Twitter...hmmmm, where shall I start? I guess I'll begin by admitting that Twitter is very new to me. I've had an account for a couple of years now. To be honest, I never really used it. When I did use it, I just retweeted what others tweeted. I guess you could refer to me as a retweeter! Back in March 2016, I attended The Student Achievement Conference in Greensboro, NC. Todd Whitaker was a guest speaker, and he encouraged educators to start a Twitter account. He was a firm believe that teachers could learn from other teachers on Twitter. He spoke a lot about Flipped Classrooms. I never heard of that term until Mr. Whitaker mentioned it. Flipped Classrooms are where teachers take on the role of a facilitator and student-taught, self-discovery. Teachers also record themselves and share how they teach their lessons.
Although, Flipped Classrooms sound great, I was never able to find anything from other third grade teachers. I still cannot find any! It actually became very frustrating. So I gave up.
The only positive outcome that came out of trying to find Flipped Classrooms, on Twitter, was accidentally finding other teacher leaders or educational programs. I am now following 135 Twitter accounts. Not only do they include educational accounts, but also fitness and motivational accounts as well.
As I began searching for a new tool on Twitter, I came across Edutopia. What an amazing tool! I wish I found this when I began teaching third grade. I just started following Edutopia, and I'm glad I am. I've only been following them for few days. But since then, I've been amazed at all the resources. There are so many videos, and articles on current topics.
Edutopia provides teachers with so many resources on how to enhance effectiveness as a school leader. Some resources include:
- Building relationships with Teens
- Practical Tips for Building a Community of Self-motivated Learners
- Websites and apps to prevent teacher burnout
- How to build rapport with Teachers
- Educational research that every Teacher should know about and so much more to discover!
Edutopia has exceeded my expectations. I am very pleased I found this resource tool. It is very easy to locate resources since they are categorized. You can search by most popular, grade-level, topics, videos, and core-strategies. I'm excited to explore Edutopia to learn about more topics. I enjoy reading the most popular topics because I feel like I'm up-to-date on the latest news.
I am so pleased with Edutopia, that I plan to recommend it to my colleagues. I'm looking forward to improve my instruction.
References
Edutopia, http://www.edutopia.org/
Twitter, https://twitter.com/
