Friday, July 19, 2013

Twitter Reflection

Before this technology class, I never had a Twitter account. I viewed it as something that I just did not have time for in my hectic schedule. However, after working with Twitter over the past eight weeks, I can see how it could be extremely beneficial for me and my classroom practices. Although Twitter would be useful for me as a teacher, I do not think that it is a tool that would work the best for my classroom, at least not right now. Utilizing Twitter in my classroom would come with a lot of obstacles. First of all, Twitter (along with Facebook and other social networking sites) are not able to be accessed through our school Internet. Because of this, students would not be able to access Twitter while in the classroom. It would also be extremely difficult for me as a teacher to set restrictions on what material students view on Twitter. While there are many wonderful tools for both students and teachers on Twitter, there is also material that I would not want my eighth graders to be exposed to, especially not as a result of my class. Throughout this class I have learned that tools such as Wiki pages would be much more user friendly for my eighth grade students.

Although I do not plan on implementing Twitter as a tool for student use in my classroom, I definitely plan on using it as a resource for professional development. Throughout the course of this semester, I have found many useful resources that I can use to become a better teacher. There are so many educational and technology resources posted on Twitter on a regular basis that would be so helpful for me. I am always trying to find new methods of teaching and new ways to incorporate technology into my classroom.  Through Twitter I have found ideas for me, as well as beneficial resources for my students. Now, with the use of Twitter, new classroom and technology ideas are available for my use daily.

There were two specific hashtags that I found very beneficial throughout the course. The first, #TeachingEnglish, will be a great tool for me to utilize as an English teacher. It posts great technology resources for English teachers as well as ideas for teaching writing, grammar, and literature. I am looking forward to using the ideas and tools I find through #TeachingEnglish to enhance my students' learning. I also found #edchat to be a helpful hashtag. It discusses the advancement of technology and how students of today are very capable when it comes to technology use. This tells me that I need to be engaging in continuous professional development in order to keep up with the knowledge of technology that my students possess.

During my time using Twitter, I have found three tweeters to be very helpful. The first tweeter I found to be helpful was Writing Project (@writingproject). Writing project has so many great ideas to get students engaged in the writing process. As an English teacher, I am constantly searching for ways to get my students engaged and excited about writing. A second tweeter that I found helpful was We Are Teachers (@WeAreTeachers). We are teachers provides information about teaching reading and writing. It can be very beneficial for me when I am looking for day-to-day material to help enhance instruction in my classroom. The third tweeter I found helpful was Teaching English (@TeachingEnglish). Through Teaching English I have found many beneficial resource that will help with every aspect of teaching English, icluding grammar, literature, writing, and vocabulary.


Throughout this class, I have learned how to use Twitter as an educational resource. I now know that I can use Twitter as a way of finding new teaching resources, as well as technology and classroom resources for students!
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5 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 22, 2013 at 7:49 AM

    I didn't even think about schools blocking twitter from computers. You are right, I bet I can't access twitter at my school, either. I felt the same way about twitter as you did. It is a great tool for professional development. However, it is not a great fit for my class right now.

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  2. UnknownJuly 22, 2013 at 9:03 AM

    Twitter is blocked at my school but we can request them to open as long as we show how we are going to use it to enhance the classroom. Unlike facebook, I feel Twitter is much safer for the classroom environment. I personally don't think I would use it because of my comfort level, but it can be a new/FREE way to educate our students the right way to use social media

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  3. CarolynJuly 23, 2013 at 9:06 AM

    I agree with you. It's tough to monitor every single thing that students do while using computers in the classroom. And like you said, most schools block websites like Twitter and Facebok from being accessed. I do think that Twitter can be beneficial to educators, but for students, I think it's best to stick to other options. And this class has opened my eyes to resources (like Wikispaces) where I was very unfamiliar with them before!

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  4. UnknownJuly 23, 2013 at 9:48 PM

    I agree Twitter may not be useful inside of school but it is a great tool for engaging students in content outside of the class. This is something I never thought of but has turned out to be something I definitely plan on using in the future. As more students are getting internet access away from school Twitter can be used to hold students accountable outside of the classroom.

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  5. KinderGradJuly 24, 2013 at 8:26 PM

    I am also not allowed to access social networking sites at school, but our school goes beyond that. They monitor the sites for after hours activity. I do however believe that it is a great place for professional development.

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