Documenting Children's Learning Using Instagram Reels

It was my absolute pleasure speak as keynote at the Canadian Early Mathematics Education Conference in quaint Kingston, Ontario on August 22, 2022. In addition to being able to stroll the downtown area and marvel at the beautiful campus of Queen's University, I meet many amazing educators who connected with me regarding early math learning, humbled me with kind comments about my work, and fascinated me with interesting questions regarding the teaching and learning of mathematics in the early years.

 

My presentation focused on sharing stories from my classroom in hopes of inspiring educators to consider how they might create opportunities for joyful math in all areas including art, literacy, the classroom environment, routines, and outdoor learning. I also shared information regarding the documentation I collect regarding math learning and how children can help co-create this documentation as part of assessment process. 

Throughout my presentation I shared many Instagram reels that I had created this past school year. These were often meant to be quick, easy and entertaining ways to make the learning visible for children, families and the community. I embedded the clips throughout the presentation to help highlight specific ways math could easily be integrated into other subject areas. I also spoke to how Instagram reels could be used as a form of documentation.

I was not surprised that the majority of conversations I had with educators after my presentation were regarding Instagram reels. Many people were curious to learn more. As a result I thought it might be helpful to blog about this and share the ideas beyond the conference.

There are many reasons why I would encourage any educator to consider creating reels as a form of communication regarding learning and special events happening in the classroom. I can think of many more, but here are my top ten:

1. Instagram reels are an engaging way to share information in a format that appeals to a viewer's senses and emotions. Catchy sound effects, music, text, stickers, hashtags and filters can be used to enhance photos and videos that help amplify the message you are hoping to send. In this reel I'm hoping to show in a humorous way how messy kindergarten children can get when exploring the outdoors, and that it's normal and healthy.

2. Instagram reels can help educators share best practices with others using social media, helping them reach beyond their immediate learning community and idea share with many others. I like to post reels that explain teaching strategies or that challenge traditional ideas or routines that others might be curious about. For example here is a reel that encourages educators to think beyond traditional 'calendar' during morning message.

3. Instagram reels can help explain the steps behind a specific activity so others can try it themselves. This way of explaining the process appeals to visual learners who would rather watch a video than read steps. The size of reels also mean that the instructions should be succinct. This reel explains how to create textured watercolours using simple materials.

4. Instagram reels can help educators unpack activities for families and the community so the learning can be made visible. This might be especially helpful for experiences that families might be unsure about including messy sensory experiences. I tried to use this reel to explain the rich learning that happens in mud play.

5. Instagram reels can help change a viewer's perception of a non-preferred subject or task. For example I try to use reels to show the beauty and wonder of mathematics because so many people still default to their negative experiences and consider it a cold and solitary experience. I want to portray math as beautiful and interconnected to nature and our everyday experiences. This reel shows a few examples of math integrated in areas of the classroom.

6. Instagram reels can be co-created with children and used as a form of communication to provide a summary of the week's experiences. They can very effectively replace weekly newsletters or bulletins meant to share news from the classroom. Children can suggest clips to include and educators can chose salient videos that highlight the rich learning that has occurred. This reel highlights some of the events that happened in one week in the spring.

7. Instagram reels can be used to give families and the community tours of the classroom and other school spaces. I have shared tours of my classroom during kindergarten registration when potential families are viewing the school, during Covid closures so families could virtually step into their children's learning space, and also as a way to share with other educators who might be looking for new ways of organizing their space. This reel is a flashback to a previous classroom I had in hopes the ideas sparked conversations and starting points for educators.

8. Instagram reels are a fun way to share a bit about yourself to your school community. I like to create a few personal ones that show my interests, pets and family in order to humanize me to my school community and make myself relatable. This definitely depends on one's comfort level to allow others to take a small step into your life and might not be for everyone. This reel was created on a sunny, lazy Sunday in my backyard.

