Teaching with Technology

Using educational technology to enhance the learning environment and increase student engagement!

#12DaysofTwitter – Expand your PLN with Twitter

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Hello, friends! I hope your week is off to a fantastic start and that you’re not only surviving but thriving in your classroom as winter break draws closer. My students are finishing up content (in my semester classes), preparing for finals, finishing up projects, and I’m frantically evaluating assignments, providing feedback, drinking ALL the coffee and trying to maintain some sort of sanity! My oldest daughter’s teacher said it best this evening … “being a teacher and a mom in December is really something else!” The days leading up to Christmas break are always interesting for me, and I know you and most every other teacher know exactly how I feel. So much to do, so little time to do it, and by golly, I’m exhausted! This is a great time to reach out to your PLN and feel the support of your teacher-friends in the trenches!

You’ve probably realized by now that I’m a huge fan of Twitter for professional learning. Twitter and blogging have really helped me find my voice as a teacher – I’ve formed awesome virtual friendships (and have gotten to meet some of those teachers face-to-face!) while taking part in great discussions about education.

In short –> I LOVE MY PLN! So, over the course of the last few school days of December, I’m inviting all of you to join in the #12DaysofTwitter from #IlluminateED fun! Every school day through December 18, I’ll be tweeting out a question and I would LOVE to hear your responses. You can see the full calendar of the 12 Days of Twitter here.

When you tweet a response to a #12DaysofTwitter post, please remember to use BOTH hashtags –> #12DaysofTwitter AND #IlluminateED. This will connect you not only to the educators tweeting with #IlluminateED but also with other educators who are specifically using #12DaysofTwitter <<– lots of hashtag talking there!

I hope you join the fun and grow your PLN before Christmas break!

As always, thanks for reading 🙂

Level Up Your PD through Twitter!

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Welcome to Fourth Quarter! We’re on the downhill slide; the homestretch of the school year, and I don’t know about you but this is the time of year that I feel always goes too fast. I still have so much to accomplish and so little time in which to do so! Toward the end of the week during February and March, I also find myself even more drained than usual. It’s almost like someone has pulled my plug – I know you feel my pain. To keep myself charged up for the remainder of the year, I turn to awesome and inspiring edubooks, great conferences and workshops (I’m looking at you, EdCampSEMO – that I’ll have to miss this year!), and social media. Perusing Pinterest and Facebook can provide great resources and ideas to keep teachers on our game throughout the year, but my favorite social media tool for PD is Twitter!

Hashtags that are #awesome
Last month, I was fortunate enough to attend METC AND MCSS in the same month, literally a week apart. I am so thankful that I work in a building and district where the administration recognizes the importance of conferences and workshops for teachers. My focus word for 2018 is “better” and to become better at my I need to learn and collaborate with other awesome teachers! I started planning this post mentally during one of my sessions at MCSS (Missouri Council for the Social Studies) when I said, “follow me on Twitter @Bethany_Petty and use #illuminateED to tweet your thoughts and questions during our time today.” I scanned the room and saw many puzzled looks. After the session, I checked my phone, which typically includes a few notifications with thoughts or questions about the session, and there were none. Most of the participants were not on Twitter. Holy moly, friends! Jump on Twitter. Twitter itself isn’t going to revolutionize your life or be the silver bullet that will solve all of your problems or answer all of your questions. BUT, Twitter is a great place where educators can share resources, ideas, experiences, and collaborate with colleagues from around the world. Search one of the hashtags below to find resources, conversations, and ideas relating to a variety of topics. It’s fabulous! Check out these hashtags:

Twitter Chats
Think of Twitter chats as a focused conversation among teachers/instructors/professors/authors/bloggers/pre-service teachers/coaches/edtech strategists about a specific topic relevant to their role in education. Most chats are held weekly and are led by moderators who create and share specific questions. Twitter chats use a specific hashtag, like those listed above. For example, #moedchat, and chat and hashtag for Missouri educators (like me!), takes place on Thursday nights at 9:00. Any tweet that includes #moedchat will wind up in the conversation … important Twitter chat decorum: don’t use the hashtag unless you’re part of the chat! Also, there’s no need to ask permission to join a chat – hop right on in! If you’re like me, you can’t block out a time to only participate in a specific chat. I frequently pop in and out of chats and then search through the chat for resources and information later. You can also use a tool like Participate to “participate” in Twitter chats and access archives of past chats. Check out this resource for more information!

