Twitter is an excellent tool for spreading ideas, collaboration, and keeping up with current events. It allows us to connect in an informal setting with people we may have not been able to communicate with otherwise. Users are linking with their favorite musical artists, expressing their feelings to politicians, and finding friends around the globe. Recently I have been using the app to learn from classmates and professionals in the world of education. The experience has been great and has opened my mind to how I can use social media as a learning tool as opposed to just for fun in my free time.
By being able to understand the thoughts and opinions of others, we challenge how and why we think the way we do. Twitter has an endless amount of varying opinions. Some opinions may change the way you think, while others provide concrete validation into why you believe what you do. For example, the other night I stumbled upon a user discussing that they believe children should not be given free lunch at school as they did not pay for it. School lunches were not something I had put much thought into before. This tweet challenged me to think about my own opinions and I realized I think school lunches should be provided to students at free to low cost. This led to a meaningful conversation with a classmate where we discussed how free lunches are a great school resource. Twitter brought a topic of concern to my attention that I had not thought about before. I was able to have a learning experience and an impactful interaction even though I did not agree with the original post.
Twitter has also been an amazing tool for finding ideas to use in the classroom. Going into a blank room your first year of teaching can be overwhelming. How will you set things up? What will make the students comfortable? What will you do to keep students engaged in learning? Twitter allowed me to get insight from real educators with years of experience while also sharing ideas I found online with the community. These professionals have an idea of what works and I am so grateful to have these ideas for when I design my elementary classroom one day. The core of my teaching strategy is the use of kindness to build confidence. Twitter has shown me several ways on how to implement this in my classroom. Below is a list of my favorites:
- Classwork turned into different drawers to signify how confident a student is with the material.
- Allowing every student to talk during morning meetings so everyone feels seen and heard.
- Implementing a Day of Caring to teach students empathy.
- The use of check-in/check-out buddies to act as supports to show kindness.
- How to build personal bonds with struggling students.
- 60-Second Shout Outs done by students to highlight the accomplishments of another student.
Twitter has allowed me to interact with others, even if we do not agree, showing me we are always able to learn from each other. We can always learn something new from those around us and I believe this experience truly demonstrates this, especially in Twitter Chats. Twitter chats are free ways to increase your professional development for today’s classrooms. I appreciate the insight had by those in the field and I look forward to joining them one day. I will continue to use the app in the future as a way to connect with educators in the field to not only enhance my skills for myself but my students.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog!
Follow me on Twitter for more education related discussion: @EckhardtMalisa
Hey Malisa, I am on your side when it comes to using twitter! The way we are using it in our class as a PLN, I never knew how much of a learning tool a social media platform could be. Using this twitter account and following professionals in our field enters you into a community with people that are all sharing their ideas and it is a great way to learn a bunch of new meaningful advice. It is also in a way sort of exciting to me as it is all information on my future profession! Great Blog!