Teachers That Tweet

If you think Twitter is only for young people and it shouldn't be allowed in schools than you are #wrong. Twitter is a social networking site that can be very helpful in developing and maintaining Professional Learning Communities in schools (PLC's). There are many different ways you can incorporate twitter into your PLC and it is your choice as the teacher to decide what works best for you. Have fun with it and enjoy one of the great social networking sites that has been brought to us in the 21st century.

Twitter is the social networking site that is represented by the little blue bird.When you create an account on Twitter you have the change to create a profile where you can something about yourself. As a teacher you can write what school you work at, what grade you teach, and you can even include how many years you have been teaching for. This is your personal space to write whatever you want about yourself for others to see when they find you on Twitter. You can upload a picture of yourself as well, but just a friendly reminder to make sure it is a school appropriate picture since you're using it for school purposes! You can follow fellow teachers or anyone else you want to by searching for them in the search bar at the top. Not only can you follow teachers but you can follow other accounts relating to teaching. To find these accounts all you have to do is search a general topic in the search bar and different users relating to that topic will appear. 

If you're new to Twitter you may not know what some of the Twitter lingo means. Let's start with a hashtag. A hashtag is used to group tweets about a specific topic. For example if you're tweeting about an educational conference everyone at the conference could use the same hashtag and then people could view all of the tweets relating to that conference in one place. If you see a tweet that you like you can favorite it. This says that you like it and on your page you will be able to go back and look at any tweets you favorited. If you want it to appear on your newsfeed for your followers to see then you can retweet that persons tweet. Like the tweets that you favorited you will also have access to view any tweets that you retweeted. If you want to tweet at someone you type @ and then put their twitter name followed by whatever you want to say. They will get a notification that someone tweeted at them and they can see what you said. When you want to share information you create a tweet. A tweet can be your own words, a copied and pasted link that you really liked, a quote or anything else. Your tweet can be 140 characters so they aren't long. They are just short snip-its of writing used to share whatever it is you want to with those following you. 

There are many people who are currently using Twitter to enhance their PLC. Bill Ferriter (2014) gives good advice to all of those who use twitter. He advises teachers not to be afraid to unfollow someone you're currently following. You may not like what they tweet or find that the information they're tweeting isn't relevant to what you're looking for. Bill also gives another piece of good advice for those using Twitter which is it is okay if you do not get the chance to read everything on your newsfeed. You can always go back and reread something you missed and there are always new tweets being posted so you will never miss too much. 

Joe Mazza (2012) a principal talks about how is K-6 staff has been using Twitter for their PLC's. The teachers have been using Twitter to communicate with other teachers in the school, to the parents of their students, from district and national conferences and to participate in weekly educational chats. The teachers have the opportunity to voice their opinions about a weekly topic and everyone can see the tweets about this topic by using the hashtag provided. 

Another great way Joe Mazza (2012) mentions using Twitter to enhance PLC's is tweeting live from field trips. This allows parents to see what their students are doing while they are at school. It also helps them better understand their students day and if there is an assignment relating to the field trip the parents will have a better understanding. Other teachers are also able to see what teachers do on their field trip use some of those ideas for their own field trips. It also gives teachers an opportunity to  see what their fellow teachers are doing during the day.

Teachers collaborating together daily through Twitter is just another great way Joe Mazza (2012) said his staff uses Twitter. His staff shares any photos of completed lessons that they want to share, future plans they may have and lesson reflections. Twitter gives them a place where they can put everything in one place for all the staff to see. It also gives the other teachers and staff members a chance to comment on the post and retweet any ideas they may want to use themselves. 

Ed tech teacher Chris (2011) understands the value Twitter can have for Professional Learning Communities. When he speaks at conferences he cannot believe how many teachers are not on Twitter and he always responds with "why not!" There are so many benefits to using Twitter and Chris mentions a few ways he personally uses Twitter for his PLC. He mentions how by just going through his newsfeed he has spotted links to great articles, quotes, links to videos, and many great teaching ideas that he may want to use for his classroom. Along with just seeing great things on his newsfeed Chris also responds to questions people ask if he feels he can help them. Joe says it is important to not read every tweet and to spend all day on Twitter. John put it best when he said, "But mostly it's just there, flowing by, ready for me to dip into it and pull out a few gems whenever I have a moment."

