Reflection

After learning about how we as teachers can use twitter, I have come to the conclusion that twitter is much more than a social media outlet used for fun. I have learned that as a teacher we can follow other educators and learn from their experiences and their knowledge, we can use it for a discussion outlet, and we can use polls. Our students can also take advantage of twitter for research projects, discussions, following certain accounts that relate to a certain topic, and to post graphics, models or anything else for other peers to see. I think that one thing that I enjoyed most about twitter for teachers was the discussion portion. It is a fun, creative way to interact with others in the classroom without having to be present in the actual classroom!

I think having a twitter would be great for older grades as they can communicate with others across the world. They can see things from other perspectives. My focus is teaching early childhood possibly like kindergarten so I am not sure what I could use twitter for in that classroom. But it could personally help me when it comes to talking to other educators and getting their opinions on subjects or becoming an advocate for my students.  

I’m not sure it will be. Considering I’m only using this twitter for this class, that it’s a skeleton of an account, and I will try my best to remove the account after this class, I’m not sure how it could be used in my classroom. I hope I can be an example of effective teaching without social media. As a student, I am currently using twitter to hand in things, but it’s been rather difficult! Now, I’m better prepared for doing this. As a teacher, I’ll use this whole class as an anecdote. I think this has confirmed opinions of twitter that I already have, and has highlighted why it seems irrelevant. Tools help one reach an objective, and I can speak with much more certainty now when I say, “twitter has nothing to offer me.”

This is relevant to my future classroom in a sense, because it is the future. Twitter and social media in general can be used as a large pool to get ideas from, to share ideas and get critiqued on it, and to learn new information and spread information in general. As a student, I can use twitter to develop connections in the field of education that can be useful both for getting a job and just in general to get advice. All in all, twitter is just another tool that can be used for the classroom at many different ages and for many different things.

Having a teacher twitter is an interesting thought. I think one interesting aspect of this is unlike many current teachers, I grew up with a twitter. I currently use it as a place to find funnies and stay up to date on sports. I have mixed feelings about taking an app of destress and turning it into a work app. I will definitely continue to have two separate twitters. I think a good way to use it is hopping into occasional educational chats, students being able to ask me quick questions, and allowing myself to simply scroll through some possible good thoughts on education. Students will want to follow me on something because thats just how kids are and this will be a good thing for me to let them follow on, might even throw out a couple opinions on pop culture things like sports, music, and the bachelor.

Twitter will be relevant to my future classroom because it is an useful tool that can be used at many different ages. Even if it is not having a student make a twitter, like earlier elementary grades, the ideas seen on twitter will be helpful. For example, I could give students the word count limit and have them write out a tweet. I could use twitter now as a student to research important topics or following people who are involved in the education world. 

For young children collaboration is key. Kids working together and collaborating with students and adults can further their education more then a textbook lesson would. Having them work in groups builds their speech and vocabulary as well as build a great classroom community within the children themselves. Having them pick something and work on it as class also gives them a sense of pride in their work and will want to work on it even harder and make sure everyone in the group works hard on It too. 

Now that I am learning how to use Twitter, I am learning how to collaborate with other educators and with authors that I admire and whose works I might want to use in the classroom.

Twitter is a great tool for teachers, especially beginning teachers because we can find a PLC. This can be a group of people that can help us out when figuring out our way in the education world. Twitter can connect us with other educators who have brilliant ideas for discussing hard topics with students, or even creative ways for us to integrate technology into educational projects. Twitter chats can also give great resources and ideas by letting a whole community give you feedback or answer a question you might have. 

While I most likely won’t be using Twitter in my classroom since I am wanting to teacher kindergarten, Twitter can still be useful to me as an educator. It will allow me to connect with other educators and learn from them. It is a way for people to connect with people they wouldn’t have without Twitter due to distance. Also, it can provide with many apps educational and learning opportunities through Twitter chats. 

In the future this could be used for student feedback and understanding as well as discussion between students on topics. In an English and reading setting it could be used from viewpoints of characters to tweet. Students to convey their knowledge of the readings by arguing as a certain character in the way that they would respond. Each profile of a character could be changed and molded throughout a story as the character shifts and changes.