Top 4 Reasons for Superintendents & Principals to Send Shout Out Tweets

Educators increasingly recognize the power of using Twitter for professional learning. Let’s not overlook how superintendents and principals can use Twitter to give digital shout outs.

1.     Shout Out tweets tell people that their work matters. Teachers work incredibly hard, but often are underappreciated. Use Twitter as another means of acknowledging and celebrating teachers’ work, letting them know that they are significant and appreciated.

2.     Shout Out tweets provide other teachers great ideas. Use Twitter to provide great ideas for projects or lessons to other teachers in your school or district. Highlighting projects and lessons that relate closely to the instructional vision of your school or district generates momentum as you collaborate to realize your shared instructional vision.

3.     Shout Out tweets provide inspiration. Use Twitter to send the message to teachers that they can implement similar lessons. The message is that a teacher down the hall or across town can implement a particular approach and they can too.

4.     Shout Out tweets help build a sense of shared vision. So often teachers within a district or even within the same school lack a sense of common purpose. Shout out tweets that relate to your school or district’s instructional vision help people make connections between their work and the work of others in their school or district.

My tweets often relate to our district’s vision for transformative learning. The tweets highlight students

·        making a difference locally, nationally, or globally as they learn the content and skills of the curriculum;

·        creating a product, performance or exhibition for an audience beyond their teacher;

·        collaborating with peers, parents, outside experts, and/or other adults in addition to the teacher; and

·        using technology to improve the quality and amplify the impact of their work.

Share slidedecks of tweets at School Board meetings, parent events, or faculty meetings in order to provide additional acknowledgement, celebration, and inspiration. As you share a slidedeck, comment on what you have observed and how it connects to the shared vision of the school or district.

Avoid featuring students in tweets who do not have a media release form on file authorizing the release of their photograph.

So, superintendents and principals, keep on using Twitter to connect with your personal learning network, but don’t underestimate the power of Twitter for giving digital shout outs.