Simple tips for enhancing your Twitter experience and to grow you PLC
Tip 1 - Follow everyone that works with you. Find them by:
- From YOUR home/profile page, click on #discover
- Click on ‘Who to Follow’ (based on others that you follow, geographic area, etc..)
- Click on ‘Find Friends’ (links to your contacts)
Tip 2 - Review the ‘LISTS’ that people created to find more like minded people
- Two of my lists are ‘librarians’ and ‘international educators’
- You can follow other people’s lists and/or create your own
How to:
- Click on the photo of a tweeter - view their PROFILE page
- At the top, you will see - Tweets, Following, Followers, Favorites, LISTS
- Click on Lists, click on one, subscribe to what you want (list must be public)
- To create your own: on profile page, click LISTS, click on ‘CREATE LIST’
Tip 3 - Who to follow to build your PLC?
- Review a few #hashtags that interest you
- Select some interesting folk to FOLLOW
- See who those you admire are following
- To BUILD YOUR VOICE - Send a reply, Follow and/or mention someone in a tweet
Tip 4 - Use and follow #hashtags and/or join a chat
- #asfg - look who has tweeted the most....
- See list below of # of interest...
Tip 5 - Privacy
- Tweets are public anyone following you or who you mention, can view your tweets
- To ‘direct message’ (private) someone - they must be following you
- When you directly Tweet someone (by putting their @handle as the beginning of your Tweet), that Tweet turns up in the feeds of users who follow both you and the person you are directly Tweeting. If you put a period first - .@vrobins1 then it goes to all of your followers
Tip 6 - Use an app like Twitterific or Tweetdeck to view #hashtag tweets and or a CHAT in one timeline
SOME # TO FOLLOW:
General education: #teaching, #teachers, #learning, #k12, #PLN, #edreform, #commoncore, #ccss, #teacherproblems, #edcamp, #globaled
#mexedchat - Monday nights @ 8pm
Educational technology: #edtech, #elearning, #edapp (or #edapps), #byod, #blendinglearning, #ipaded, #1to1
Content or grade-level specific:
Literacy: #kidlit, #literacy, #readaloud
Math: #math, #mathed
Science: #scied, #STEM, #NGSS, #scienceteacher
Social studies: #socialstudies, #historyteacher
Arts: #artsed, #musiced
Early childhood: #earlyed, #preschool, #ece
ESL: #esl, #ell (or #ells)
Special education: #sped, #specialneeds, #autism, #dyslexia
Physical education: #PEgeeks
Library: #TLchat
Other hashtags to note:
#comments4kids: Denotes when teachers want others to comment on students’ blog posts.
#flipclass: The latest and greatest ideas about flipped learning
WHO TO FOLLOW:
Companies and Organizations:
@ScholasticTeach: Scholastic’s official account for teachers
@IRAToday: Literacy ideas for all educators
@NCTE: Teaching tips for English teachers
@NCTM: All things math education
@NSTA: Ideas and opportunities in science education
@ASCD: Professional development and educational leadership resources
@NAEYC: News and tweets about early childhood education
@educationweek and @EdWeekTeacher: The latest education news
@edutopia: Inspiration for K–12 educators
@TeachingChannel: Online community of K–12 teachers
@Edudemic: Education and technology
@MindShiftKQED: Trends in education
Educators:
@cybraryman1: Jerry Blumengarten, co-moderator of #edchat
@MrSchuReads: John Schumacher, teacher-librarian and cohost of #SharpSchu monthly book club with Colby Sharp (@colbysharp)
@donalynbooks: Donalyn Miller, a.k.a. The Book Whisperer, and a facilitator of #nerdybookclub
@pernilleripp: Pernille Ripp, middle school teacher and creator of Global Read Aloud
@coolcatteacher: Vicki Davis, blogger, teacher, and IT director
@web20classroom: Steven W. Anderson, instructional technology expert and #edchat cocreator
@pamallyn: Pam Allyn, literacy expert and founding director of LitWorld and LitLife
Additional Resources:
10 Tips for tweeting teachers
How to search Twitter for educational content
Why Your Teachers Should Use Twitter
Ideas for Twitter Lists