Twitter

Twitter is a "micro-blogging" social media website that lets you share quick updates (140 characters or less) with a potentially worldwide audience and conversely lets you connect with and see "tweets" from others around the world. It is one of the most accessible, easy-to-use, and powerful social media tools available to educators. There are many cool features and different classroom applications to this social networking site.

Getting Started with Twitter Uses for Music Class Who to Follow Resources
 * On this page:**

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Getting Started with Twitter
Anatomy of a Twitter Homepage:


 * 1) Link to your homepage
 * 2) See if anyone has followed you, tagged you in a tweet, replied to your tweets, retweeted your tweets, or favorited your tweets
 * 3) See if anyone has sent you a direct message (private message between two people) or to compose your own direct messages to others
 * 4) Compose your own tweets right from the homepage
 * 5) Refresh your news feed to show the latest tweets
 * 6) Add a photo to tweet
 * 7) Search for people, handles, topics, and/or hashtags
 * 8) Suggestions from Twitter on who to follow based on who you are already following
 * 9) Another place to compose your own tweets
 * 10) Click to view your profile
 * 11) Find your friends' Twitter handles by importing your address book
 * 12) View topics and hashtags that are "trending" at the moment, either worldwide, in your country, or in your city
 * 13) Narrow down your trending area to a country or a city
 * 14) Customize the background image and color theme for your profile

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Uses for Music Class
For some, it can seem somewhat counter-intuitive to use Twitter, or any social media, for school purposes. So why should you use Twitter in your professional life? Here are some ideas:
 * Easily share links, articles, videos, sound clips, and other media for your students to browse either in class or at home.
 * Communicate to parents and others outside the school.
 * Develop a Personal Learning Network (PLN) by "following" experts in a topic you're interested in learning more about (elementary music, Kodaly, Orff, music technology, musicals, chorus, etc.)
 * Have students reach out to experts in a particular field, such as Robert Spano when studying meter and conducting or Renee Fleming when discussing SATB voices. They may not respond, but it's worth a shot!
 * Use hashtags to follow or contribute to any topic you can think of.
 * Create Lists to categorize experts in various fields and read their tweets whenever you're interested.
 * Follow and/or contribute to one of the many Twitter chats about education that occur weekly.

There are several national, statewide, and local "Twitter chats" that occur regularly. You can follow and/or contribute to these chats using the designated hashtag, such as #edchat. Click here for a sample list of weekly Twitter chats for educators. Use tweetchat.com to make it easier to participate in one of these many Twitter chats. Enter the hashtag, follow the chat, and even add to the conversation by tweeting right from the Tweetchat hashtag "room." Storify.com allows you to archive these chats so you can always go back and look at them again later. Click here for an example of an archived #musedchat Chat on Storify about innovation in the music classroom.

You can also embed your Twitter feed onto your class website to make it easier for parents and students to see your tweets without having to visit the Twitter website or app or even follow you on Twitter. No need to manually update your feed on your website - embedding includes automatic updates. Check out an example below.

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Who to Follow

 * Fulton County Schools**:
 * Alex Burton: @burtonmusicsae
 * Kim Dahl: @NWESDahlmusic
 * David DeStefano: @musicatcces
 * Annelise Evans: @EvansMusicNotes
 * Chris Fash: @chris_fash, @npchorus, @fcchcn
 * Ariel Flinn: @msflinnmusic
 * Craig Gendreau: @medlockmusic
 * Megan Grauso: @grausomegan
 * Kathleen Ingraham: @ingrahammusic
 * Tracy Liu: @mimosamusic
 * Felice Margol: @margolfelice
 * Bronwyn Snell: @mrssnellmusic
 * Shelley Tomich: @summithillmusic
 * Jessica Weingart: @RNEmusic
 * Kristina Whitley: @MusicatMOES
 * Grace Yen: @cpes_music
 * Fulton County Schools: @FultonCoSchools


 * Music Education Resources:**
 * Amy Burns: @awillis2
 * Atlanta Symphony: @AtlantaSymphony
 * ASO Education: @ASOEducation
 * GA Department of Education: @GaDOEnews
 * GMEA: @GMEAorg
 * J.W. Pepper: @jwpepper
 * Katie Wardrobe: @katiesw1
 * NAfME: @NAfME
 * Quaver Music: @QuaverMusic
 * U.S. Department of Education: @usedgov

Want to find more people to follow? One easy trick is to go to the profile of someone you are already following and browse //their// "following" lists to find new people and handles.

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Resources

 * Twitter Support
 * [|Pitch Publications: Twitter for PLN]
 * 50 Terrific Twitter Tutorials for Teachers
 * Getting Started Printable Handout

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