Developing a Professional Learning Network through... you guessed it... TWITTER!

What is Twitter??

Twitter is one of the most misunderstood social networking devices on the internet right now. Some believe it is just a place for people to share their gripes about the world and showcase things happening in their lives. Although there are Twitter users who do veer in that direction, this social media network provides so much more than "gripes" and "brags" to its users. It provides educators, coaches, celebrities, and businesses a place to learn new information from people across the globe.

Twitter has drastically grown in popularity over the years. In 2012, the service reported 100 million users, with 340 million tweets per day. Now in 2015, the service reports 500 million users, 302 million of which are active users. It has developed into more than just a social media website, such as Facebook or Myspace, it is a way for professionals to connect with other professional about concerns or issues in their profession and to share ideas with each other. The best part is that it is simple and easy to use for the not-so technology savvy individuals. Through a system of hashtags and mentions, groups can set up chats that allow for full conversations with users they have never met. No need for a sit-down meeting in a board room, when you have Twitter!

Twitter is an open website that allows for anyone and everyone to join free of cost. This is why it has become an avenue for educators to unite and share interest, information, issues, and best practices together in one place. Educators have developed an easy way to connect and have created "chats" to go back and forth on practices and learning tools for the classroom. A teacher can log-on to their account and search for any topic in the search tool. For example, if a teacher wanted to learn more about a flipped classroom, he/she would search "flipped classroom". What the teacher will find is a list of users who have posted about the flipped classroom approach and links to articles and webpages about the very subject matter. It is not only more informational than a Google search, but it also provides an opportunity for the teacher to connect with other educators about the topic.

Developing a PLN through Twitter

Professional Learning Networks are information networks of people who come together to share ideas and resources, collaborate, and learn. The original PLN in education was focused on face to face interactions of teachers working with other teachers in the district or state. The goal of the PLN was to create lesson plans, combine resources, or share ideas for teaching and learning. However, in 2015 the term PLN has a whole new meaning. For most educators, it means forming connections with people across the world and sharing information to help guide instruction in their classroom or school. Although to many the concept of Twitter might be terrifying, it is actually quite easy for all educators to join in.

Learn NC created a few easy steps for new "tweeters" to remember when trying to develop a PLN through their Twitter account.

• Join Twitter with colleagues you know in real life.
• Find like-minded peers to follow in Twitter.
• Unfollow peers whose contributions are unproductive.
• Never attempt to read and/or respond to every message in Twitter.
• Use applications to quickly sort through Twitter content.

There are many ways that Twitter can be used by educators to improve teaching and learning in their classroom and schools. Teaching is not a stagnant profession. There are always new and improved ways to meet the needs to the 21st century child. Twitter is the quickest and easiest way to continually learn about new methodology without having to search too hard to find it. Teachers can easily communicate with each other and share ideas, websites, or other links to information that can utilize in their own classrooms. There is a plethora of educational leaders who connect via Twitter, who through following a teacher can glean insight into ways to improve their own practices. The possibilities are endless for an educator, you just have to find the right people to "follow" and the right "hashtags" to link up to!

@KMaggard14 on Twitter

I am currently in the "needs improvement" section when it comes to Twitter. I began tweeting four years ago when it was the easiest way to see how my husband's golf team was playing on the course. He was an avid "tweeter" and as his players reported scores to him, he tweeted them out for the followers of the team. It wasn't until graduate school at High Point University that I began to see the power that Twitter could have on my professional practices as an educator and future administrator. 

My professor, @mmnixon73, was a huge advocator for Twitter and was an active part of the Twitter community. This is when I started learning about the PLN of Twitter and all the wonderful resources it has to offer to educators. I have been an active part of "chats" and begun following a variety of users that I find appealing to my needs as a teacher leader. The majority of the the users I follow are larger users that actively follow and retweet posts from other users and provide immediate links to news in education. As I begin to dig further into using Twitter to increase my PLN, I will find more users who provide information about topics that are most interesting and relevant to me. One of the great things about Twitter is that I can "follow" and "unfollow"based on my preferences, filtering out unwanted information for gearing my homepage to my interests.


As a beginning "tweeter" there are a few users I strongly recommend to beginning the process of building a Professional Learning Network:

• Education Week- Teacher - @EdWeekTeacher
• NEA Today- @NEAToday
• Edutopia- @edutopia
• Huff Post Teachers- @HuffPostEdu

These are just a small few to get a new user started. A teach and can also find "hashtags" that a variety of users are using to tweet information. I have entered into many chats using #CollabEd which has allowed me to learn about using collaboration to increase learning. Many colleges, such as Rasmussen College , have created blogs that list top people to follow for education on Twitter.

Following these users have made it simple and easy for me to learn about best practices, stay informed on news in education, and helped me connect with people across the United States. As I continue to improve my PLN on Twitter, I hope to learn more from individuals across the globe and utilize all of the opportunities and resources others have to offer. 

Resources

Bird, Kendall. (September, 2013). 33 Education twitter accounts you should be following. Retrieved on May 25, 2015, from http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/33-education-twitter-accounts-you-should-be-following/

Burt, Ronnie. (September, 2014). Step one:What is a PLN?. Retrieved on May 25, 2015, from http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-challenge-1-what-the-heck-is-a-pln/

Ferriter, Bill. (n.d). Twitter as a learning tool for teachers. Retrieved on May 25, 2015, from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/6560

Twitter. (n.d) Retrieved May 25, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

Building the Foundation for Learning

Summer is Over... Back to School We Go!

