Twitter in Kindergarten

Hello Readers, it's Mrs. Lowe writing tonight. I want to talk about TWITTER!

When I first started using Twitter, I thought it was basically Facebook, but with only the status updates. I joined up and began using it to follow friends, celebrities and athletes. I mostly tweeted about where I was hanging out, working out and what I was eating. 

Last year I started noticing more and more teachers joining Twitter. At first I was hesitant to begin mixing my personal and professional life. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough to contribute and I didn't want to have to hide my personal life.

This summer I did some major re-design in my classroom which inspired some serious reflection on my teaching beliefs and practice as well. I wanted to share some of my thinking and found Twitter to be an excellent place to share and learn from other teachers. I also learned that all of those teachers are real people too.

Before I knew it I was forming a PLN (professional learning network) of teachers from all over the world.  Teachers post links to articles and resources. We share projects we are working on in our classrooms.  We are able to ask questions and get almost immediate feedback. We are able to meet online at designated times to discuss current topics in education. It is an outstanding source of professional development and community that has changed my world as a teacher.

Throughout this school year I have noticed more and more teachers opening Twitter accounts for their classes. I have seen Early Years students using Twitter to reflect on their learning, share their experiences, follow what other students are doing in other classrooms, collaborate on projects with other students, ask questions and get feedback and more!

My Plan

In the next few weeks I hope to begin using Twitter with my kindergarten students. We will begin with an introduction to Twitter as a form of “micro-blogging.” Each tweet must be 140 characters or less. Like on our blog, we will compose our tweets together and talk about what is safe to share and what is not safe to share. We will follow some of the classrooms that we have met through blogging and Skype. Our Twitter feed will be displayed on our blog so that all of our readers can see what we’re up to, whether they are on Twitter or not.

Over time, I would like to see my students composing and posting their own tweets (with teacher supervision). I hope that my students will continue to have opportunities to write for an audience and a purpose. I hope they will begin to learn about what it means to be a responsible digital citizen. And I hope that through Twitter we can continue to expand the walls of our classroom.

If you would like to see an example of Kindergarten students using Twitter, please check out this blog post by respected Kindergarten teacher, Devon Caldwell. 

Tips and Tricks for Tweeting in Kindergarten