Twitter is an excellent site for building your professional learning network, as many top educators and educational institutions regularly tweet to share great resources — even the U.S. Department of Education has a Twitter account to share the latest education news!
There are experts that you can follow on Twitter for every teaching topic. The following are some of the more prolific Twitter users organized by subject area specialty. Keep in mind that this is only a small pool of the many active users that you can follow. Still, by starting to follow a few knowledgeable users, you will soon become connected with many more master educators who can help you build your learning network.
New Teachers
Lisa Dabbs (@teachingwthsoul) is the founder of the new teacher chat on twitter (hashtag #ntchat), which occurs on Wednesday evenings from 8 to 9 EST or 5 to 6 PST. A former elementary school principal and current consultant for Edutopia, Lisa tweets about topics ranging from free webinars to job opportunities.
Special Education
Ellen Seidman (@LoveThatMax) is the mother of a child with special needs, an editor, and blogger extraordinaire. While she is a great resource on Twitter for parents, she also tweets on inclusion, assistive technology and specific disabilities.
Another special education resource is the
#spedchat Project. Weekly chats are held on Tuesday nights from 8:30 to 9:30 EST, but Twitter users regularly share resources and news by using the hashtag.
EFL/TESOL/ELT
Marisa Constantinides (@Marisa_C) moderates an ELT chat every Wednesday afternoon (hashtag #ELTchat). She runs CELT Athens and is also a published author on ELT topics. She tweets about grammar instruction, lesson planning and other relevant topics.
English/Language Arts
Meno Rami (@meenoorami) is a founder and moderator of #engchat, a weekly Twitter chat for English teachers. A National Board Certified teacher, Meno tweets about writing strategies, technology, reading resources and other language arts topics.
Math
Colin Graham (@ColinTGraham)is involved in Twitter’s #mathchat, a weekly Twitter chat for math instructors, and commonly tweets idea on how to make math interesting for students. (He also sometimes tweets about music, one of his other passions!)
Science
Master science instructor and white board trainer Danny Nicholson (@dannynic) often tweets about the integration of technology into science instruction, including with the use of apps. Science teachers can also turn to #scichat on Tuesday nights.
Social Studies
A teacher and designer of online courses, Beth Still (@BethStill) is quick witted and regularly shares the projects her own students are working on. She also often integrates Skype and Twitter into her lesson plans.
The Arts
Program coordinator for the Community Arts Partnerships at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Lynn Blasey (@jlypio35) tweets about music, visual art and even job opportunities.
Elementary Education
Like many of the other subject areas, there is an #elemchat for elementary education teachers. Dominic P. Tremblay (@d_tremblay) is a curriculum consultant and elementary school teacher from Canada who regularly shares his resources, especially those involving technology.
Technology
A senior consultant with NoTosh, Tom Barrett (@tombarrett) is the ultimate source on the creative use of technology in the classroom for any grade level.
Administrators
An award-winning principal from New Jersey, Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_Principal) shares resources that appeal to both teachers and administrators. He discusses student motivation strategies, issues that affect teachers, like evaluation systems, and hosts his own webinars.
This article was written by Social Media Outreach Coordinator, Sarah Fudin on behalf of CAREEREALISM-Approved Partner, 2tor – an education-technology company that partners with institutions of higher education such as USC to deliver theirSpecial Education programsonline.Mr Pics / Shutterstock.com