9.  Instagram reels help educators connect with a 'professional learning community' or PLC. Use a rich wording when describing your work. Adding hashtags to your reel will also help audiences find your work as well as having it appear in the reels section of the app. It can be liked, shared or commented upon by others. Many times creating reels will help an educator connect with other like-minded people, and it's very enriching to view reels created by others. An Instagram PLC will provide endless opportunities for networking and collaboration! This reel piggybacked on a sound trend and was meant to show math in very different ways.

10. Instagram reels are a fun, creative outlet! I am always engrossed in creating these and love the challenge they provide. Involving students in their creation helps a class become producers and not just consumers of information. When co-creating and reflecting upon reels, children engage in digital documentation and can appreciate the depths of their work and understanding, and plan next steps for action. I love how this reel coordinates a fun song with the child's math game.

Tips to get started:

*find educators to follow on Instagram that work in your field, or share interests - use hashtags to help locate experts and other interesting people

*watch the reels stream in your Instagram wall - even though many of these videos are not related to education, they are entertaining and can spark ideas for your reel creation

*use up to 30 hashtags to describe your work - the more you use, the better viewers can locate your work

*capture as many videos and photos as you can in your classroom - you never know what might turn out to be interesting and important to include in a reel

*ask children to share ideas for photos and videos, or invite them to include their own work to make reels authentic and meaningful

*take photos and film videos vertically to make them fit properly into the Instagram formatting. Horizontal images and videos can still be used, but they have a large black frame around them which makes them appear small and harder to view

*use filters, stickers, locations, text, etc. to enhance your work

*jump on trends and modify them for educational use in order to help your reels be discovered by others

*reels (unless they have sound copyright or restrictions) can be saved to your phone or computer, and mashed with other tech - you can share these saved videos on twitter, in digital documentation programs like Edsby or Seesaw, or added to a blog (like I have here) to get the most out of your work

To see more of my reels and connect on Instagram please follow @McLennan1977!

Thinking in Algorithms: Why kids need to code in kindergarten

Kids already have too much screen time.

Isn't coding just another buzz word in education right now?

I don't have time to learn something new.

My kids play too many video games.

I don't believe in using technology in the kindergarten classroom.

This weekend I had the great pleasure of attending the 2017 ETFO Innovate Conference in rainy Niagara Falls. Each year ETFO AQ instructors meet for two days of rich collaboration, inspiration and networking. We are online instructors and as a result, embrace technology in our personal and professional practices. I will state upfront that I write this post as a biased educator and mother; teaching children for lives in an unknown future, I believe that we have an obligation to consider what 21st century competencies are and how we can immerse our children in robust and authentic educational experiences that infuse their lives with motivation and passion.

I have been speaking a lot lately about the importance of coding in the kindergarten classroom. This past year I had a vivacious group of children who ventured on a journey with me to explore how we could use coding in our math and storytelling activities. Over the last 8 months these children have become proficient using unplugged coding manipulatives (e.g., grids, props, directional cards) in order to engage in complex math games and retell/innovate favourite texts. This has sparked much interest in how we can use coding to enrich one’s existing math and literacy program by outsiders to our program.

My love of math and coding was heightened this weekend after listening to the inspirational Brian Aspinall (@mraspinall) speak about his experiences using coding and technology in the classroom. He challenged us to consider how we might use “technology as a language of learning” to motivate children.

“Coding is the new literacy helping students communicate their ideas to others.” 

He pressed upon the importance of encouraging our children to communicate using complex ways in a digital age and to “think in algorithms” in all aspects of their day.

Brian instilled a sense of urgency in me. I believe that coding is an important foundational skill that all children have a right to learn. If we introduce unplugged coding games in kindergarten then children will learn to speak and use that language fluently in their daily lives. Just as emergent spaces encourage children to personalize their learning through multifaceted sensory experiences, technology gives children one more of the ‘hundreds of languages’ through which to explore, experiment and communicate their ideas to others.

