To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

Being at a school that embraces the use of technology and incorporating 21st century skills, I am always looking for new ways to engage my students. After attending an ISTE conference this summer, I am inspired to use Twitter in class, yet not without a certain level of trepidation!

To protect myself as a professional teacher, I have created an account that is designated just for my students. My husband, who often serves as my muse and my technology advisor, cautioned me to not have my own name on the account and instead simply tie it to my school, and my role as a teacher.

To protect my students, and to respect their parents, I have asked them to review Twitter’s privacy settings and set up an account with which they are comfortable. I will be encouraging my students to create separate accounts, linked to their student emails. I have invited parents to follow me so they too can see what is taking place in class.

As a History teacher I will be using Twitter as a means of encouraging lively discussion regarding current events and topics relating to the content being studied. I use game layer in my classroom and will be awarding badges to students that tweet a certain amount per unit. These badges are not tied to grades, but instead to XP class points that go towards earning privileges in the classroom. This way, if there are any parents that do not wish their child to tweet, it will not affect their grade.

So…here we go…”to tweet or not to tweet?” I hope by the end of this unit the answer is “yes!”