Using Twitter as a Professional Learning Network

What is Twitter?
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 10 years or so, you have probably heard of the social media website Twitter. I doubt you have been living under a rock (that would be pretty boring and a little cramped), but I am going to take a little time to explain what it is for those of you who (like me) just haven't given Twitter a chance.  Twitter is an online social media tool where users can post messages up to 140 characters long. You can post messages (this is called tweeting) and read the messages other Twitter users have tweeted. Twitter is public and even if you are not a member, you still have the ability to read tweets. However, you will not be able tweet, retweet, or like your messages. You also will not have the benefit of using Twitter to create your own online Professional Learning Network.

What is a Professional Learning Network and How Do I Use Twitter to Make One?
A professional learning network is a group of people (in this case, educators) who have connected with other educators in order to better themselves and improve their teaching strategies. Furthermore, it is another group of like-minded individuals you can vent to and bounce ideas off of. Michael Graffin expands upon this in one of his blog posts. You can discuss your classroom struggles, share instructional tips, discuss classroom management strategies, share lesson plans, and more.

Teachers have to be creative, innovative, and able to bring variety to the classroom. I would not want to be stuck in a lecture where my professor does nothing but talk for seven hours straight and I know my students would not want that either. Children are full of energy and as an educator, you have to plan lessons that will engage them and allow them to express themselves. However, sometimes it can be difficult to come up with so many different activities. This is where a professional learning network comes in. By following users who are educators or offer advice for teachers, Twitter can be a lifesaver when you are stuck and just cannot decide what to do in your classroom.

Before writing this post, I was one of the very, very few people that did not have a social media account. Generally, I have always thought social media was shrouded in drama and I wanted absolutely none of it. However, I have realized when you make a professional account that is focused on one specific thing (such as teaching), you can tailor your Twitter experience to be extremely helpful for you.

First, I made an account on Twitter.com. It's very simple and only takes a few moments to type in preliminary information such as your name and password. Once you have done this, you can get started. Because I was new to Twitter and absolutely clueless about how to use it, I had to look up some tips. Here are a few of the first things I learned:

• Your Twitter feed is located on the home page of your Twitter account. Once you follow people, all of their tweets will show up on your feed for easy viewing. 
• A follower is someone who chooses to click the button "follow" on your account. Your followers will be able to view all of your tweets on their feed.
• When viewing a tweet, there is a small "reply" button in the bottom corner. By pressing this, you can say something back to the user who posted that tweet. When you do this, your reply will be available for anyone to view.
• When you tweet, you can mention or tag someone at the end of your 140 characters. They will be notified when this happens. 
• You can also "like" a tweet. To do this, you must click the heart at the bottom of a tweet. By doing this, the tweet will not be retweeted on your feed; however, you will be able to view your likes on your home page (Hibma, 2013).

Additionally, you can add hashtags in front of certain words when you tweet. When you do this, your tweet will appear anytime someone searches for that particular word.  For example, if I make a post about STEM, and include #STEM at the end, anyone who types that into the search bar will be able to view my tweet. 

Later on, I learned some important information regarding Twitter chats. In the past, I had heard of Twitter chats but since I did not use Twitter, I did not realize that a Twitter chat could possibly help me. Well, I was wrong. Chats are live Twitter events focused on a particular topic. Generally, a set time is decided upon and once the chat begins, all participating users incorporate a specific hashtag to ensure their tweets will be included in the chat. Chats can be great when you really need to learn something about a topic. Edutopia made a short article with tips for teachers on using Twitter to build your PLN. In this article, author Betty Ray composed a list of particularly helpful chats for educators. For example, a chat for elementary educators occurs every Saturday at 5pm. They use the hashtag #elemchat.

Here are some additional tips on how to create a great professional learning network. This link reminds you to be an active participant, dare to ask questions, and share your own information. If you know something that has helped you in the classroom and tweet it, it may end up being very helpful to the other members of your professional learning network. You do not want to merely use ideas others have provided. You should also give your own ides to help others from time to time. This way, you will have a much more well-rounded Twitter experience.

My Professional Learning Network
Once I figured out how to use Twitter and researched professional learning networks, I wanted to make one of my own. I had no idea where to start so first, I googled and found an article entitled, Top 50 Elementary Teachers on Twitter.  I think the hardest part of creating a PLN is getting started so by using this list as a guideline, I was able to read through who each teacher was, go to their Twitter account, and figure out if what they were posting was helpful to me. Some of them did not post anything interesting to me, so I chose not to follow them. My personal favorite was @MrsMorgansClass.

