Why Twitter? Part 1

[This is the first in a series of posts about why Twitter should be unblocked for teachers in the Minneapolis Public Schools and why Twitter should play a role in every teachers personal professional development. Many teachers are already part of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) but this concept needs to be expanded.]

On Twitter, I was recently followed by @PaulV8. Here's PaulV8's bio from Twitter:

Husband, Father, H.S. AVID and English Teacher

This is the message that PaulV8 sent me shortly after following me:

@learnteachtech might you have anything to stress the difference between summary and reflection?my #avid students don't get it.

I sent him a Tweet about it and said I would turn it into a blog post. You can read the post here.

How does this lead me to suggest that Twitter should be unblocked for teachers in the Minneapolis Public Schools?

Through Twitter, I was contacted by another AVID teacher thousands of miles away. We were able to collaborate. We shared ideas. We connected. I'll certainly look to PaulV8 if I need something AVID related.

But, it doesn't stop there. PaulV8 shared my blog post with his students (I gave permission for this, I was honored). They read it in class. In response to what I wrote, several students posted comments on my blog about what the blog meant to them and how it impacted the learning in an AVID class in Florida. I was able to respond to some of the comments. My next step is to have some of the AVID students in my classroom respond to what I wrote and to the comments from Florida.

Twitter has fostered a cross country connection between two AVID classrooms, improved learning for a group of students and added a valuable member to my PLN. Just one reason, of many, that is driving me to have Twitter unblocked in the Minneapolis Public Schools.

Next up: 24 Hours in Twitter Learning