Twitter Chat

I have participated in two Twitter Chats in the past week. I was not very thrilled about participating in a Twitter Chat. I assumed it would be a fairly large audience and I hate drawing attention to myself. I would rather sit there quietly and take in the conversation and information whirling around me.

The first chat was blog chat (#blogchat) and it focused on the best practices in blogging. Most of the conversation focused on which sites are the best to use for blogging, how to write a blog, and how to grab your audience’s attention. While there was a lot of helpful information, I was overwhelmed by the chat. There were a lot of education students in this chat making it quite crowded. The tweets were coming in so fast that they were really hard to keep up with. I had a hard time following the conversation and didn’t really know what questions to ask because there was not a whole lot of time to think.

The second chat I participated in was Class Dojo (#classdojo). This chat was run much better than the first chat and was based on the classroom management tool, Class Dojo. It was organized and the moderator asked a variety of questions. The educators participating in this chat had so much more to say than the previous chat I was sitting in on. They seemed like a much more experienced and knowledgeable group. They talked about a variety of ways they used Class Dojo in their classroom. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at how positive this conversation was (not that the other one wasn't) and how student centered these educators were. This chat was even more popular than the previous chat! This made it even more difficult to keep up with.

There were definitely some positives to take away from this experience. I did end up following several people from both chats and got a lot of beneficial information to assist me in the classroom. However, I think it is going to take some time to get used to Twitter Chats. I used TweetChat to filter the chat, which was helpful. Even though I could pause the conversation, there were still so many tweets to keep up with and it was hard to pick and choose which tweets I wanted to focus on.

It is rare that educators get to collaborate with other educators from around the country and world. I really enjoyed being able to hear other expert opinions and ideas in the education world. For that reason, I’m not ready to give up on Tweet chats just yet.

While Tweet Chats are not for everyone, it is something that I think everyone should try at least a few times. It doesn’t matter what field of study or career you have chosen. There is something for every flavor!

A Guide to Twitter Chats:

https://blog.bufferapp.com/twitter-chat-101

My Professional Learning Network

Creating a Professional Learning Network has been an enlightening experience for me. I am truly amazed at the network I have created in 7 short weeks, considering where I started from. I was a teacher who refused to use social media in any form because I found it irritating. However, I never realized how much information and support there was for teachers outside of the classroom. I have connected to educators from every walk of life and already started to create a professional network that continues to grow every day.

Feedly is where I started with this new networking experience, which was a good starting point. I have found a lot of good articles and information pertaining to education. I also have a Diigo account, which I started at the beginning of the school year. I continue to use Diigo and add to my list of websites. Additionally, I created a Pinterest account. I found that Pinterest is one of the easiest ways to organize information into different categories.

However, the tool that I found the most useful was Twitter. I did not expect to like Twitter. I was someone who had a Twitter account for approximately a year and a half and sent out exactly zero tweets! In the past 7 weeks, I have now sent out almost 60 tweets. I have found Twitter to be a great tool to connect with other educators. I am astounded with all the information that is available beyond gossip. My comfort level with social media has skyrocketed. I am still a little overwhelmed with Twitter Chats. There is so much going one at one time, but I'll get the hang of it. I believe all educators need to get signed up to a few social media sites, and Twitter is a great place to start!

Here is why and how educators should use Twitter:

http://images.pcmac.org/Uploads/MCPSS/MobileCounty/Departments/Forms/Twitter%20for%20Educators.pdf

A glimpse at my Professional Learning Network:

Visit my Symbaloo:

http://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/13eOhDb1ef 

So far, my professional network is small. But, I'm off to a good start!

Branching Out Beyond Twitter

I stepped out beyond the Twitter world and decided to give Pinterest a try. I hear about Pinterest all the time. Everyone and their mother is using it! One of my friends told me, “It is a mixture of pictures, step-by-step instructions, recipes, lists, quotes, crafts, and more rolled into one!” You could say my friend is a bit of a Pinterest enthusiast. Me on the other hand, not so much.

Let me first start off by saying that I am new to Pinterest. I have quickly discovered that there are a lot of ways teachers can use this as a resource for the classroom. My account was easy to set up and I got going on it pretty quick. I found various ideas to use in the classroom. I can always find ways to integrate technology into the classroom and found a great section on “bring your own device.” I allow students to use their own devices in the classroom because it helps meet technology requirements that my classroom lacks while helping meet the needs of diverse learners (https://www.pinterest.com/esheninger/byod/).

I have such a diverse classroom, that it is essential for me to meet the needs of every student. It is such a necessity, that I decided to start a board dedicated to diverse learners (https://www.pinterest.com/kimdecarli/diverse-learning/).

I am totally amazed at all the information that is available about diverse learners.  Since I have so many special needs students in my class, my first hurdle is to make the classroom more conducive to them. There are apps for them to use, reading strategies, lessons, etc.  You name it, Pinterest has it.

Pinterest really seems like a great tool for educators to use.

Additionally, I decided to try out Google Plus since I already have a Google account. Google Plus was one of the tools I saw with my Google account, but decided to overlook because I didn't want to take the time to learn it. So here I am, giving it a second chance!

Google Plus is another social networking site that is run by Google, as I am sure you can tell. Google Plus has a lot of benefits such as an easy to navigate interface, which is the feature I like the most. I actually like the interface and navigation in Google Plus better than Pinterest.

I can use Google Plus for photos and videos, mobile apps, group work, and hangouts. However, the search options seem limited. I searched for diverse learners and did not find a whole lot. Additionally, when I searched, I found specific profile pages, not pages on the topic I was looking for.

I still plan on using Google Plus so that students can collaborate with each other. I like to be able to give all learners a voice in my classroom and allow them to have input. There are some really great Google Apps to be used in the classroom (https://plus.google.com/communities/101802680117484972712). However, I think Twitter and Pinterest are much better resources for teachers to use to find ideas and collaborate with other educators.