Awesome “Tweachers” 
Twitter is full of amazing educators who are just waiting to meet you and learn from you! Definitely check out these inspiring “Tweachers!”

  • Vicki Davis (@CoolCatTeacher)
  • Holly Clark (@HollyClarkEDU)
  • Trevor McKenzie (@trev_mackenzie)
  • Kasey Bell (@shakeuplearning)
  • George Couros (@gcouros)
  • Dave Burgess (@burgessdave)
  • Jennifer Gonzalez (@cultofpedogogy)

How do you use Twitter to level up your learning?

Thanks for reading 🙂

Teaching with Technology’s Favorite Twitter “Things”

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hashtags and tweeachersWelcome to another addition of Teaching with Technology’s favorite things! Today, I focus on my favorite Twitter hashtags and “tweeachers” to follow for ideas, inspiration, and professional development. It’s time to grow your PLN! Let’s get to it!

#hashtags … or as my mom calls them, pound signs 🙂
Just in case you’re unfamiliar with Twitter and hashtags … think of these as search tags on posts.

  • #edtech – Cool EdTech tools/resources
  • #edchat – As it’s name implies … discussion about all things education 🙂
  • #gafe/#gafechat – Discussion and resources about the wonderful Google Apps for Education tools
  • #blendedlearning – Discussion about techniques and tools associated with a blended learning environment
  • #badgechatk12 – I’m new to this chat, but check here for great resources about gamification and the use of badges in the classroom
  • #moedchat – If you’re a teacher in Missouri, you probably know about this chat! Great discussion with fantastic Missouri educators! Join us Thursday evenings!
  • #edbeat – Positive conversations about education 🙂
  • #tlap – Teach Like a Pirate chat … if you haven’t read this fabulous book, please do!
  • #stealEDU – Recently created by Alice Keeler, use this hashtag to find and steal great resources for your classroom!
  • #techyteacher – This is MY hashtag! I’ll be promoting this soon! Use this hashtag to share tech resources and reflections!

Tweeachers to follow (Yes, I totally made up this word!)

  • @rmbyrne – The guru of EdTech, Richard Byrne shares tons of fabulous resources with teachers – follow his blog, FreeTech4Teachers!
  • @shakeuplearning – I LOVE Shake Up Learning! Kasey Bell shares great Google resources with her readers. Check out her blog and sign up for her mailing list!
  • @alicekeeler – Alice shares wonderful Google resources and great thoughts about what education should really be!
  • @burgessdave – Dave is the author of so many wonderful books (which make up most of my summer reading list!), including the super amazing “Teach Like a Pirate.”
  • @coolcatteacher – Vicki Davis is just AWESOME! She shares so many wonderful posts from her blog and great ideas about education.
  • @jenwilliamsedu – Jen is a fantastic resource for all things education!
  • @smgaillard – Sean leads the #edbeat chat and always shares positive messages – and awesome music!- with the Twittersphere 🙂
  • @mrmatera – Mr. Matera is the author of EXPlore Like a Pirate which explains the process of gamification of the classroom – put this on your reading list!
  • @Bethany_Petty – that’s ME! Most of my posts are resources, reflections, and ideas from my classroom … sprinkled with funny anecdotes from my wonderful daughters, odes to my wonderful treadmill, tidbits from my mommy blog, and random questions for the creators of Once Upon a Time – I may have an obsession 🙂

What hashtags and Tweeachers should I add to my list? Be sure to follow me on Twitter!

Thanks for reading 🙂
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Using Participate Learning to Explore Twitter Chats

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I love Twitter chats. They are amazing question/answer professional development sessions that allow educators to learn in their sweatpants from the comfort of their couch…at least that’s how I professionally develop!

However, as much as I love to participate in Twitter chats, and seriously value their content, I also have two wonderful little girls and a pretty great husband. Sometimes, I just don’t have time to really participate in these chats! Instead, I hang out with my awesome family!

Enter, Participate Learning!

