There is no right or wrong way to use Twitter, but as a teacher, you want to set a good example for students and for other teachers, so think wisely about what you tweet and how you interact with others.
When using Twitter, your activity will mostly consist of composing tweets, quoting tweets, retweeting, liking tweets, following accounts and direct messaging.
Starting a new Twitter account may seem confusing and overwhelming at first, but here are some examples of content you can share in order to set the tone of your account.
Composing tweets
In order to send a tweet, you need to click on the blue icon with a quill or if you’re using a computer, you can use the ‘tweet’ button or box at the top of the page. You only have 280 characters, which you can monitor via the blue circle below the tweet, so make sure your tweet is short and concise.
If you have a lot to say about one subject, then you can add another tweet (known as a thread) by replying to your own tweet or by clicking the plus button below the tweet you are typing.
Tweet Ideas
Here is an example of something you can tweet. It could either be in relation to an event, holiday, news article or just a comment regarding your teaching endeavours.
Be sure to include the following in order to reach various audiences and to make sure your tweet gets noticed!
Hashtags
These are used to find tweets relating to your search term (such as #AQABiology). Make sure to capitalise each word in the hashtag as this makes longer hashtags easier to read and also ensures that screen reader software reads out each word separately.
Mentions
When you type the ‘@’ button, names of users you frequently interact with will come up, but you can also use this to reference others in a tweet if it regards other individuals, such as your colleagues.
Photos and media
Photos, videos and GIFs add a nice touch to make your tweets visually pleasing. These will grab your followers’ attention and will particularly attract your younger audience.
Polls
Polls are a great interactive tool for all users. They are particularly useful for lesson planning and collecting opinions from your followers, so that you can improve your teaching ideas. They are completely anonymous too.
Retweeting
Retweeting is very easy. When you see a tweet which looks as though it is worth sharing and is of interest to you, simply click the button with two arrows which turn green as you hover over it. For some users, this may be the preferred way to use Twitter, as you may be using it to share articles and media content, as a means of informing others.
Quote tweeting
When you retweet a tweet, you will be given the option to retweet or quote tweet. Quote tweeting allows you to add a comment to someone else's tweet, whilst making it your own.
Replying
When you see a tweet that gets your attention and you want to add a comment, you can reply by click the speech button on the left of the tweet. Unlike quote tweeting, replying is more subtle and would typically be used to start/join a conversation or to express your thoughts.
Likes
Liking tweets is a popular function which saves the tweets you enjoy in the likes section of your profile. In contrast to retweeting, likes are not visible on your profile when someone visits your profile page. Likes are a great way to acknowledge someone’s tweet and to look back on tweets you might want to use for future reference.
Trending tweets
A big feature of Twitter is checking and refreshing the Trending section, which contains news stories and the most talked about topics happening worldwide (or you can change this to your location of choice).
The Trending page is split into sections such as news, sports and entertainment, however Twitter also compiles hashtags based on accounts you follow and tweets you engage with. When you click on a Trending topic, you will be redirected to tweets from users using hashtags or words relating to that topic.
This is a very useful and easy way to stay in touch with current affairs and to gain an understanding on what is currently relevant and popular in the world.