"Twitter! How can I use this to be a more effective communicator with my students' parents this school year?" Ok that's me this year. I decided to focus my Free Choice assignment on developing my teacher Twitter account and gathering some real, plausible ideas of how I can (and will!) toss this into my communication mix this year.
My first thoughts were... not every family has Twitter and not every family is going to get Twitter just because their 5th grader's teacher might post stuff on there. So... my Twitter account this year is obviously not going to be THE tool for communication, but an extra resource for parents. I don't feel comfortable using it with students because I believe they have to be 13. A few years ago I set up a teacher Facebook page and posted Questions of the Day, links to fun educational websites, etc but the district made me take it down. There was some gray area as to exactly why, but I think bottom line was that my students are 10 and 11. I get it. So, as for tweeting parents, I think committing to a single post (or repost) a week is enough but not too much.
Brainstorm...
These are things I already must do and will do via email because the majority of our parents use email but are Twitter-appropriate and I would do if I had extra time (HA!)
- Monthly homeroom update (similar to the one I would send in a mass email to parents but more concise)
- Event or meeting reminders
- Link to sign up for conferences/goal-setting meetings
- Cancellation of after-school student council meetings or track practices due to weather or whatever
These are things that are not vital information, just more fun or helpful to know. So not things I would necessarily include in a mass email, but easy to share - so Twitter appropriate?
- Book recommendations for parents or kids
- Post/repost tips on how parents can help students at home (math, reading, organization, setting up routines, whatever)
- Post/repost
- Post/repost funny articles or quotes related to kids or education
Ok I feel out of ideas! Anyone, anyone? What about using hashtags within my posts? Helpful, pointless?
Very cool thinking. As a parent that has never used twitter, I know that is is coming for school use. Listening to my friends with older students talk about how their kids use it, I think it would be good to introduce it to your families now. Parents will then see it as a form of useful communication, not just social networking. I like how you laid this out!
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you have been thinking about this for a while, and maybe this is the year to start!? You seem to know how it works and what would be the most helpful way for you to use it!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could help here. Twitter is something that I have never gotten into. I think that is because I hate it. For no reason other than that every news organization has now replaced honest journalism with, "let's see what people are saying on twitter." Like anybody cares...Sorry, had to get that off my chest. I will be really curious to see how things go for you. Kelsey and her team to a lot of live tweeting at conferences and understand a lot of the data gathering functions it has, so maybe we'll have to invite her out to a team meeting sometime to have her explain more about some uses in the education setting.
ReplyDeleteYou have so many wonderful ideas on how to implement this for fifth grade. I admire your willingness to try so many things! I know you began using Twitter with the Track team last year and can't wait to see how it goes this year!
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