I’ve been talking about this great site pretty much since the beginning of my blogging journey in January of 2014. Participate Learning started as a website that allowed teachers to search for and curate information about educational apps…they went by Appolearning previously, and you can find great information about Participate Learning if you search that term on my blog 🙂

Participate Learning is still an amazing resource for teachers looking for great websites and apps to use in their classroom. In recent months, however, they’ve definitely filled a need in the realm of professional development via social media with their Twitter chats tool.

participate learning

If you’ve never participated in a Twitter chat on Twitter, I highly suggest that you do so asap. The downsides to these chats, in my opinion are 1. making time to read and interact on Twitter at a specific time of day or evening (it’s definitely possible…just not incredibly easy for this mommy of two little girls!) and 2. sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the questions/answers during the chat, especially if you enter after it starts.

This is where Participate Learning offers a huge possibility for teachers!

The Twitter chats feature on Participate Learning allows teachers to engage in Twitter chats directly from Participate’s website. Teachers can also view “tweechers” (teachers who tweet…hahaha! I totally just made that up!) who participate in specific chats and choose to follow them from Participate’s website. I followed a few more #sschat members this way earlier today!

It’s also incredibly simple to take part in Twitter chats via the Participate website. Simply choose your chat and enter your comment. That’s it!

The Twitter chats feature also makes locating resources shared in the chat extremely easy to locate. I tested this earlier today by sharing a post from my blog…as soon as I posted my comment (with post URL of course) my post popped up in the resource category on the left of the screen. Awesome!

participate chat

While perusing the resources of the chat, you can add those resources to your existing collections on Participate, and can also easily create new collections from the chat screen.

Create transcripts of specific Twitter chats by specifying the date/time period, and then revisit your transcript later. You can even share your chat transcript via social media!

If you’re like me, you tend to forget about all of the hashtags and Twitter chats that you want to follow…Participate lists dozens of Twitter chats AND will add hashtags submitted by YOU!

participate learn

Why do I chose to search Twitter chats via Participate Learning?

  1. It’s EASY to use!
    –Simply log in and choose a chat. It doesn’t get much easier than that!
  2. Collaboration
    –Being able to easily share resources I’ve found is fantastic.
  3. Resources
    –Any link that is shared in a Tweet during a chat is stored on the side of the page in the Resources section. I can click on any resource, go directly to that site, and save or share it. So easy!
  4. FOCUS
    –I doubt I’m alone in this problem, but sometimes, when I’m on Twitter, my mind wanders and I don’t necessarily focus on the information I set out for. This is a great problem when it ends in finding new information or a neat idea to use in my classroom. This is an actual problem when my Twitter searches lead me to look for Once Upon a Time spoilers, which has been happening frequently as of late…seriously though, the season doesn’t resume until March!!

If you haven’t checked out this great new addition to Participate Learning yet, please do!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Why Teachers Should Use Twitter

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I was talking with a colleague earlier this week…ok, more like gushing to my colleague about the amazing resource that is Twitter.

Why Teachers Should Use Twitter
Seriously. As a 21st century educator, you really need to embrace Twitter.
Why do I (and so many others in the education world) love this social media so much as a teacher, you ask?
Connections. Networking. Idea exchange. Information. Professional development. Questions. Answers.
The list of characteristics that make Twitter great is seriously endless.
I follow outstanding educators on Twitter and soak up their knowledge and experience. I follow EdTechies to learn and explore new (sometimes just new to me) tools that I can use to enhance the learning environment that is my classroom. I share my experiences as an EdTech nerd and flipped learning teacher with people all over the country and throughout the world.
I follow EdTech companies that like the fantastic EDpuzzle, and if I have a question about their tool, I simply tweet them. The best part? THEY RESPOND! Almost immediately!  For example, we had a wonderful “conversation” via Twitter this morning about a new feature I would love to see on their site.
I must confess, when I receive a notification from Twitter that tells me that someone new, or a person from another country now follows me, I squeal. I really do.
Or, when I receive a notification from Twitter that none other than EdTech genius, Richard Byrne, now follows me on Twitter, I squeal, screenshot the notification, and text it to my friends. 🙂
Why should you be on Twitter as a teacher?
Twitter allows us to decrease the miles that separate us from amazing people and resources.

It’s seriously great. Join. The teacher/nerd in you won’t regret it!

If you’re looking for hashtags to search, check out Cybraryman’s awesome list.

I’ll be learning more about how teachers can use Twitter tomorrow at the wonderful METC!
Thanks for reading…and don’t forget to follow me – @Bethany_Petty 🙂
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