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I am a teacher, parent, and founder of My Town Tutors. I have been using twitter for several months, and have discovered how incredibly useful it can be for educators. My most recent revelation occurred with a blog post – Top 10 Twitter Accounts for Massachusetts Teachers.
This post targeted the teachers of Massachusetts. We selected 10 twitter accounts that we felt would be useful to the educators in Massachusetts. There were over 200 page views in the first 24 hours!
It was a really simple post to create. We follow each of the accounts. We understand the importance and value of these accounts to Massachusetts teachers.There is a good amount of diversity among the top 10 and I would bet a large amount of money that not one account we listed was following the entire list. (This is excluding the Rookie wildcard who was only following 8 accounts.)
After the post I am sure many of the members of the list at least viewed the other accounts. Hopefully, many agreed with the quality of our list and followed each other.
Always looking for a teachable moment, I thought it might be a great opportunity to create cooperative guest blog from the Top 10 accounts (along with our Rookie.) All the members of the list are involved in education, so I thought it might be appropriate create some objectives, teaching methods, and assessment for this activity.
Objectives:
- To model best practices of using technology and social media in education.
- To have 10 “elite” Massachusetts educators work together using google.docs to create a blog of 50 useful twitter accounts for educators.
- To demonstrate how social media and technology can unite strangers from different parts of the state (and world) to create incredible products.
- To have a final product, “50 Great Twitter Accounts for Teachers and Educators,” that will be an incredible resource for other educators.
Teaching Methods
- Select a time period for the activity – one month. (Perhaps it could be shared with Burlington High School’s EdCamp Tuesdays.)
- Create a google.docs to share with the Top 10 Twitter Accounts for Massachusetts Teachers* (I will need each member to DM their email)
- Each member will select 5 twitter accounts that are useful to educators. They will follow the format of the initial blog – the twitter name, the twitter profile, twitter followers, twitter grade, and a few personal comments.
- First come, first served. Once an account has been claimed, it cannot be used by another member of the team. The other members of the team can provide feedback and assistance, but will still need to select another account for the list.
- Once the list is complete, the members of the team must proofread the blog before submitting for posting.
* This is a big assumption that all these educators use google.docs. (and would be interested in participating in this activity). In the event that some are not familiar with this resource, we will make the necessary modifications to fit that individuals skill set.
Assessment
- The number or page views for the blog.
- Comments to the blog.
- Increase in the number of followers of the members of “Top 50 list.”
Possible Problems
- Not all member of the Top 10 Twitter Accounts for Massachusetts Teachers will be able to participate. (We do have 11 accounts so if all participate it will be a Top 55 List.)
- Not all members can meet the deadline.
Like any untested lesson plan, there is a great amount of risk, but… there also could be a tremendous amount of reward.
Imagine in 40 biology teachers agreed to share lessons using google.docs. Prep time would decrease and feedback would be incredible. One lesson with 40 teachers x 3 classes each…120 lessons! The possibilities are incredible.
I hope this plan is not a flop! Stay tuned!
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