social media connects us!

Hey there! We're continuing on with the BigTime Blogging Challenge. Today we're talking about social media and how we use it to support our teaching.

For me, my start was in blogging. I originally started this blog as a way to archive information I might need to share in the future. I had no idea BigTime Literacy would lead me to a world of collaboration!

Twitter came next. It was at 2014's Illinois Reading Council conference when Stephanie Harvey was talking about how amazing it is. So, I started an account then and there, and tweeted a thank you to her. She favorited one of my first tweets!

Since then I've been able to follow lots of great people (and I'll save that for a blog in two weeks) but there's so much great information to be had on Twitter. Articles and blog posts and quotes and even learning about what's going on in other buildings in my district. I'm remembering the kinder teachers at Irving - they had a wedding for Q and U - and I happened to see the picture of it on Twitter. The next day, with my 1:1 kiddo - I was able to talk about Q and U - and use the picture from my colleagues down the street. That is one of the amazing things about Twitter!

And then there's the Twitter Chats. The past few months I've participated in a few of them - the Good to Great chat (#G2Great) on Thursday nights and just did my first Teaches Pay Teachers chat (#tptchat) on Sunday night. Dr. Howard and teachers from the Two Writing Teachers blogs are always at the #G2Great chat, so you always make great connections at that one. The ideas that are shared and the enthusiasm are really inspiring!

To participate in a Twitter Chat, I think it's easiest on a laptop. You'll also need an account with Tweet Deck, which looks like what you see below:

Tweet Deck is a website where you can follow hashtags in real time. You'll need to use this in order to participate in the conversation. The moderator will have 5 questions, labeled Q1, Q2, Q3. The participants will answer questions with A1, A2, A3. You have to use the hast tag - think of it like a TV channel. Then, you have one of those columns in Tweet Deck tracking your chat. I know it seems complicated, but you'll catch on easily. And, the hour long Twitter Chats go so fast!

I also use Instagram pretty regularly to follow other teachers and share what's going on with my day-to-day. It's easy to post a picture quickly and share with friends! I just found out about if this then that, which can make your twitter automatically post pictures you share to instagram (and not as a link - as the actual picture!)

I've got a facebook, too, for this blog!

As you can see, I'm everywhere, learning from friends I know and new friends I don't!

What about you? How have you used Social Media with your blogging? Please share!

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