Tweet Tweet

It's official ... I am a Twitter addict. With TweetDeck on my computers at work and home and the Twitter App on my phone, I check Twitter countless times a day ... it takes just a second to browse through my feed, clicking on articles I want to check - whether to read now, or bookmark for later.

I dare say I click on this lovely button more times a day than I click on my Facebook app ... which is saying something!

I didn't warm up to Twitter right away. I had an account for over a year before I started falling in love with it. In fact, at first, I really didn't like it. I am a Blogger at heart (I'm sure you could say something about the fact that I like to be wordy ... which you can't be in a Tweet...). I had people telling me it was great for professional development and collaboration ... but I couldn't see past the random tweets of weather and other such "small talk" to get any great professional benefit.

Earth shattering data: it turns out, if you want to use Twitter for collaboration and professional development, you have to 'follow' people that you want to collaborate with and learn from. Who knew? ha! That's where articles such as this came in handy for me. I found out there are people who have already done all the leg work for me and are ready to give me great ideas about which Tweeters are worth my time to follow. I started using Twitter to to collaborate with people who were interested in the same things as me ... educational politics, educational technology, elementary education, and of course the local sports scores. I found articles such as this one  (seriously one of my favorites) that helped me figure out #hashtags and find ways to get connected with more educators. And I fell. In. Love.

Twitter is the most convenient way for me to get educational updates and news. I love that in one place I can find articles about educational politics and technology and random creative teaching ideas ... I can read them, I can scan them, I can skip them, I can bookmark them for later ... so many possibilities! It's quick, its easy. It's time efficient. It's perfect.

I still don't have Twitter figured out. My use of #hashtags is minimal because I'm usually not quite sure which ones would be appropriate. And I'm still working on putting my own thoughts and information out there (I have a habit of reading and not sharing back...). But I'm working on it. And I'm finding that the more I figure out, the more I love.

Right now, I'm only using Twitter for myself. It's my own personal professional development. Though I've heard and read so many inspiring things about bringing Twitter into the classroom ... I just haven't figured out the practicality of putting social media into the hands of my 9 and 10 year old's. Trust me, I'm mulling it over ... but the management side of social media is still a bit unnerving to me. So, for now, my favorite way to use Twitter is to grow myself!

What's your favorite way to use Twitter? 

Who are your favorite people to follow?

 Are you using it in your classroom? Encourage me!