Once you find one or two users that you like and want to follow, you will find that it really is so easy to build your professional learning network. When you are viewing someone's feed, Twitter will recommend other users to follow who tweet about similar topics. By clicking on some of the recommendations of "Who to follow", I was able to find many educators who post interesting articles and give very good advice.

For instance, when viewing @MrsMorgansClass, Twitter recommended that I follow Kara Bunch, @MMEKteach. This kindergarten teacher does an awesome job incorporating technology into her classroom and just so happens to use a bunch of the apps/websites we have been discussing in my educational technology class. She uses Popplet and QR codes in her classroom, along with many other helpful apps. Additionally, she just has some really cool out-of-the-box ideas teaching strategies. For instance, one of her posts describes how she put sight words on students' backs and had them match the sight words up. It looks really fun and I plan to ask her more about it so I can use this strategy in my classroom.

I also discovered @Angela_Watson. I cannot stress how many useful things she tweets and it is obvious that others think so too because she has 10,500 followers. One of my favorite things she has tweeted is a link to a post on her website called thecornerstoneforteachers.com. This post is called, "5 Ridiculously Unhelpful Things I've Said to Students." It is pretty funny but also enlightening. If you take the time to reflect, you may even realize that you have made one of these statements to a student. The article also gives advice on what to say instead. I would encourage you to check it out.

My favorite is quote number 3 which says, "That's none of your business. Don't worry about it." I think this is one thing educators often say after a student tattles. In some cases it can be warranted, but Watson also points out that this can be confusing to your students. One minute you may be making this statement yet the next, you are probably saying, "Why are you just sitting there? Help her clean up her crayons." Unintentionally, you may be sending mixed messages. In order to cultivate an environment in which students help each other, you should instead respond, "Did you talk to him/her about that?" This way, students are able to communicate with each other and learn to problem solve without your help when they are able to.

One of the most important aspects of being an educator is being able to reflect on your own work. Yes, as a teacher you are evaluating your students' work, but you should also be evaluating yours. I do not believe a teacher will ever reach a point where he or she cannot learn how to become a better teacher. No matter how good you are, you will always have something to learn.

By using Twitter, you will be able to add to your bag of tricks and also evaluate your current practices. If you see an article about incorporating art into everyday lessons, you can admit that while you may have had some great lessons over the past month, you have been neglecting to incorporate art into the lessons. Now, you can make that change. By getting advice and recommendations from others, you are constantly reflecting and opening yourself up to change. Change is what makes a teacher great as opposed to just good.

How to Use Twitter in Your Classroom
In this post, I focused on using Twitter as a professional learning network to connect with other educators and reflect on your own teaching practices. However, there are tons of other ways you can use Twitter in the classroom.

For one, you could make a class Twitter account and tweet upcoming due dates, assignments, and other important news. This could serve as a great reminder for students and their parents. This way, everyone knows what's going on and what is due. You could also use your Twitter feed to keep parents aware of what their children are learning on a daily basis. When your students are learning addition with M&M's, reading a cool new book, or making a craft, you can tweet what your students are doing. Your students will love to share what they are doing and parents will feel confident their children are receiving a quality education.

Furthermore, you could challenge students by giving them an ELA writing standard and asking them to write about or describe something using only 140 characters. For example, students could write a response to a book they read as a class. The standard this would cover is CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1: Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.

You could also post sample review questions to help students get ready for a test or simply review what you talked about in class that day. If you post a review question after school, you could say that whoever comes into class with the question answered the next day will get a special perk such as a piece of candy or extra computer time (Miller, 50 Ways).

What Do I Think?
While Twitter can be a really cool tool, you must be very purposeful in how you use it and you always approve anything that is tweeted in your classroom. It needs to be appropriate, should not include personal information, and should be related to the topic at hand. Honestly, when it comes to Twitter (and anything online), you should use common sense. If you have to ask yourself whether or not something is appropriate then you would probably be better off leaving it offline.

