PLN - Twitter

Sometime during the summer of 2013 I realized that reading blogs was not enough. I had always dismissed Twitter as trivial and wasteful. I didn't care what someone had for lunch or what the last drama was out of Hollywood. But as I read more blogs I discovered I was missing out on a lot of the conversation. These same educators were communicating via Twitter and sharing even more thoughts and ideas.

So I bit the bullet, created a Twitter account, and started following those same educators. Some people have described Twitter as a firehose of thoughts and information. I don't think that does it justice! I was overwhelmed, but thrilled to see all of the new thoughts and ideas about those same subjects I was reading about in blogs.

I found out who my network was following and started following those educators. My list of ideas to try and people to follow grew exponentially! A lot of the ideas I'm trying to implement this year came from tweets in my Twitter stream.

Here is a partial list of educators that I follow and why. Most of them I can't remember how I came across, but I'm grateful for everyone because their thoughts and ideas are shaping who I am as an educator.

The first few educators I started following were the same ones whose blogs I followed. @pernilleripp, @mattBgomez, @jackiegerstein, and @KristiMeeuwse are educators that have fantastic ideas on using technology in their classrooms. Their creativity and expertise in the classroom are inspiring and continually make me think about what I am doing.


You should always follow your boss, so I started following the superintendent @PatatCCSD. Other technology gurus within my district are @dixiels, @ccsdchris, @jhoneebert, and @GrannieTech.

Since I have an interest in technology I also started following software companies such as @edmodo and @ScratchEdTeam.

No list would be complete without following @RL_Stine. I'm glad I did because he's hilarious! I love seeing an author's personality come out in their tweets!

I have many others that I follow on Twitter for personal as well as professional reasons. If you are on Twitter, who do you follow that makes you a better educator? If you're not on Twitter, who do you wish you could follow?