I Heart Twitter

Photo Credit: Pixabay 

There are so many ways to refer to the hashtag: the number sign, the pound key, or my most recent favorite, a sharp (if you have a music background).  This little symbol has taken social media by storm, and I love it.  I'm crushing on Twitter right now.

I admit that, as a rule, I really don't care for social media, and I didn't have a Twitter account until I made one for this institute.  I'm still new at using it, but from what I've seen so far, I adore it.  It's so wonderful to follow news in this way, and I appreciate that everything I'm interested in is in one central place.

This is going to be a gold mine for my students, and I'm anxious to see how it will work in my classroom.  I want to have all of my newspaper students use Twitter to help get people connected back to and reading, our newspaper.  I think, if used correctly, it will be helpful in increasing readership and getting the student body invested in the newspaper.

For this next year, I am also going to require all of my students (not just those who manage the newspaper's account) to create a Twitter account.  I am appalled at how little my students know about what's going on in the world around them, and I've tried to encourage them to follow the news, and they never do.  I find that ironic when they are bringing news to the school, and they don't follow the news themselves.  I even give news quizzes to hold them accountable, and most students are ok with failing them.

But, in using Twitter, they can have all sorts of local and international news as well as all the fun stuff in one place.  This will get their news centralized and possibly on their phones where I hope they'll check it more often to be more informed.  I'm looking at it as a way to trick them into reading the news.

Does anyone have any pointers on using Twitter with students?  Has anyone tried this before?  I'd love any and all input.

Emily Sell

Bingham High School

South Jordan, Utah