Thing 4: Twitter, Facebook and Personal Learning Networks

When twitter first came out I immediately joined. At first, I did it just because it was new and cool. I didn't really use it for anything productive. It lost its luster after a while and I sort of pushed it aside. As I begin to look for more ways to communicate with parents things we do in the classroom as a whole I turned to twitter to do so. I find it so easy to snap a picture and tweet it out. Parents can then see in real time, what their child is doing that day. Twitter also has provided me with a way to network with other teachers and see what they are doing in their classrooms. It provides me with new insights and ideas to incorporate into my own teaching. Twitter also gives me the unique opportunity to communicate with other teaching professionals, besides teachers, to enhance my craft. 
I haven't really delved deep into twitter besides tweeting, retweeting and tagging in my posts. I decided to check out the advanced search option. I never new this existed so I was excited to try it out. Currently, my first graders are learning about non-fiction text features as well as working on their own non-fiction writing. I searched "non-fiction" and "1st grade" and the amount of tweets that came back was crazy! It allowed me to explore what teachers were posting as well as follow other 1st grade teachers that I would otherwise have never connected with. Some tweets also contained digital tools teachers were using to display student work and/or for students to  heir work that also lead me to do some more learning and investigating. The advanced search option is something that I plan to continue to use in the future.