Get started with Twitter – a must for every teacher

 Nowadays, in the era of social networking,  it is vital for a teacher to get on to Twitter in order to find out what is happening in education. I have learned SO much from Twitter and am connected to fantastic educators all over the world because of using it.

How ten minutes with Twitter can get your creativity soaring
For example I was looking through my Twitter stream and I saw a tweet from Julian Wood, a teacher in England whom I follow. It said:



Since I am attending a TeachMeet on Tuesday next week, this sounded interesting so I clicked on the shortened link which took me to http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2013/03/09/how-can-i-webstream-an-event/ where I can across an amazing Mentor Mob collection of articles on the topic created by Wesley Fryer.



Well, that was very interesting and then when I scrolled down I saw the Wesley Fryer had just delivered a workshop on creative writing so I opened that link which took me to Alan Levine’s wiki post http://5card.cogdogblog.com/play.php where he outlined a great writing idea using five photos. 



Very soon my mind was buzz, buzz, buzzing with new ideas for varied creative writing exercises that will inspire a student to write.

Another teacher’s post on what happened using TwitterIt All Started WIth A Little Tweet.....And Turned Into A Game of Jeopardy, Searching Together, Google Hangout, and Becoming Online Classmates in Edmodo http://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/2013/03/it-all-started-with-little-tweetand.html 

How to join Twitter1) A YouTube video showing the process of joining Twiitter

Getting started with Twitter (a five minute tutorial)

2) A SlideShare from Maggie Verster to show you how to join Twitter

Getting started with twitter from Maggie Verster

Twitter tips

• If your account is hacked, all you need to do is change the password immediately.
• Try to add a photo to your profile as "noone likes to follow an egg" (quote by Maggie Verster). An egg shape is the default icon.
• Start by following @Schoolnetsa, @PILNAfrica, @maggiev. @fibeal, @micheleb2011, @artpreston  and see who they follow or who follows them. 
• Try and send a tweet every day.
• Join our Twitter chat for South African teachers on Monday nights fromm 8:30 - 9:30pm. It is great fun to have a debate using 140 characters.

See you on Twitter!

Further reading
5 Baby-Steps for Using Twitter to Begin a Personal Learning Network