Follow My Journey in
CEP 811:
By: Emily Leinwand
This week I explored my Twitter Handle. I have only used Twitter for school assignments, I would not call myself an avid tweeter. I feel this way because I attended a twitter chat in the past and it did not go well. I know that Twitter is a huge social media platform. As a teacher it is important to be in the now and try new technology tools that could one day be shared to students for their use in the classroom. For these reasons I went into the assignment with an open mind.
For my Twitter chat I followed #MICHED and decided to participate in their chat on Wednesday's. They had just recently switched to a slow chat. I was excited about this because the last chat I was in was very confusing and everything happened so fast. Surprisingly when I got to the slow chat, I realized I liked the fast chats better. No one was tweeting when I needed information for a time sensitive project. It was difficult to get a responses back. I also felt like I did not receive information from a variety of people. I was only talking to one or two people the entire time. I wish I had responses from a plethora of people to receive information about my topic from different points of views. In the twitter chat we talked about conferences. This was very helpful for me because I had conferences two weeks later from the chat. I was excited to get any tips and tricks for a first time teacher not only holding conferences but virtual conferences which was a first for everyone. I asked how about any strategies I could use to make sure my parents showed up to conferences. We talked about systems to keep track of conferences and how to handle parent reminders. I was extremely apprehensive because we were still virtual due to the pandemic for classes and our conferences were being held virtually as well. My students did not show up for online class, so I was very worried about parents showing up for conferences. After the chat I felt like I got some great ideas. One was to send friendly reminders the night before and the hour before the conference. Another was to keep track of who showed up for their conference and who did not, so that I could reach out later to find another time to meet. Lastly I learned that parents might be nervous to show up to conferences because even though their students have been online for 9 weeks, they have not. I completely forgot about this feeling for parents. I was reminded to post a video about how to navigate our google classroom. I wanted parents to feel welcome for their conference. I also made it clear that I was a phone call away if they had any issues logging on. I wanted parents to come to conferences no matter what, and I was not going to let any technical issues stop us. After using the twitter slow chat I would recommend this resource to others. Even though I would have preferred receiving information faster, twitter chats are extremely helpful. At any moment when you feel like you need resources, ideas, or advice I now know I can hop onto a twitter chat. It feels completely comforting to be given advice from other teachers and administrators who have gone through the same thoughts and feelings. It is extremely cool to think about how you can connect with a community from all over the world about the same topic. As a teacher it is important for me to constantly be learning new things and grasping new ideas to try in the classroom. I want my students to always learn and as a role model I will do the same thing. I feel that I will keep twitter chats in my back pocket to support me whenever I am in a crisis.
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Emily LeinwandHello! Come follow me through my MAET program at Michigan State University. I am so excited to learn more about technology and how I can use it in my second grade classroom! Archives |