Tweet About It

The power of P²LN (Whitaker, Zoul, & Casas, 2015) is not a math equation, however, it could be considered as exponential growth when it comes to your career. Spending time to master social media for a professional purpose will be the best PD you will ever attend, and it’s FREE!!

PLC’s have become the norm in most schools as teachers are collaborating more within their curriculum content. The negative to this type of professional network is we lose the communication of cross curriculum. As an example, knowing what standards the students are learning in their History and Math class presents the opportunity to incorporate academic vocabulary in English or Electives. Teaching strategies of Computer Science teachers can be applied to core subjects to provide differentiation that one may not have realized had they not had the conversation.

Twitter provides the opportunity to engage in this type of cross-curricular experience 24-7. A Twitter account is free and with assistance, it takes about 15 minutes to be up and running. The beauty of Twitter is you get to choose who you want to listen to and that means you get to Tweet with the best.

For the ultimate value, join a Twitter Chat session. I join in at least two a week. They usually last an hour and depending on the number of attendees, move rather fast. I compare it to a meeting where there is a lot of small talk, opinions, and chatter, however; there are plenty of powerful new ideas and techniques to incorporate into any subject matter. It is like a PLC on steroids. You can find Twitter Chats specific to your subject, but my personal preference is the powerful educational tech organization members like #CUE, #CVTechTalk, and #TOSAChat to name just a few. I am partial to the local groups because you build relationships with teachers that you will eventually meet at a conference or meeting. But the real power in becoming a connected educator is it opens the door to educators worldwide presenting opportunities for global activities in your classroom.

I encourage you to give it a try, but I caution you to not do it on your own. It’s much more rewarding to have a novice walk you through it and to “lurk” a chat or two before jumping in. The rules are simple but the game plays fast.

Find me on Twitter @climb3mtns @MUSDSecondary

Contact me at joanneglantz@maderausd.org for a 30-minute setup and training.