Why do we tweet?

I began using Twitter in the classroom after attending and presenting at the ICE (Illinois Computing Educators) conference last year.  I learned about the impact it can have in many areas of the classroom.  Those areas include communication with families, communication with other schools and communication with the world.


I started tweeting with my students about a year ago.  I started small.  We just made tweets about our day for our families.  We started making connections with other classrooms, but nothing too big.  I learned the “ins and outs” of tweeting and felt comfortable enough to tweet with my students once a day.


My tweeting with students has grown from that beginning.  This school year we have taken our tweeting to another level.  My students are showcasing their learning, connecting with classrooms and talking with people around the world.  They are learning literacy and math skills with summarizing information, keeping a tweet to 140 characters or less and composing messages to people. They are also learning information that would have never been available to them if we were not tweeting.  Not to mention, they have crowned themselves hashtag experts and enjoy teaching the rest of the school!


I took some screen shots of some of our amazing interactions just over the past few weeks on Twitter.  The possibilities of what a classroom can learn and get out of Twitter are endless!

Resort in Africa tweeted us after seeing that we were wondering about elephants.

Waste Management responded to us after reading a book about a garbage collector.

Rumpke responded to us after reading a book about a garbage collector.

Another first grade classroom tweeted about us after playing Mystery Skype with us.

Shedd Aquarium responded to us after we tweeted them about their penguin chick.

We tweeted asking for words that begin with -oy or -oi and got a great response.

We tweeted Brookfield Zoo after reading about George Washington and elephant tusks.

We tweeted Lincoln Park Zoo after reading about George Washington and elephant tusks.