I have been on Twitter for awhile but it was only until recently that I started using it for educational purposes. I began by simply following accounts that would provide me with information that I found useful. I also followed my fellow education majors and some of my education teachers as well. This way I could see what they post and if any of it is something I could use. Having the chance for so many people to help spark an idea or to help develop a pre-existing idea is what PLC's are all about. Collaboration is so important and that is why Twitter when used correctly can be extremely beneficial for PLC's.

I follow the Twitter account Scholastic and I love everything they tweet. I have learned what books teachers and other readers are recommending. The titles I see give me ideas for books I may want to read or buy for my future classroom. I favorite any book titles that I don't want to forget so I can go back later and reference the titles. I saw one tweet that linked you to a page with a list of books that incorporated diversity. I really liked this because I am in a diversity class currently and we are learning how to incorporate information about diversity into the classroom. Using a book could be a great way to do that. Another helpful article I found from their twitter talked about tips on how to get students to read consistently. All the information on this Twitter account can be helpful for me as a student and for me as a future educator.

Education.com is another Twitter account that I follow. I have found so many creative lessons and classroom activities from this account. There was  a great article they posted about how to get students excited about STEM. These great articles can be favorited for the purpose of always having them. I could have also retweeted any article I found on this account so my other fellow education majors could see it and read it. I also found really great math activities you can do with students. These activities are very creative and are a great way to help make math fun.

Another important account that I follow is NC Public Schools. I follow this account because I am currently a student in North Carolina and my teaching degree will be from there. I am constantly in the schools and I will be student teaching in a NC public school so having knowledge about what is going on in NC public schools is very important. Teachers should be knowledgeable about what is going on in the field on education and especially in the district they're teaching.

Another Twitter account that I love following is Reading Rockets. This account has a lot of tweets that can help teachers and future teachers gain perspective. One post that I loved was a link to a video where teachers could see what it is like for a student who has ADHD. It is so helpful for teachers to be able to relate to their students and this video provides a great way to do that. They also tweeted ways you can help screen, recognize and help students with reading fluency. Weekly strategies are also posted and if I like any of them I can simply retweet it for all my followers to see.

I plan to continue using Twitter to help develop any PLC I am apart of. A way that I plan on using Twitter more to help is to retweet more things I find. This will help my followers see all of the great things I have found and for me to keep track of them as well. When I am a teacher in a school and have a team of teachers I am working with I could suggest that we have a hashtag for our grade and that way we can tweet ideas and updates to each other throughout the day. This is an easy way to collaborate with other teachers more often that only meeting once together. I also plan to tweet about things we are doing throughout the school day. This can be used by my principal, other teachers, and parents. Any of those people can tweet to me with comments or other ideas of things I can do. I will also continue to follow more accounts that I feel will be beneficial to me. If I am following someone and I like one of their retweets from a Twitter account I can go and follow that Twitter account. This will help build up the number of accounts I am following and will allow me to see more diverse information on my newsfeed. As I go through my newsfeed I will take Chris's advice and answer any questions that I see in which I have the ability to answer. If I can help someone else using my knowledge that is just one way Twitter is helping further develop PLC's.

I have really enjoyed learning all about the different ways I can use Twitter to help develop and maintain my PLC. There are so many great ways it can be used and I advise all teachers to take advantage of this social media site. Twitter provides teaches with the opportunity to easily collaborate with other teachers, communicate with administration, and making sure parents can stay involved in the learning that occurs during the school day. There are numerous Twitter accounts that can provide wonderful information tailored to what you're interested in or anything you want to acquire more information about. Look at your followers to see who they're following because you may find an account that they're following but you aren't. Twitter is helping pave the way for a future that takes  PLC's to the next level. Those teachers who take advantage of Twitter will see great results and wonder why they didn't join earlier. #Gosignup 

References 

Ferriter, B. (n.d.). Twitter as a learning tool for teachers. Retrieved December 5, 2014, from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/6560

How Social Media can Enhance Schools as Professional Learning Communities. (2011, September 1). Retrieved December 5, 2014, from http://resourcelinkbce.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/how-social-media-can-enhance-schools-as-professional-learning-communities/

Mazza, J. (2012, June 1). 5 Ways Twitter Strengthens A School's Learning Community. Retrieved December 5, 2014, from http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/5824

[Reading Rockets Logo]. Retrieved December 4, 2014, from http://jeffcolibrary.org/kids/jcpl-kids-blog/reading-rockets-launches-good-readers 

