Twitter Teaching

I have joined Twitter for the first time this week!  After exploring and reading a few articles, I have learned how microblogging can be used in the language classroom AND for professional development. 

You Are Now Entering the Twitterverse

In just reading this one article I realized how many ways a teacher really can use Twitter to instruct students in a meaningful manner! Below I will describe some innovative ideas for Twitter use….

·         Twitter Characters – Students can create Twitter accounts for different characters in a book you are reading and have conversations with a partner (another character) about chosen/assigned topics; choose a scene to recreate in “tweet-speak”

·         Reading log/Book talks – Students can have discussions surrounding a book they are reading in class; post questions, reactions, comments to the text as they read; by using a specific hashtag in each tweet you can create your own class reading response thread

·         Scavenger Hunts - Tweet different "hunts" to your students; involve students finding unique facts within their reading assignment or searching around online for a factoid I set them after; it could be a contest and the first person to tweet you the answer wins

·         Resource Twitter Page – Post homework assignments, notes, reminders for students to look at while outside of the classroom; post helpful/extra links for students to explore or use to help them do assignments

·         Daily Words/Quotes – Post a new word (with definition?)and/or quote to Twitter each morning and students can explore them as much as they'd like

·         Retweeting – If you find something interesting that would be beneficial or relevant to what class is learning, retweet (share) it with your class OR to a specific student/s

I think these ideas are amazing and only the beginning of how Twitter can be integrated into instruction! These also can be adapted to almost any subject area.  I can particularly see myself using these types of activities in my future foreign language classroom!

Educational Twitter Chats Calendar

 

One of the ways that educators can benefit from using Twitter is to participate in any number of Twitter chats. Twitter chats are scheduled events or conversations that use a specific hashtag in an attempt to organize a conversation around a particular topic. If you're new to Twitter participating in ed chats can be a good way to connect with other educators that are interested in the same topics as you.