Teachers: Embrace Twitter for professional development and students in the classroom
Twitter is a social
network where you can get your news feed, as everyone knows. If you are a
teacher, have you ever thought of using it in the classroom and for your
professional development?
I am a new Twitter
user as I stated in my last post, and just started to benefit from Twitter. Here is teacher who has used for six
months sharing her thought about Twitter, and I agree with her on the reasons why
teachers should join Twitter for professional development.
-Be more resourceful
I stated to follow
some educators on Twitter and have lurked for a few days. I usually use Twitter
when I am waiting for my subway to kill time, and surprisingly have found
creative ideas and abundant resources everyday. The educators share their work
or strategies there which may be perfect for you to use, or you can modify them
based on your situation. In my last post, I have joined an online chat on
Twitter and had a productive talk with teachers from different places.
-Get new information
and a fresh perspective
There are some
teachers who may teach same subjects and students at same age as you do, but they
may have different ways to teach based on their experience and their
perspective. You may found there are more than one teaching style and embrace
practical ideas to help you be a better teacher.
Besides improving
teachers’ professional development, Twitter can also be used in the classroom
with students. Here is a list of 50
ways to use twitter in the classroom. Some of ideas are very impressive and I
got inspired from them. I am a foreign language teacher, so I would like to set
up a foreign language news stream so that students can get exposed to authentic
news form target language speaking nations. I also like the idea of creating an
online art gallery. After the students creating their work, Twitter will be a
good platform to exhibit them to attract global audience online.
Let’s jump into
Twitter and embrace benefits brought by technology to teachers!
Mentioning that you use Twitter while waiting for the subway reminds your readers that they can get professional development from Twitter at any time and makes it seem more useful then other tools. I like the way you talked about you could could get fresh ideas and that they inspired you to set you a news stream for your students.
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