Although however essential coding might be, in my travels I have found that there is still some reluctance for infusing our early childhood spaces with technology. Confusing coding as passive, entertainment-style gaming, many worry that it will be a harmful distraction in the kindergarten classroom. That fear, coupled with an inspiring few days spent with tech-minded educators, inspired this blog post explaining what I feel are the many reasons why children in kindergarten need to learn to code.

Why code in kindergarten?

Coding is everywhere. Most appliances and everyday household items require code in order to work - your fridge, car, and even washing machine use code. When children learn coding in school they acquire a sense of how the world around them functions. In inquiry-based spaces educators hope that children will look deeply at their surroundings through a lens of curiosity. Coding helps them explore something more deeply and consider how it works, and how it might be modified to work in a different way.

Coding is easy. An educator does not need to know computer programming in order to use coding activities. Starting slowly and exploring together with the children will model curiosity and a willingness to take risks while helping teacher-learners build community and knowledge in a safe and supportive space.

Coding is cost-effective. In a time of reduced budgets and tech-constraints, unplugged coding in kindergarten requires no computers in order to be successful. All one needs is a grid, arrow cards, and small props (e.g., blocks, animal figures). These materials can be easily made or found around the classroom and are transportable to other areas of the school (e.g., hallway, outdoors).

Coding activities naturally incorporate 21st century skills like collaboration, creativity, teamwork, critical thinking and problem solving. Children who code learn to speak a new language. They quickly realize that their directions need to be clear and precise in order to have fun and be successful in the coding play. Children learn to strategize as coding play becomes more complex and obstacles and challenges are added to their games. Algorithms that don’t work out build resiliency and persistence as children try new sequences and use mistakes as learning opportunities.

Coding integrates learning opportunities from multiple domains of development. In our world of dense curriculum and overwhelming assessment demands, it's essential that educators weave together expectations from different subjects and strands. Not only does this make the classroom a richer place to be, integrating subjects often engages children and make learning deeper and more authentic. Coding has the potential to use expectations from math, science, literacy, the arts, and physical education depending on the context.

Coding is a social activity that builds communication and relationships. Each person in the activity has a special role to play and these roles must work together in order to be successful. The directions given by the programmer must be clear and succinct and followed precisely by all players involved. Children work together to create more complex coding paths and play from one day can be continued into the next. Coding strengthens children's oral language as they describe movement while giving and receiving directions.

Coding provides opportunities for children to engage in meaningful, problem-based math that is highly engaging and of relevance to their lives. These activities integrate spatial awareness, reasoning and number sense into a highly motivating opportunity for applying math in a realistic situation that can then be transferred to a coding application (e.g., Scratch Jr., Scratch) when children are ready. The math is often complex and layered.

Coding is empowering. Learning how to program a game or animation is a very entertaining and enjoyable activity for children. Today’s kindergarten classrooms are maker spaces filled with opportunities for children to engage in the problem-solving process by manipulating loose parts in order to create. Coding is no different but in place of tangible objects that can be tinkered with, children who code are digital makers.

Coding is versatile and can be easily adapted to activities in the gym and outside learning spaces, captivating kinesthetic learners and adding another dimension to physical activities. It is an easy to adapt activity that is fun to play outside or on a very large grid. Children can code one another to move around a space or use the change in scenery to inspire a new programming narrative.

Coding can be extended with technology such as easy to use apps, websites, and robots for those who want to delve more deeply into the concepts (or for those subsequent teachers who have these children in grade 1 and beyond). Many of these are available as free apps or websites and can be suggested to families who want activities that promote home-school connections.

Coding is a global phenomenon and connects your students to their community and beyond! Educators can create their own personal learning networks by connecting with others on Twitter (#coding, #code, #program, #kindercoding). Classes can participate in the Hour of Code or learn new skills by visiting www.code.org. Children can tweet what they are doing to others. There is worldwide support and encouragement for educators who are embracing new and exciting ways of learning including using coding as a language of communication with young children!

