Twitter for Teachers?

I have had Twitter for at least a year now, but if I am being truthfully honest I really do not know much about Twitter.  The only reason I signed up for Twitter was due to my siblings, 4 out of the 5 of them were always on their Twitter accounts.  After I signed up, I started following:

• my siblings
• celebrities (ie: Ellen)
• and the few friends I knew had an account

And so my Twitter journey began.  I would go on maybe once a week to read new posts I had not seen yet but maybe, for that account, posted a whole 5 times.  I never new what to post or thought of anything worth while posting.

Last year in my ICT course the idea of having a professional and a personal account for Twitter.  This got me to thinking, why not?  Having younger siblings, who follow me or tag me in a post, I find that their friends, my students, are trying to follow or add me on social media.  So, as you can guess, I created two accounts; one personal and one professional.  

I am still trying to figure out how I can use Twitter in my classroom?  There was one classroom I saw that had a daily Twitter wall.  The teacher would have students post, on a piece of paper, their favourite thing, or interesting that they learned this week.  This I can see myself trying in my classroom.  It would be a great way to see what my students learned and are interested in.  

Another option for a classroom Twitter account I have heard of was where the teacher would create an account and have students post about their learning, again once a week, online.  This would be a great way for parents to see, on a weekly basis, what their children learned that week.  IF I were to try this with my class, I would make sure to check with my admin team if this was allowed.  From there I would send home a permission letter for the parents to sign, giving their child permission to post on behalf of the class.

The other possibility of Twitter in the classroom is the endless possibilities of people/groups you can follow.  I believe it would be great to follow another class that lives in another country.  It would be a great a great way to learn about another culture.

If anyone has more ideas about how to use Twitter in the classroom I would love to hear them.

~ Miss Laing