Overall, I think Twitter is an extremely important tool for teachers because even in the short amount of time I have had an account on Twitter, I've connected with about twenty educators, found ideas for lesson plans I am currently writing, and even found links to education websites that I now visit frequently. In the classroom, you might be wary when it comes to using Twitter and that's good. You should be! However, as long as you facilitate and monitor everything that happens on your classroom Twitter account and stick to your gut, you shouldn't have any problems. In today's world, your students will likely be exposed to Twitter and begin using it at a young age. If you incorporate Twitter into your classroom, you will be exposing them to Twitter yourself and guiding them on how to appropriately use it. In addition to using it for fun, students will also learn that almost anything can be used for an educational purpose. It's just a plus that Twitter also happens to be pretty cool.

References
Graffin, M. (n.d.). What is a pln? Retrieved March 14, 2016 from https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-challenge-1-what-the-heck-is-a-pln/

Hibma, M. (2013, October 30). Definitions for 34 Twitter terms you were too embarrassed to ask about. Retrieved March 16, 2015 from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/34-twitter-terms-defined-list

Miller, S. (n.d.). 50 ways to use Twitter in the classroom. Retrieved March 16, 2016 from http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom

Twitter classroom [online image]. Retrieved September 4, 2015 from http://dailygenius.com/social-education/

Twitter logo [online image]. Retrieved March 16, 2016 from http://weeklyupss.tumblr.com/post/:id/:summary

Twitter tweets [online image]. Retrieved March 16, 2016 from http://www.playbuzz.com/ maximumpop10/which-celebrity-twitter-feud-are-you

Untitled quote [online image]. Retrieved March 16, 2016 from https://twitter.com/curriculumblog/ status/703756084578787328/photo/1

Epic: A Giant Library Inside a Tiny App

The development of reading skills is very important in the early elementary grades. As a future first grade (or early elementary) teacher, I need to be able to provide books with many different topics so each of my students can read about something that interests him or her. I also need to provide books suited for many different reading levels. If I cannot find material to make a child interested in reading, they will not do as well in my class and they will be missing out one of my favorite things in the world. Recently, I discovered an awesome app that provides tons of fun, educational books for children! Better yet, it is completely free for educators.

What is Epic?
In recent times, many parents have been trying to cut down on screen time for their children. They don't want their kids spending so much time playing apps because they aren't necessarily educational. Suren Markosian, an online gaming veteran, had a son who really loved playing games on his iPad and Markosian found it really interesting that his son had unlimited, almost instantaneous access to games but not books.  After talking to other parents and realizing they also wanted their children to have access to books on their iPads, he was inspired to meet that need. The solution is an app called Epic.

Epic is an app that provides its users with unlimited children's ebooks of every topic and genre imaginable. In fact, on iTunes, the app boasts over 10,000 high quality titles for kids up to age 12. Immediately, you might jump to the conclusion that its library must be filled with unknown, even weird books. I know I have downloaded apps with children's books only to get an odd vibe from the library contents. In the case of Epic, this is not so. It includes very popular titles from companies such as Scholastic, National Geographic, and Harper Collins. Some books include Frozen, The Berenstein Bears, and Goodnight Moon. Essentially, any kids could find books that truly interest him or her.

Getting Started
First, you have to download the free app (I included the iTunes link earlier in this post) and sign up for an account. At this point, you have two options depending on whether you are a parent or a teacher. If you are a parent, you will need to subscribe for $4.99 a month. If you are a teacher, you can get Epic for Educators for absolutely no cost at all. Since I am an educator, I will explain the process of creating an account from an educator's point of view.

When you open up the app, you will see a button that says "Create an educator account." By pressing this button, you are ensuring that you will get to experience Epic for free. You will then be asked for your school name and zip code, profession (teacher or librarian), name, educator email address, and a password. After this, press "Create" and you will be given options to customize the books that will show up in your library. You will be able to customize your library contents according to the age group you teach (it offers books for children up to 12 years old), what subjects your students like to read about (sports, fairytales, history, cooking, etc.), and what genres are suitable for your class (funny, mystery, science and nature, daily life, spanish, etc.). You can pick as many or as few as you would like and you can always change your preferences later as you students' needs and interests fluctuate throughout the year.

How do I use Epic?
Once you have an account, you are free to explore the app and its many features. On the left side of your screen, there is a toolbar containing your profile or dashboard, a search button, a browse button,  a "My Books" button, and a final tab for educators. The first one, "Profile", allows you to create and manage student profiles. To create a student profile, you should click "Create Profile" which is located at the top of the screen. After entering the student's name, you will be able to monitor how many books they've finished, how many hours they have read books on the app, the title of the book they last read, and the number of pages they have flipped through.

