How to Expand Your Summer Learning with Twitter

Teachers, have you joined Twitter?

If you, like my own momma, haven’t joined Twitter yet, please jump on the bandwagon! It’s free! It’s easy to use! It’s an AMAZING resource for teachers!

If you’ve read my blog before 🙂 then you know I was originally anti-Twitter. If you would have asked me two years ago why I wasn’t on Twitter, I would have told you that I simply didn’t have time to read ridiculous posts about what people were having for breakfast or spend that time trying to decipher hashtags…what they are and how to use them.

If that sounds like you, heed my advice! Twitter is so much more than this! The solution to the aforementioned problems? Don’t follow people who post pictures of their breakfast or include #hashtagforthesakeofhashtagging!

Simple, right?

Still need convincing?

Allow me to tell you about a recent conversation I had in the Twitterverse.

As you know, I tried my hand at gamification in the classroom at the end of last school year. My students’ motivation to be at school, must less be productive, was at an all time low. I simply had to do something to increase their desire to learn. Since many of my students were “gamers” in some sense, gamification seemed like the perfect option.

My gamification experiment was wonderfully received by my students, with many of them begging to do the activity again. So, I immediately added it to my never ending list of things to accomplish over the summer.

Currently, however, I am juggling off-season coaching responsibilities and teaching summer school with my most important roles of being a mommy and a wife. This means that my time for researching and planning for my classroom is largely confined to when I’m cooking supper or right before bed.

Needless to say, my time (like yours) is precious.

Last week while I was cooking supper, I decided to do some research for my year long “game” while cooking supper. After all, my students might have been gamers, but I most certainly am NOT. I got into Trivia Crack for about a week and jumped on the Ruzzle bandwagon for a few days, but that was the extent of it.

–Unless we’re talking about Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo, then I’m a hardcore gamer. Or, at least I was in the 90’s 🙂 —

Instead of turning to Google, I turned to Twitter.

Why, you ask?

Simple. I was able to start a conversation about a trending topic in education, ask questions and learn from a gamification guru, and expand that conversation, sharing our ideas with so many people.

I can’t do that well with a search engine, folks..

Through my Twitter conversation, I was able to view gamification in a totally different way…I had an “aha!” moment, so to speak.

What I learned on Twitter definitely allowed me to have a better understanding of how gamification works, especially in the year long setting, and how to manage this motivating tool in my classroom.

I learned all of this in about 15 minutes. Sifting through page after page of Google search results to find valuable information would have taken MUCH longer!

I hope my example has at least made you think about joining Twitter. Seriously, we should all earn professional development/continuing education credits for Twittering!! (And Pinteresting, of course!!)

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @Bethany_Petty!

Thanks for reading 🙂