Twitter as a Teacher
Twitter as a Teacher
Twitter is an incredible tool to both expand your teaching presence, and gain knowledge from others! Like many other forms of social media, Twitter has become a goldmine where educators around the globe have begun to share lesson ideas, teaching tips, classroom management techniques, and more. For this reason alone, Twitter can be a critical resource for new and existing educators to enrich their lessons with ideas they might not have thought of otherwise.
Similarly, I believe that Twitter, and other social media platforms, can be a great way to communicate with parents/guardians. In my previous field experiences, my mentor teachers have used platforms such as Instagram to make daily/weekly posts about what activities students did that week in the classroom. I believe this is a seamless way to keep guardians up to date about what their children are doing/learning. Although different from Instagram in terms of functions and capabilities, Twitter would be a virtually identical way to spread important information to parents/guardians!
Finally, I believe that a platform such as Twitter is essential for a teacher's professional responsibilities. As described in the first scenario above, Twitter allows educators to connect with their teaching peers, the school in which they are employed, and provincial education boards. This aspect of Twitter aligns with the Alberta Teaching Quality Standard's 1a, and 1b outcomes (MRU Education Department, 2020) as when used properly, Twitter can be a means of engaging in professional development!
When used responsibly, I believe that Twitter and other social media platforms can be extremely beneficial for educators if used thoughtfully, respectfully, and professionally. By extension, if educators are keen on using Twitter or other social media platforms within the classroom, they must be willing to set boundaries on the platform. As it is a public app, using any form of social media can become overbearing to a teacher, and difficult to manage if it is used improperly.
References
MRU Education Department. (2020). MRU B.Ed program outcomes. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L98ZDYVy1b39LZKfXhjW_bpgOQEM0IHqCe-rdok0wrc/edit.
Spencer, I love how you mentioned that Twitter is a great way to gain knowledge from other teachers regarding lesson ideas/ activities and classroom management. I also like that you mentioned that you must be responsibly while using social media in the classroom. I wonder how you will use a social media platform for communication with your future student parents.
ReplyDelete