Teachers on Twitter!

I think that one of the most important ways Twitter can be used for professional development is to help solve problems. As I have come to realize, as hard as it is, teachers don’t know everything! And teachers will never knowing everything! It’s a simple concept, but sometimes the reality of such a situation can create challenges. I might find that I am teaching a curriculum full of titles I have never read. What if a student asks me a grammar question that I am unsure about? What if I am stuck on how to relate Shakespeare in 2009? I could post my frustration or my struggle or my question in a quick note to Twitter, and quite possibly have dozens of quick replies within minutes. Time is of the essence in the teaching profession, so even a saved hour here and there will add up. As a community of educators, teachers can and SHOULD build off one another’s experiences. Although teaching provides uniquely different experiences for everyone, I am sure that almost any question I have might be relatable to someone else. I plan on tailoring my practice based off of my own experiences, but I also want to build off of the knowledge of those who have already grappled with my same struggles. Twitter can offer a virtually light speed channel for communications concerning questions, struggles, ideas, advice or feedback. Sometimes I just want to hear to communicate with another human being, not a book or an article or plan book.

While I still am working on refining ways to fine-tune my new Twitter practices, I look forward to using this site for intra-teacher communication. I have learned so much from just my peers in my graduate courses; I can only imagine the possibilities of conversing with possibly infinite numbers of contacts within the profession of education.

One of the posts I found to be interesting was about using technology to connect students with other students globally. The post is titled "How to Connect Your Students Globally" and it is on the blog "Always Learning". This blog is written by a teacher who teaches in Thailand, and I think that her perspective from another country can also help teachers here in the U.S.

This post stood out to me because I think that one huge advantage of taking part in all of these new tech tools is that we can use them to connect to students and teachers all around the world. Over the past year or two I have been learning the importance of incorporating multicultural perspectives and multicultural texts into my English classroom. I think that actually allowing students to really connect to students of other cultures around the world could really enhance the meaning of understanding and celebrating other cultures. This post talks about the importance bringing students together to solve a common problem, and that is definitely a skill I will want my students to leave my classroom with.

With the variety of today's tools, it seems that bringing students together across the globe is actually possible. Whether it be through RSS feeds, collaborative blogs or common education websites, I think that global communication among teachers and learners is more than possible, if not vital for today's classrooms. The author of the particular post from above offers many techniques and ways of implementing global connections such as ePals and iEarn. I look forward to hearing more from this blogger through my new feed.