Twitter: Spreading Influence Beyond the Walls of the Classroom

The best minute I spend is the one I invest in people. ~ Kenneth Blanchard

Think about the number of people you connect with on a given day just within your building. Ranging from students and colleagues to parents and other guests, an educator may have interactions with hundreds of individuals. We connect, collaborate, and grow through those around us, yet how do we continue to spread our professional and personal influences beyond our building, district, state, or even country?

Within the walls of our classrooms, we are continuously fostering a learning centered culture that allows our students to grow through meaningful learning experiences.  These experiences not only shape them as learners in the present, but also propel them toward learning experiences that await them in the future. When thinking about the importance of connection, how do we seek opportunities to spread our students' influence beyond the walls of the classroom?

In order to make the biggest impact, we need to seek the greatest audience and outreach possible. Twitter provides a learning community, PLN, and authentic audience with over 330 million monthly users (https://blog.hootsuite.com/twitter-statistics/, January 2018). Connected educators will advocate for the power of Twitter as a means of connectivity and growth.

Through Twitter, educators can connect, collaborate, and grow personally and professionally at all hours and when it is most convenient.  New to Twitter? Be sure to get your personal account and profile picture established. Start by following your colleagues then gradually increase your circle of influence to support an authentic and global audience.  Create a classroom Twitter account and start following other schools and grade levels. Your classroom account can be a means of sharing, celebrating, and connecting with other schools, authors, and influential individuals. The more you connect, the more you are able to spread your students' influence beyond the walls of the classroom at a global level. 

Twitter chats take place daily throughout the week on a myriad of topics and can be found through the use of a hashtag (#). Hashtags can also be a way to follow tweets by topic (Check out #Millershift and #INeLearn). Organization of tweets, following hashtags, and even scheduling tweets can be done through platforms such as TweetDeck.

In a world where connection is at our fingertips, Twitter allows for ongoing learning and growth not only for ourselves as educators, but for our students as well.  Sharing and collaboration is the utmost form of connectivity, and our students have much to offer to the world around them. 

How might we continue to spread influence beyond the walls of the classroom? 

Lauren Smith, Instructional Coach
Noble Crossing Elementary 
@lsmith0917
lauren_smith@nobl.k12.in.us