10 Steps for Educators New to Twitter

This is from Justin Tarte.  He’s got great thoughts about public education.  A lot of you would enjoy the things that Justin throws out there.  He’s now director of curriculum and support services in Union Missouri. Justin has a good list of maybe 12-15 educators in that link to start following if you’re a beginner.  @justintarte

Jerry Blumgarten’s catalogue
Jerry is @cybraryman1 on Twitter.  I think he’s retired now.  Most refer to him as the father of ed chats.  He’s clearly got a lot of time on his hands because he’s catalogued over 2000 links on his webpage.  The link above will take you to his Twitter page filled with links, probably too many.  But if you want to find anything related to Twitter for educators, you could find it here.I’ll also tack on my recommended list of educators to follow if you want to start with these.  I’ve only been doing this for a year now, and by no means should your list of followers be the same as mine.  But if you want to check these folks out, they’re all very good.  I’ll give a short bio about a few of them.

@burgessdave Dave is the creator of “Teach Like a Pirate” wave that has swept over many PLNs on Twitter and beyond.  He believes in teaching with passion, enthusiasm, and creativity.  He encourages teachers and admins to take risks, like all pirates do.  I hope to have him join Edcamp Parkersburg via Google Hangout.  His presentations are awesome and transforming!

@jdelaneyjoann Middle school science teacher with 20+ yrs experience.  She operates in a paperless, inquiry based classroom.

@WHSrowe  Rick Rowe. Wilmington High School math teacher.  Standards based grader.  Design thinking advocate.

@glennr1809 Glenn Robinson, 21st Century lead learner. Middle School principal in New Jersey

@tebotweets David Tebo, Superintendent in Michigan.  David appears to be a young Supt, but has some awesome thoughts about the future of education and what students today need to succeed.

@RickWormeli  Rick is more of a consultant now I believe.  Holds conferences everywhere.  He is THE standards based grading expert.  Great thoughts on homework, grading, assessment.

@garnet_hillman Garnet is Rick’s understudy (basically).  She is passionate about assessing learning, standards based… She writes some amazing blog posts that would transform the way you think about grading.

@rggillespie Reed is an assistant principal at Kettle Run High School in Nokesville, VA.  Former SS teacher. He moderates the #vachat (Virginia Educators chat).  I often peek in and/or participate in the #vachat if I have time, the topics are always something meaningful to me.

@akamscrowley She is a high school English teacher. Bestcollegerankings.org put her in the top 100 leaders in Edtech and Elearning.  She’s in with several others on this list.

@casas_jimmy Jimmy is certainly one of the nations leading principals.  He is an excellent principal in Iowa.  He moderates #iaedchat, which was one of the first state-wide chats for educators. You do not have to be in the state to participate in these chats.  #iaedchat is very popular and usually fast-paced.

@TonySinanis He’s the principal at Cantiague Elementary.  He was once the elementary principal of the year.  He and @JoeSanfellipofc wrote the book on the power of school branding and telling your story.

@stumpteacher Josh was the 2012 Illinois teacher of the year.   I got my “thinking wall” idea from Josh.

@gcouros George is the division principal of innovative teaching and learning.  He’s a consultant and speaker at large Edcamps all over.

@scottcapro Middle school math teacher that FLIPs his class.  Great resource for flipping the classroom.

@ajpodchaski  He is the director of technology for a K-12 school. #edtechchat moderator, also a very popular chat and fast paced.

@shink10 Oliver is one of my favorite follows.  He is simply passionate about learning.  He’s a co-founder of compassion-based learning.  I believe he’s still a “regular” teacher like many of us.  Great guy and great sense of humor.  Sometimes uses sarcasm in his tweets.

@joe_mazza Joe is passionate about leadership and family engagement in education.  He’s the moderator of #ptchat  Great resource for parent-teacher conferences, orientations, and all things related to parent-community engagement.

@suptlisa Lisa is a proud public school administrator.

@andycinek Andy is an Edutopia blogger.  If you’ve read some things from Edutopia, you probably read his stuff.  He’s the director of technology in his school district.

@neil_macneil Neil is a principal at Ashern Central School in CA.  He helped me along the journey to standards based grading.  Shared his email and other math teachers emails so I could connect with them and ask questions, etc.  Great guy and definitely impacted my practice.

@donald_gately Donald met with us yesterday via Google Hangout. He’s a great principal with a great story about how he started making connections and building his own PLN.

@tomwhitby Connected educator advocate. I’ve shared some of his stuff before.  I wanted to have him video-in with us yesterday but he was flying to a conference at the time we needed him.  He offered to hangout with us next time.

@kylefcs Kyle was with us in the Google docs session yesterday.  He’s the expert on all things Google in my opinion.  He’s a tech coordinator for his school in Philly now.

@thomascmurray Thomas is the director of tech and cyber ed in his school district. He was one of my first follows.  He also moderates #edtechchat one of the most popular chats on Twitter.  Secretary of Education Arne Duncan guest moderated #edtechchat earlier this fall.

@kristenswanson Kristen is on the Edcamp Foundation board and has been influential in helping me plan Edcamp Parkersburg.  She’s a researcher, consultant, adjunct faculty member, etc. now.

@gregbagby

@web20classroom

@kylepace Google Certified teacher, Instructional tech specialist in MA.

@alfiekohn

@flippedschool Gregory Green was the creator of the first flipped high school.

@E-Sheninger Eric Shenninger was one of my first follows. He’s made a tremendous impact on me. His previous school in New Milford New Jersey (principal) is incredible.  He is a must follow.  He will respond to your tweet.  He now works with Scholastic and the International Center for Leadership in Education.  He’s the most sought after speaker on all things digital leadership.

Here are some of my great friends from Ohio:

@vroom6 Craig is the principal at Hilliard Weaver Middle School.

@jacki_prati Jacki is an elementary principal in the Hilliard City Schools district just outside of Columbus, OH.

@McLane_Ryan Ryan is the principal at Big Walnut Intermediate in Sunbury, OH.

@Bobby__Dodd Bobby is the principal at Gahanna Lincoln High School

@Dwight_Carter Dwight is the principal at New Albany High School

@drneilgupta Neil is the director of Assessment and Programming, New Albany Plain Local Schools

@KentPolen Kent is the superintendent of Beaver Local Schools

@ericlowe21 Eric is the principal at Beaver Local Middle School

@mjeveritt Megan is a 6th grade ELA and SS teacher at Big Walnut Intermediate

@mrwheeler Sean is a trailblazer and an ELA teacher in Lakewood, OH.

Last, follow your local colleagues.  No one knows the trenches that you’re in better than our local colleagues.  There’s a growing number of us who are out there getting connected, sharing, and learning.  Find them! @mr_oldfield

There are over 30 educators in this list.  I didn’t intend for it to be so long, it was hard for me to choose the most influential.  But if you follow all or a few of these, you’ll feel an immediate impact on your own practice.  This list would be a good place to start.

All of these individuals have impacted me in some way.  If you follow, you can always unfollow if you feel they aren’t offering something you’re interested in or passionate about.I’m sure there are more questions about using Twitter.  Hopefully this will get a few started if you’re interested at all.  We had an excellent session with Donald and Jimmy yesterday.  Feedback I heard from staff that was involved was great.  They definitely laid out a great case for the purpose of getting connected in some way and what it can provide to have individuals like this available at the fingertips for advice, support, resources, etc.I really enjoyed Jimmy’s charge to all of us to support each other in figuring out this PLN process together.  It holds tremendous potential for everyone individually and for our school.