Twitter for Teachers

I was recently asked -- on twitter -- who to follow for a professional twitter account. The fact is, twitter is a great way to stay current and get ideas for the classroom. I know many teachers who rely on pinterest or Teachers Pay Teachers for their teaching inspiration, but twitter can also be a great resource.

The first thing to say is that I'm not talking about using twitter with the students. There are all sorts of legal and ethical issues that get involved there, so that's an entirely separate issue that will take more than a blog post to discuss. I'm talking about creating a place where you can find people who inspire you in your work. Technically, this is called a "professional learning network," or PLN. But really, it's just following the right accounts on twitter.

Which brings us back to the starting question: who should you follow? Ironically, that's a hard question to answer on twitter. There used to be something called "Follow Friday," where twitter users would tweet:

Then everyone who followed you would add these people to their followers, and twitter networks would grow.

It doesn't really work that way anymore. So I'm writing this post for two reasons: one, so that you, my reader, can give twitter a try and have some people to consider following, and two, so that any time anyone asks me for some follow recommendations, I can send them here.

So, first, how do you get started on twitter? Click below to get some tips.

And, finally, who should you follow? Personally, I like (and therefore recommend) the following as my "top ten":

• George Couros (@gcouros) Educational innovator, author of The Innovator's Mindset, and general "big ideas" guy.
• Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) Google guru -- lots of tips and tricks for Google Drive and related tools.
• Eric Sheninger (@E_Sheninger) Former principal, educational leader. Ideas for innovation.
• Dave Burgess (@burgessdave) Author of Teach Like a Pirate and energetic educator.
• John Krownapple (@Jkrownapple) Cultural Proficiency and equity expert.
• Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) Teacher, Google Certified Innovator, and author of Ditch That Textbook. 
• Jeff Nelson (@JeffNelsonTLI) Educator and executive director of Teaching-Learning-Innovation.
• Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby) High school, middle school, and college teacher and founder of #EdChat
• Bill Ferriter (@plugusin) Raleigh educator and prolific tweet and blogger
• Outlaw Innovation (@DrLOutlaw) Educator who tends to retweet some of the best ideas on twitter.

And a bonus: Consider following CCS Tech Camp for retweets of these and others, as well as insights and announcements from our own district.