanders

  42. I have created a twitter account for my teaching career
    Username
    BCarterTeaches
    Excited to see how this journey of social media can be beneficial in my career!

  43. @zoe_m_13

    I just updated my twitter after years of disuse, and it is wonderful to know that something I created merely for the purpose of engaging with friends in different fandoms can now be a useful tool for my future career.

  44. Find someone: @MattCondon10- Prek-8 principal. He seems incredibly inspirational. From what I gathered, he posts a lot about positive reinforcement in his school. How to praise and celebrate the hard work that he recognizes from his students, teachers, colleagues, and parents. That’s something that I personally don’t think I do well, so to see and make notes on how I could do better in that area, is very inspiring.

  45. For my first impressions of twitter, I think it is a very good platform for quick and easy communication and sharing ideas and information. I think that sharing accounts among each other and gaining access to new knowledge would be easy with the way that twitter is formatted. Some obstacles may be figuring out how to use certain functions of twitter and getting to know how that works. However, I think that this learning curve would be beneficial in order to gain such an accessible and useful site.

  46. I have never been able to keep up with Twitter. The guidance and tips make sense, but the entire tool still feels overwhelming to me. I will try to use hashtags more often as I have heard that following certain hashtags proves to be the best way to find certain groups that can help you develop in your specific area of interest. Typically, I’ve only ever use Twitter to follow politics and local mutual aid efforts, but I can see the value in finding resources through this platform. However, since it is a social media tool, the platform is susceptible to toxic uses. In order to not fall into the trappings of social media, I think healthy discourse needs to be encouraged.

  47. I decided to find someone on twitter who would be interesting to follow. The user is @TheJLV. Jose Vilson is a new york based teacher. He is alos a writer and has earned verification on twitter. He has ammassed over 46,000 followers on twitter. He is passionate about education reform and focuses on removing inequalities in the classroom. I think he would be interesting to follow because he is in the same field as me though he is in a different are where the curriculum and standards are different from mine. I also feel the need for extensive education reform which is something he fights for.

  48. Twitter is a really great way to connect with people, but an obstacle I could see with Twitter is that it can be hard to explain your idea to someone who completely disagrees. Communication is still best face-to-face, where body language and the tone of your voice work to help you be perceived as kind, rather than on Twitter where you could be misinterpreted as angry or mean.

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