Remember the Rolodex? Educators would exchange business cards with phone numbers, alphabetize them and access their contacts to help answer questions or identify resources they didn’t already have at their fingertips. People with a plethora of names and numbers could have an answer to any problem by the end of the week.

Now, with Twitter, educators use hashtags and handles to reach out to a global community and rarely have to wait more than 5 minutes for unlimited tools that can be used immediately.  Twitter has changed the way educators connect, stay current on trends and research, and how learning is shared with others.

While some teachers and school leaders are still trying to figure when to use # and how it’s different than @, others are leveraging their professional learning network through Twitter in the follow ways:

Access Experts and Authors

Want to ask Doug Fisher (@DFISHERSDSU) about close reading or Ken O’Connor (@kenoc7) about his 15 fixes for broken grades? They’re now just a tweet away. Our school district was doing a book study on Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov (@Doug_Lemov). To get teachers fired up , I thought it would be amazing if I could get a personalized message from the  author – so I tweeted him.

The tweet turned into an email exchange which led to a video he made exclusively for Saranac Community Schools naming our district and the teacher who made the suggestion for the  book study. Not only did Doug Lemov make the video, but he offered to Skype in with our teachers to contribute to our learning and respond to our connections and questions.

The same resulted with tweets to Dave Burgess (@burgessdave) months before we scheduled him to share his Teach Like a Pirate message last summer. Authors and experts are willing to share their message and connect with readers – you just have to ask.

Be in the Educational Know

Genius hour (@DonWettrick), maker spaces for writing (@angelastockman), @FlipGrid, and countless other innovavtive tips and tricks are often first exposed to educators on Twitter. Blogs like Jennifer Gonzalez (@cultofpedagogy) provide valuable classroom tips and hashtags like #leadupchat post suggestions for how to sharpen leadership skills.

Weekly Twitter chats like #HackLearning offer a new educational topic every Sunday morning at 8:30am EST. The moderator poses three questions over thirty minutes and anywhere from 500-1000 tweets come flying into the hashtag. Tweeters ask/answer questions, share resources, and offer perspective.

The greatest benefit of joining Twitter chats is the people posting are live and attentive. Sidebar conversations are welcomed to deepen knowledge and push thinking.

Share Learning with a Global Audience

Being an educator is fundamentally about sharing our own and facilitating the learning of others. Twitter provides a platform and audience where educators can synthesize learning and share with others. Affirmations are provided to validate thoughts or ideas, and often times thinking is challenged to deepen understanding and question assumptions. Tweeters are not shy about sharing articles, tools, quotes, or research findings to support their views and help others learn with them.

If you are ready to get Twitterpated, send a tweet to @conniehamilton and see how easy it is to connect.

Connie Hamilton will be presenting on twitter and a few other topics, including: Effective Classroom Questioning and Scaffolding, at the West Michigan Education Leadership Conference (WMELC) on December 11. Join her and jump into the Twitterverse, click here to reserve your seat at WMELC today! If you can’t make it face-to-face, follow #wmelc17 and connect with participants as they tweet live from the breakout sessions offered.

This blog post was written by Connie Hamilton. Connie Hamilton Ed.S. serves as K-12 curriculum director for Saranac Community Schools. She is also an educational consultant focusing on best instructional practices such as questioning, rigorous reading, visible learning, and gradual release of responsibility, teacher evaluation, and leadership. She is part of Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey's cadre providing professional learning for teachers nationally. Connie is the author of Hacking Homework and can be contacted on Twitter @conniehamilton or her website conniehamilton.net