The search button allows you to search for a specific book in the library. On the other hand, the browse button takes you to the Epic library where you can scroll through all kinds of books such as biographies, popular history, featured books, popular non-fiction, and more.

The next tab, "My Books", takes you to your most recent reads, your favorites (the books you have liked), and the books you have made available offline. I will discuss liking books and making them available offline in the features section of this post. Lastly, the "Educators" tab simply tells you the mission of Epic and asks that you share the app with parents so they can continue to keep it free for educators.

The most important part of this app is actually reading books and thankfully, it is very easy to do so. To read a book, you should click on it, zoom in with your fingers, and swipe to the right to flip a page. At any given time, there is a white ribbon in the middle of the book that can mark your place when tapping it. This is great if it is time to clean up and move onto a new activity in your classroom because the student will then be much more likely to return to the book and finish it later on.

Features

• Thousands of ebook options
• Customizable library
• Books with AR reading level, age, and estimated reading time
• Read-to-Me and Audio Books
• Earn badges for reading books 
• Option to save an ebook so it can be read offline
• Create student profiles and monitor their reading
• Books for the different levels and interests of every reader

Although there are numerous features I love about this app, I am just going to talk about a couple of my favorites. One feature involves earning badges. In Epic, a student can earn badges just like they can in so many popular iOS games. Instead of earning badges for making a character jump over obstacles, students get badges for cracking open ebooks and reading them from start to finish. You might say, well, a student could easily open a book, quickly flip through it, then collect a badge at the end with no effort on their part. However, Epic does not allow this. At the front of each book, you will find the recommended age, estimated reading time, and for some books, the corresponding AR level. In order to successfully complete each book (and have it count towards badges), you have to read the book for the estimated reading time. For example, if the estimated reading time for a book is 5-15 minutes, a student would need to spend at least five minutes reading the book before he or she could reap a reward from it.

Additionally, you are able to save a book to your app so it can be read offline. Sometimes, you may not have access to the Internet and at other times, the Internet may be having technical difficulties. By saving a book to read offline, you never have to worry about that. At the top of each book, there is a small button that says "Read Offline." Once you press this, it will show up in your "My Books" tab and you and your students will be able to read it whenever you please. This could also be great if you only want your students to have access to certain things and do not want to bother with connecting a device to the Internet.

How Can I Use This in my Classroom?
One way to use this app is for a group reading activity. I could easily get my students together for circle time and read them a book that either relates to a standard I need to teach or an upcoming event. For example, the book Day and Night would be a great addition to a lesson on NC Essential Standard 1.E.1: Recognize the features and patterns of the earth/moon/sun system as observed from Earth. In another example, I could read the book Barack Obama during Black History Month or around President's Day.

I could also easily use this app to differentiate. Not only are there many different levels of books I could recommend to each individual child, but there are read-to-me books and audio books. If I know a student is struggling with pronouncing certain words, I could direct him or her to a read-to-me book. Additionally, these options would be great for English Language Learners. I could use this app during centers, in groups, or as a whole class and assign fun reading comprehension activities.

I also found another great feature of many of the books in the Epic library. If you have ever spent a significant amount of time in a first grade classroom, you know that teachers must place a heavy emphasis on text features in non-fiction texts. While browsing through Epic's ebooks, I have found that many of them include text features such as captions, tables of contents, glossaries, and indexes. I could easily imagine using some of these books to recognize text features either as a group or individually.

My Take on Epic
Epic is an app that is truly epic. It's free and provides teachers with lots of really cool, educational ebooks that could be used in a variety of ways. Teachers on Graphite are giving it five stars and have even uploaded numerous lesson plans involving the app. Reviewers on app advice.com are also giving Epic a positive review. I have to say I wholeheartedly agree. Honestly, this app really excites me. It is not often that teachers are given so many great resources at the click of the button at no cost. I really think this app could make a positive impact in the classroom by getting kids excited about reading and providing new ways to teach material. It will not be difficult to incorporate this app into everyday lessons and I am really looking forward to doing so. Overall, I do not think a teacher could find a cooler reading app than this one and trust me, I've tried.

References
Epic in classroom [online image]. Retrieved March 10, 2016 from https://www.getepic.com/educators

Epic screen shot [online image]. Retrieved March 10, 2016 from http://www.allstudentscanshine.com/2015/02/epic-app-free-books-for-ipads.html