[Scholastic Logo]. Retrieved December 4, 2014, from https://twitter.com/Scholastic 

Tiny Bursts of Learning. (2011, April 6). Retrieved December 5, 2014, from http://chrisbetcher.com/2011/04/1483/

[Twitter Dashboard]. Retrieved December 4, 2014, from http://www.hirokimurakami.com/2012/a-new-design-and-a-new-era-with-new-new-twitter/

[Twitter Logo]. Retrieved December 4, 2014, from http://imgkid.com/twitter-logo-gif.shtml

The Evernote Experience

Have you ever been stressed out from looking at your never ending bookmarks bar on your computer? Are you constantly adding new websites to it even though they can't fit? If you said yes to either of these questions then I think you should pay attention to what I am about to say. Go create an Evernote account! 

Evernote is a great resource you can use as a teacher to help you organize all of the sites and information you have as well as keeping it in one place. You can get rid of the hundreds of bookmarks you have made and put it all together. There are multiple ways to use Evernote and you as the teacher can play around with it to see what works best for you and your classroom. It is okay to change things up because what worked one year may not work the next. 

If you don't already know that the elephant is the Evernote's symbol then maybe you haven't heard why it is. According to Greene (2013), Evernote's symbol is an elephant because with the help of Evernote you will no longer forget anything just like an elephant. I thought this was very interesting and I had never even thought of why they chose an elephant to represent their site. 

Another really cool feature about Evernote is that you can download the Web Clipper. When you do this the Evernote symbol will appear above your bookmarks bar. This allows you to simply copy and drag the website you're using onto your Evernote without logging directly onto the site. When you drag the website you have different options such as saving the entire article or a part of it or just a screenshot of a specific picture. You can make tags for the resource and decide where on your Evernote you choose to place it. 

If Evernote seems like something that would help you out then I encourage you to continue reading to learn more about how to use Evernote as a teacher.

There are so many fun and cool ways to use Evernote as teacher and note taking is only one little thing you can do. According to Sra.Carro (2013) who is now a spanish immersion math and science teacher came up with multiple ways  to use Evernote. 

One of them is to use Evernote to help make lists of all of the resources you have as a teacher. How many times have you been working on an assignment and thought that you needed to go out and buy something for it only to come back and realize you had it all along? By using Evernote you can log everything you have so that way you can check before going out and buying it again. Including pictures of some of the resources you have could also be helpful, especially if you can't picture what it is based off of the name. Evernote's cool feature of allowing you to create multiple notes is how you can organize all of the resources you have. You can do it for each subject or even each lesson depending on what works best for you. If you type all of your information on the Evernote website but are at the store trying to remember what you have it is okay! You can use the Evernote phone app to see what you had on your computer. It automatically syncs the information to all devices.

Sra.Carro (2013) also talks about the using Evernote to make to-do lists for yourself as the teacher. Throughout the day you're constantly remembering different things you need to do for a lesson or e-mails you have to send out to a parent but using Evernote can help save your brain from going into overdrive. When you remember something you can simply add it to your Evernote and then when you have a free time go back and check to see what you have to do. This eliminates you having to remember everything for the entire day and risking you forgetting to do something important. She also talks about how Evernote now as a feature for reminders. You can make reminders for yourself and have them go off at a specific time. The notification will pop up on your phone to remind you what you have to do. 

My favorite use of Evernote that Sra.Carro decided to do was creating a tab for each student. She could take notes on these individual students, take pictures of their work and upload it onto their specific note and write down students behaviors and then be able to go back and analyze that information. Having each student be on their own tab is a smart and easy way to be able to incorporate Evernote into teacher conferences. Sra.Carro said she would show the parents the information she has gathered on their student all year and the pictures of their work. I think this is a fabulous idea because of course parent's want to hear how their child is doing but if you have actual proof that you can show them, that is even better. If you have a student who you have been having problems with you can use this as a tool to monitor their behavior to keep the parents up to date. 

Rob van Nood (2012), says using Evernote habitually in the classroom is very important. He states how he has all of his students create their own Evernote account. You as the teacher would have access to these accounts by creating a master list of all students e-mails and usernames. Rob talks about using Evernote as a way for students to share their work with you virtually. They can work on projects, find resources and create ideas on their Evernote and by logging onto their account you would be able to see what they have been working on and the progress they have made. He mentions how the students write their first draft by hand, then upload it to Evernote. The rest of their drafts are done on the computer. The only reason he said he doesn't have students use the computer for their first draft is because most students aren't very fast at typing and he wants them to be able to get their ideas down and not be worried about the typing aspect of it. 

