Twitter and the classroom

One of my greatest obstacles as a teacher is managing student absences and tardiness; I often find it difficult to keep up with who missed what. However, after reading the blog "60 Inspiring Examples of Twitter in the Classroom", I plan on using my newly established Twitter account to increase communication with my students. Here are some of the highlights I found extremely notable.

In terms of keeping students in the loop: "Using hashtags on Twitter, students who were not able to make it to class can follow along and stay on top of the conversation." This idea truly resonated with me because I'm constantly encouraging my high school students to exercise more independence and to take charge of their learning. With this option, we could completely skip the conversation of "what did I miss?"

Furthermore, I find myself tired of the excuse,"My partner isn't here". A student absence during a major project can greatly impact the classroom environment. OnlineUniversities.com suggests, "Instead of emailing each other or waiting to meet in class, students can collaborate on projects and keep track of changes by using a Twitter hashtag." I thoroughly enjoyed this potential use of Twitter because so much of class time is wasted when students are absent during group assignments. I often have to scramble to adjust due dates and individual responsibilities, ultimately disrupting the flow of instruction.

Next, parent contact regarding assignments and student absences can prove overwhelming. A possible solution: "Parents can sign up to receive tweets from teachers, learning about activities, tests, projects, and more." Although I do try my best to update my school web page, I find it next to impossible to keep all of the information current. Assignments and due dates are constantly changing. By using my Twitter account, parents would have instant access to any alterations in the syllabus and any missed assignments. Further opening the lines of communication keeps everyone happy and on the same page.

These three suggestions alone help ease the attendance burden.

In essence, Twitter is another means of communication between teachers, students and parents. It better connects all members of the learning community. In "Twitter Tweets for Higher Education", Doug Belshaw sums it up best: "I think Twitter could be ideal for reminding students about homework, trips and such things, especially as they can enter their mobile phone number to be alerted when one of their ‘friends’ updates their account. The advantage is that you don’t need to know the phone numbers of students to get messages onto their device: they are the ones who authorize their mobile phone from the website and they subscribe to your Twitter feed."