Tweeting Teachers

Gone are the boring, one-size-fits-all professional development seminars for teachers. And the forever-long staff meetings that take up more time than necessary.

Well, maybe they’re not “gone,” exactly, but they’re being replaced.

Pinterest.com is an online pinboard of sorts, where members can organize and share things and ideas. While helpful for general topics, like recipes and home improvement tips, educators have also taken a liking to it, posting their own boards, from “Kindergarten ideas” and “Teaching” to “High School and College Level Online Courses” and “Classroom Literacy.”

“I re-pin resources I think I might use!” @Sheila_Johnston tweeted to me, just a few hours after tweeting various math activities she found on Pinterest, plus a bulletin board idea for reading.

If you hop on Twitter on Tuesday nights and follow #edchat, you’ll catch teachers tweeting similar lesson ideas, problem-solving, and generally helping each other out. In 2009, it started with about 100 educators; nowadays, it surpasses 2,000 tweeters.

“@twitter has become my personal in-house PD source! I share resources w/colleagues and my students,” @mrssilveri tweeted to us this week.

Teachers are, undoubtedly, under constant pressure to improve, to better their ways, and boost student achievement. More states are moving toward more rigorous evaluation systems that will ultimately affect teachers’ pay and whether they keep their jobs. Still, money and time for diversified professional development is scant; social media and the Internet, while not a cure-all, fill some of those holes.

“I use Twitter to stream content/methods & collaborate to improve myself,” @FinEdChat tweeted to us.

Jamie Josephson, also known as @dontworryteach, told the Washington Post that she returned for another year of teaching, thanks to the encouragement she received on Twitter after a particularly grueling first year.

“I never would have imagined that it would have been the place to find support,” she told the WaPo. She’s now in the middle of her third year.

The #edchat conversation and its following have spurred subject-specific chats, like #mathchat and #engchat, for teachers who have more definitive questions or topics to discuss.

But the chatter shouldn’t stop there. My colleague, Reneé Rybak Lang, has jotted down a few ways Twitter can be used to enhance classroom instruction, like tweeting official sources for information or extending classroom discussions beyond school walls.

Beyond teaching, Twitter is becoming a sort of replacement for pen-pal projects that link students from different cultures and countries.

“Class Twitter acct: allows global connections, encourages reluctant writers, provides input on themes from followers, & more!” @BJacketsfan tweeted to me.

Other technology toys, like Skype, allow videoconferencing and more thorough discussions among students across cultures, as Education Week highlighted this week. Classes at South Plantation High School in Florida have been able to link up with “earthquake survivors in Haiti, widows in Afghanistan, and indentured servants in Pakistan.”

Teachers, how do you use technology for your benefit, or that of your students?

UPDATE:

Here are a few responses we have received via Twitter since we posted this blog:

@teachplus @EducationSector @MartyWrin @mravega Keeps me relevant, connected, informed, engaged, challenged & inspired-Feeds me as a learner

— Darren Burris (@dgburris) January 27, 2012

@teachplus @EducationSector @dgburris @MartyWrin Twitter does the research/filtering for me on up-to-date methods, policies, and resources

— Mr. Andrew Vega (@mravega) January 28, 2012

@EducationSector @rlhowes @margoflower @cmoralesteach I connect with other teachers, read interesting blogs, and learn of new uses for tech.

— Joe DiNoto (@mathteacher1729) January 28, 2012

@EducationSector Tweeting has saved me $$$ on resources while developing a new ELL program for my school. It's also added spice to my class

— Julie Troletti (@abevyofjules) January 28, 2012

Tagged as: digital learning, Pinterest, Professional Development, Skype, social media, Teachers, Twitter, videoconferencing