According to Stan Skrabut (2013), Evernote has multiple uses especially for teachers. One that I really liked and that stuck out to me was creating a folder that is for substitute teachers. This way you don't have to have a binder but instead you can have everything you need for the sub on the computer. You can update it whenever because it will automatically sync so if you're home sick and thought of something you forgot to add you can do that from home. When the substitute goes to look at it the new information will have synced already. Another cool feature that Stan mentioned is that you can use it as a tool for easy retrieval of past information. Instead of searching through old paper work scanning each word to find what you're looking for you can easily retrieve the information by doing a search into Evernote. 

I have been using Evernote in a couple different ways. I mainly use the Evernote website because most of my work I do is on my laptop. I have downloaded the Web Clipper which I have found to be extremely helpful and easy to use. I mostly use Evernote for my classes but I also have used it generally as well. Throughout my four years at High Point I know it is important to write down activities I have done, things I have been involved in and for my major which schools I have been to. Eventually I will compile all of this information into a resume but for now I just wanted to have it all someplace. I decided to add a notebook on my Evernote page that was dedicated to my resume. I created a page for each year I have been at HPU and filled in the information pertaining to that specific year.

 I also have a notebook set up for two of my education classes this semester. For my notebook for my one education class I created a page that is dedicated to additional resources that I can use in my future classroom. My teacher posts links for us on Edmodo about great sites we can use, so I decided to compile all of this information into one place on my Evernote. I now can just go to my page and look at all of the recourses there instead of scrolling through Edmodo trying to find what I need. I did the same thing for my other education class as well. 

I also found it very helpful to use Evernote as a place to store websites that I find during research for different assignments. For this assignment I actually used Evernote to keep all of the websites that I found information on regarding how to use Evernote in the classroom. I really liked being able to add the website I was using just by clicking the Evernote icon on the top of my page. This was so easy because I didn't even have to log onto Evernote I was just able to do it in two seconds. I also liked being able to choose if I wanted to save the whole page or part of it, I could also choose to screenshot a part of it which I used for pictures. 

I plan to incorporate Evernote into my academic and daily life. During class I will add important notes to it about things that I don't want to forget for when I have my own classroom. Often times in class I just think I will remember the websites we talk about and I say I will write them down later but now I can use Evernote to store all of those great sites. I also want to use Evernote in my future classroom as a way to monitor and watch the growth of my students. I really liked the idea of having a page for each students and compiling everything regarding their work in school in that one place. I think this would be extremely helpful for me as well as for the parents and principal. Next semester when I take Math and Science Methods I want to use Evernote to help me stay organized. This class deals a lot with how to teach math and science to students and making lesson plans. I could use Evernote to create Notebooks for the various lessons. In each notebook I could crete different notes for the different parts of the lesson. You use a lot of internet resources to help plan lessons and I could use Evernote as a place to keep these in one place to reference when I go back and write my lesson plan. I also plan to use Evernote as a place to store my ideas I have for different lesson or projects. Instead of hoping I remember or writing them down on a random post it note I could jot them down in an Evernote page and that way I can always go back and add more or change any ideas. I also like that I can access this whenever I want either on my computer, iPad, or iPhone. 

I have really enjoyed learning how to use Evernote in my classroom as a teacher and now as a student. There are so many ways you can use it and it is fun to change it up so you don't get bored. I will continue to use Evernote in my educational career to help me stay organized. Being organized is so important in every profession especially education and I am very glad I have learned how to use Evernote now instead of later. I look forward to seeing what new things Evernote does in the future to upgrade their site as well because I bet when I start teaching there will be cool new things you can do using Evernote. 

References

Carro, S. (2013, August 11). FlapJack Educational Resources: Six Teacher Tips for Classroom Organization with the Evernote App. Retrieved October 15, 2014.

Category Archives: Implementing Evernote in the classroom. (2013, November 8). Retrieved October 15, 2014, from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evernote.wear

[Evernote Icon Image]. Retrieved October 15, 2014. 

Greene, B. (2013, May 30). 6 Creative Ways to Use Evernote. Retrieved October 15, 2014.