12 Reasons English Teachers Should Tweet

Hey look! It’s me on Twitter, nearly 2000 tweets ago!

One thing I did A LOT at #NCTE13 was encourage teachers to get on Twitter. If you’re not on Twitter, you think this is what you’re going to find, right?

What I love so much about this is that it had been retweeted over 11K times when I took the screenshot of it. 11,000 people shared this photo of Taylor Swift’s cinnamon roll.

And, in fairness, I do share things like this on Twitter:

But mostly I share content related to education, learning, and teaching, with a focus on reading, writing, children’s lit, and YA lit. Twitter has become the hub of my professional development, and I have never professionally developed so much as I have in the year+ I’ve been using Twitter.

Before Twitter, my professional development was limited to the books I read, the (relatively few) blogs I followed, very occasional conversations with colleagues about teaching, and attendance at 2-3 conferences a year.

After Twitter, I devote some time every day to professional development, reading articles and posts curated for me by my Personal Learning Network (PLN) on the topics I’m most passionate about as an educator.  I am not just a consumer of content, either. I am an active member of my community: I share my own curated content, comment on blogs, respond to tweets, and participate in challenges and learning opportunities. All organized via Twitter.

If you aren’t sure why you should be tweeting, here are 12 reasons:

1. Interact with your favorite authors and illustrators.

2. Connect and learn via Twitter chats: #titletalk, #engchat, #rwworkshop, #engchat, #sharpschu and so many more

3. Share teaching strategies; learn from others’ teaching strategies.

4. Read content curated for you by other educators

5. Have conversations with smart people

6. Lead a literate life in public

7. Understand social media spaces students may use

8. Find out about new books

9. Be part of a community of readers and writers

10. Ask questions and get help

11. Learn about new developments in ed policy

12. Realize you’re not alone.