A brand new year begins, teachers are excited to meet a new group of students and students are excited to meet their teacher. There is a buzz of happiness around the school as school supplies come in, textbooks are passed out, and expectations are taught. In the background, teachers are thinking about the beginning of year assessments that must be administered, the paperwork that needs to be completed, and the lesson plans to be created and taught. Before long, the stress starts to put teachers into survival mode. The truth of the matter is, if a teacher doesn't start off the year building the foundation for their classroom, the rest of the year will be a downhill spiral of frustration and burnout.  This foundation is... RELATIONSHIPS!

The First Year Teaching Roller Coaster

Starting the Year Off Right

All teachers, especially new teachers, struggle to organize all of the millions of things needed to be done on a daily basis. In reality, the single most important thing for a teacher to do in the beginning of the year, is build relationships with the students in their classroom. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out how to build these relationships, an open mind and an open heart are the key ingredients. 

Tips for First Day Success:

• SMILE! :)
• Ask questions about their interests and their summer. Engage them in meaningful conversation.  
• Set a routine! Students like to know what is coming next. Run your schedule the way it will run all year long. 
• TEACH expectations! Students forget all school and classroom expectations over summer break. Teach them how to be students again. 
• Tell them a story about you. Share pictures of your life and family. Give the students a chance to connect with you!
• Laugh and have a little FUN!

The first days of school have building relationships and teaching expectations as the top priority above all other items on the agenda. Michael Linsin (2012) noted "There is no room for weak first impressions, no room for indecisiveness, and no room to leave your students bored or uninspired." Starting the year off right, building strong relationships from the beginning sets the tone for the remainder of the school year.

It Doesn't Stop with the Students

It is the end of the first day of school, the students go home, and the teacher is exhausted. Building relationships does not end when the students leave the building, one of the most powerful relationships is still yet to be made. Within the first 10 days of school a teacher must connect with and form a team with each child's family. As cited by Nancy Ratcliff and Gilbert Hunt (2009) "Undisputed evidence exists supporting the position that children are more apt to succeed not just in school, but throughout life, when schools and families work together to support learning (Henderson & Berla, 1994)."  Within the first 10 days of school a positive phone call home makes a difference in the minds of the parents and the students. 

All too often, parents, especially parents of students in poverty, receive their very first phone call a few weeks into school with all the things their child is not doing right. Immediately, the guard goes up and the parent is on the defensive. It is important for teachers to remember that the parent is sending a teacher their best. There is no parent that doesn't do their best each and every day to make sure their child is fed, clean, and prepared for school. Using the parent as a source of knowledge increases the likelihood of a parent wanting to support the teacher and will help the teacher better understand the child.

Within the first 10 days, teachers should call home and tell the parents something positive about their child. It can be a small as "I have really enjoyed seeing how much ______ enjoys reading graphic novels" to something more specific "I am impressed with the way _________ writes his/her answers in detail without me having to remind him/her!" A teacher must find something positive in every child and communicate it with the families before a corrective phone call is made. It will pave the way for easy communication in the rest of the school year, because the partnership has been created from the start.

Keeping the Connection

The school year continues, the parents are on the teacher's side, and the teacher knows the students like the back of his/her hand. The teacher welcomes the students to the classroom each morning with a hug or high five and the student enjoy being in the teacher's classroom. As seen in the illustration above, right around October teachers hit rock bottom at the same time that stress is at it's max. Teacher's often times lose sight of the importance of relationships and instead stress about the items on his/her to do list that have not been completed. It is at this moment, that a teacher must remind his/her self of the single most important part of their job, keeping the relationships with their students strong and unwavering.

As Rita Pierson puts it in her "Every Kid Needs a Champion" TED talk, "Kids don't learn from people they don't like". The fact of the matter is, students don't like teachers who don't care about them and treat them respectfully 100% of the time. It takes one wrong action to break down a relationship and 10 positive actions to rebuild it. According to PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Support), students must hear four positive comments to every one corrective comment for them to continue to feel success in the classroom. Keeping positive relationships year round depends on how much the kids like a teacher and how encouraged they feel through positive interactions.

The relationships built in the classroom develop not only through conversations, hugs, and high-fives, but they are deeply embedded into every lesson taught and in every interaction a teacher has with his/her student. There are many key ideas an educator must keep in mind each and every day to promote these positive relationships.

Developing Positive Teacher Student Relations (Boynton and Boynton, 2005)

• Communication positive expectations
• Call on students equitably
• Tell students they have the ability to do well
• Correct students in a constructive way
• Develop positive classroom pride
• Preventing and reducing frustration and stress

Most of all, a teacher must show every child, every day how much they care about their success, their education, and them personally. It must be individualized to each child and not a whole group interaction. A child must feel valued in the classroom for who he/she is and what unique characteristic he/she brings to the table each day. High expectations must be set from day one and successes must be celebrated, both small and large. RELATIONSHIPS are the most important part of the school day, if a student is loved, a student learns.

References

Boynton, M. & Boyton, C. (2005, November). Educator's Guide to Preventing and Solving Discipline Problems. Retrieved May 17, 2015 from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105124/chapters/Developing_Positive_Teacher-Student_Relations.aspx

Linsin, M. (2012, July). Seven keys to the first day of school. Retrieve May 17, 2015 from http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2012/07/21/7-keys-to-the-first-day-of-school/

McNeely, R. (2015). Using humor in the classroom. Retrieved May 17, 2015 from https://www.nea.org/tools/52165.htm

Ratcliff, N & Hunt, G. (2009, Spring).  Building teacher-family partnerships: The role of teacher preparation programs. Education, Vol. 129 (No. 3).