Observe dozens classrooms at once with a district Twitter challenge

3/14/2018

This work is a derivative of "Chromebooks in Action" by Kevin Jarrett used under CC BY 2.0

Recently, my school district's District Professional Development Committee (DPDC) hosted its third annual #C6Learns Twitter Challenge. I love everything about the few weeks out of the year that we facilitate this Twitter challenge, but most of all, I appreciate the opportunity to peak into classrooms that I might not get to visit regularly. One of the great bits of learning I had a chance to peak in on this year was teachers sharing how they are currently using Google tools with their students.

At the end of the first week of this year's 10 day Twitter challenge we asked teachers how they utilized Google tools in their classrooms throughout the week. For me, this is an important question to ask during a Twitter challenge. Through this prompt, I am able to see how the PD I have deployed to teachers has been implemented and where there may be hotspots of technology integration that I might not know about yet.

This day of of Twitter challenge also helps me find teachers to develop partnerships with to increase the level of student engagement in edtech activities. Each year of the Twitter challenge, I am afforded the opportunity to partner with teachers I otherwise would not have reached due to my district's size. Those new partnerships help everyone. Students. Teachers. And, me.

With that being said, let's do a quick observation of 35 classrooms to see how teachers and students utilize Google tools in a typical week.

#C6Learns Day 5 - Curated tweets by JPPrezz

2 Comments

Categories

Custom Stickers, Die Cut Stickers, Bumper Stickers - Sticker Mule

Marisa link

4/22/2018 06:12:07 pm

Hi JP!

This is such an awesome idea! Thanks for sharing! I would be interested in running something like this with the international schools in Hong Kong! How did you build awareness of this within your district?

Also what was the process you used-create a hashtag and post daily challenges that teachers in the district could respond to?

Thanks again :)

Marisa

JP Prezzavento link

4/24/2018 06:05:44 am

Hi Marisa!

Thanks for reading and commenting on this post. We have held this challenge for the past three years, but I started the #C6Learns hashtag shortly after I started working as the technology coordinator. It rolled out slowly. First, I started using it and asking other connected educators in the district to use it. Then, as I went around for PD events, I always included a slide with the hashtag and I have even done a few workshops on getting started with Twitter where we had mini Twitter chats using that hashtag.

For our annual challenge, my PD director sends out the schedule a week ahead of time and principals post the schedule in the staff lounge and work room for teachers to see. We also push this out through our DPCD with infographics, blog posts, and tutorials on how to get started with Twitter.

If I were to start this whole process over again three years ago, I would have started the challenge by having set days where educators signed up for Twitter and started to follow key accounts (district, superintendent, schools, etc).

Hopefully that helps! Feel free to reach out if you'd like to chat more about this.