Twitter is a powerful tool to leverage discussions outside of the classroom walls and for educators to network and collaborate. Come join the teachers who have taken the Twitter journey in transforming their classroom and modeling life long learning. You will not regret it! #ccss15

Photo Credit: Sandy Kendell (@EdTechSandyK)

Twitter will issue you a default egg as your avatar. Replace this with either a picture of yourself, school logo, or some other image. Some people are weary of following eggs, be proud and make your mark!

• Tweet- Twitter message limited to 140 characters
  
• Twitter Feed- running list of tweets
  
• @/Twitter Handle- person or organization's user name on Twitter beginning with @. This will populate your Tweet in their notifications. If you start a tweet with @ only the person you are Tweeting and other people you know who also follow the use will be able to view the Tweet.
  
• . - Place a period at the beginning of a Tweet with a person's Twitter handle to make it viewable to all of your followers.
• Reply- Click the arrow to respond to someone's Tweet and engage in conversation
• RT- Retweet: Add RT at the beginning of a re-posting of someone else's Tweet.
• MT- Modified Retweet: Add MT at the beginning of a re-posting of someone else's Tweet that you have modified.
• DM- Direct Message: Send a private message to a follower. The recipient MUST be a follower of yours to send a message that only they will be able to view.
• URL shortener- characters are precious. Use a URL shortener such a Google, Bit.ly, or Tiny URL to consolidate characters.
• #/Hashtags- Target your message to certain communities be including the relevant # in your tweet. Users who regularly search or utilize Twitter clients such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite have columns set up to track hashtags. Hashtags are also useful when looking for resources on a certain topic or following Tweets of conferences. Hashtags are crucial when following and engaging in a Twitter chat. You can also establish one for your class to tag information for your students or their responses.

#sschat- General Social Studies

#sstlap- Social Studies Teach Like a Pirate ideas & resources

#hsgovchat- Government

#wrldchat- World History

#ushistory- US History

#econchat-Economics

#historyteacher- General History

#geography- Geography

#psychchat- Psychology

#socialstudies- Social Studies

#WHAPchat- AP World History

#edchat- Education

#ccss- Common Core

#pbl- Project Based Learning

#edtech- Educational Technology

#flipclass- Flipped Classroom

#elemteachers- Elementary Education

#ell- English Language Learners

#literacy- Literacy

#hsgovchat- Sundays 6-7 pm PST

#sschat- Mondays 4-5 pm PST

#flipclass- Mondays 5-6 pm PST

#edtechchat- Mondays 5-6 pm PST

#pblchat- Tuesdays 5-6 pm PST

#sstlap- Thursdays 6-7 pm PST

#inquirychat- Every other Thursday 6-7 pm PST

Twitter chats are easily followed using a Twitter Client. Three popular ones are Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, and TweetChat.

Now you may be thinking, how am I going to remember all of the information in a chat, how do I save Tweets from a class activity, or how can I save tweets from a conference? There is a way... Storify. Storify allows you to save Tweets by people or hashtag to archive a conversation. This story can be printed out, shared with administration, students, or parents, or even embedded.

Here's an example of how I used Storify to archive my students' participation in a #hsgovchat with White House NPR correspondent Tamara Keith.

Another great idea is to use Twitter for review outside of the classroom and save the discussion for students to go back to. Here is how Tara Becker-Utess broke down her classroom walls.

Many educational chats archive their discussions. This allows you to go back to a chat that you may have missed, review all of the tweets, and refer back to when lesson planning for specific resources and ideas. Here are some noteworthy History chat archives.

I'm a high school history teacher passionate about integrating technology into my classroom and have flipped AP US History, AP Government, and World History classes. I am the Classroom Technology blogger for the California Council for the Social Studies. Life long learning is a passion of mine and sharing resources and my experiences in the classroom. If interested in bringing this presentation or training on the Common Core and the History Classroom contact me.

Email: ramosteched@gmail.com
Website: lizramosedresources.weebly.com
Twitter: @historytechie