Using Twitter: How far have I come? More to do!!

I will be the first one to admit that I was not a fan of Twitter when I first started using it.  I just could not get the hang of it.  I didn't know who to follow.  I got some encouragement from Selena, one of my fellow Technology Leadership Academy colleagues, and tried again.  I learned some of the hash tags, found people from a variety of disciplines to follow,  and began participating in some of the weekly chats.

A few months later...My Twitter usage has helped me grow as a teacher:

I have connected with more people globally and started discussing Skype opportunities

I have started curating through Zite and Scoopit

I  have participated in webinars through Simplek12 and PLPNetwork
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Where can I go from here?

Yesterday, I used Twitter in the classroom for warm-up with my 12th Grade TOK students.  They had to respond to the following warm-up question as I finally had my first day back to work from bereavement:

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge"

~Benjamin Disraeli

They were asked to interpret this quote and what they thought it had to do with TOK.

High school students are initially suspicious to the idea of using twitter especially if this is not a part of the culture at your school.  I had to reassure them that I would not follow back (too funny)  and that all of the IB teachers would be using this to disseminate information for classes.

This was a good first start to using Twitter with students.

I hope to conduct more of these activities and add our 11th graders, Pre-IBers in 9th & 10th grade, parents and community at large.


I admire all of the connected people that I follow to include educators, administrators, and specialists who are using Twitter.  They have consistently used various forms of social media and it has become a natural part of the culture of their respective schools.

If you have articles, ideas and 'ahas' to share on this topic please feel free to chime in and add a comment to this post.