Using Twitter at School

Our school uses Twitter a lot. Here are some examples of how we use it....

-Our school hashtag is #HHSiBucs. Staff and students "tag" their tweets whenever the news is school-related. (Update: At the time of writing this post, the hashtag was #HHSiBucs. Since then, it has changed to #HooverPride)

-Holly Sutherland (another administrator) and I use it when we visit classrooms to share what students and teachers are doing

-When a student receives a Praise Referral, I take his/her picture and tweet the accomplishments

-At our school-wide Curriculum Night, we showed the #HHSiBucs twitter stream on a huge screen in the cafeteria during the meetings. Parents, students, and staff tweeted during the night

-We take pictures at assemblies, athletic events, meetings, etc. and share via Twitter

-Holly shares a motivational quote each school day

-We share links to our school's Engaged Learning Initiative blog (Update: Blog is no longer active)

-The librarians tweet library happenings and events

-Each Monday night, Holly and I host #ALedchat from 9-10pm CST where we connect with educators from Alabama and all over the country

-Teachers share what their students are doing in class via twitter

Here's what one of our teachers did in his English class...he had music playing while the students entered class. He then asked the students to tweet how the music related to the selection they had recently been reading. The tweets led the conversation and instruction for the class that day.

Another teacher created class hashtags. She held a "Twitter Chat" during class by posting questions and having the students to respond to her and each other.

Not that familiar with Twitter hashtags? Here's a great article called The Complete Guide to Twitter Hashtags in Education. 

What other ideas do you have for using Twitter at school?