Ready to get started? Learn how here: Creating Coding Stories and Games TYC Volume 10 (3)

Let's connect! If you code with kids, tweet me @McLennan1977 and tag it #kindercoding. Let's create an amazing network of kindercoders out there and support each other on this journey!

"When you learn to read and write, it opens up opportunities for you to learn so many other things. When you learn to read, you can then read to learn. It's the same thing with coding. If you learn to code, you can code to learn." 

Mitch Resnick

Emergent Learning in the Early Years: Digital and Deliberate

On Thursday, February 9 I had the pleasure of being invited along with Jocelyne Brent to present "Emergent Learning in the Early Years: Digital and Deliberate" for TVO. In this webinar I shared the many ways we purposefully use technology to support, extend, document, and share the inquiries happening in our classroom. For those of you interested, you can view the webinar here:

https://youtu.be/SkwumPSkG3w

For easy location here are some links to the top technologies that I use in our classroom to support play, inquiry, communication and documentation. Click on the title to access links to various blog posts that further describe the technology and how we use it in our classroom.

1.  Children documenting their own learning using iPads.

2.  Using time lapse photography as a documentation tool.

3.  Creating digital documentation panels using iMovie.

4.  Encouraging digital community and voice using Padlet.

5.  The versatility of QR codes to inspire, research, document and share.

6.  Unplugged coding!

7.  Going old school with overhead projectors.

8.  Why Blog?

9.  Technology Buddies and Wordles

10. The Power of Twitter in the Classroom

Emergent Learning in the Early Years: Digital and Deliberate

On Thursday, February 9 I had the pleasure of being invited along with Jocelyne Brent to present "Emergent Learning in the Early Years: Digital and Deliberate" for TVO. In this webinar I shared the many ways we purposefully use technology to support, extend, document, and share the inquiries happening in our classroom. For those of you interested, you can view the webinar here:

https://youtu.be/SkwumPSkG3w

Why Blog?

     

As the school year comes to a close we have been reflecting upon our year; something we always review is our effectiveness in communicating with families. Have we honoured children's learning in the classroom and made visible the rich space of possibilities so that families are informed of their children's journeys and feel connected to our classroom? Have children been included in this process as an integral source of information and inspiration? We feel that one of the many ways we have been able to do this, and expand our professional learning network (PLN) is through our blog. We think all educators should consider how a blog might help them advocate for playful learning in the early years and better connect with their school community and beyond. Perhaps this blog entry will be the catalyst for some educators to create their own blogs for use in their classrooms next September. Feel free to share the address of your school blog in the comments below!

Why blog?

Blogging is an effective communication tool.

Blogging is a very effective way to to share the innovative and exciting activities happening in one’s classroom with a larger audience. Multiple forms of information can be shared on a blog - photos, videos, hyperlinks, iMovies, padlets - helping to embed technology into instructional practices and documentation.

Blogging helps demystify what happens in a process-driven, inquiry-based classroom and builds support for why this type of practice is both meaningful and developmentally appropriate practice for children. With few ‘receipts’ of learning like paper and pencil products being sent home from school, families are often left to wonder what their child accomplished all day. The all too common shrugging of shoulders is still a common response to the age old question of ‘what did you do at school?’.

Blogging can be a great way to share the learning happening through play and inquiry in one’s classroom and encourage parent-child conversations about school as families visit the site together. This helps children reflect back on past events and use the information as inspiration in order to plan for future classroom work.

Blogging also serves as an effective way for families to give immediate feedback on classroom events and activities. Enabling the comment feature allows readers to publish public comments on each blog post. Moderating these can ensure that content is appropriate and confidentiality of children (names, locations) is maintained.

 

Blogs can serve to motivate families and extend ideas and activities that have happened in the classroom at home. In order to encourage responses to posts and facilitate a ‘conversation’ between the blog and readers, invitations to reply in a particular way can be included as part of the post. For example, after hanging a birdfeeder outside of the classroom window and posting photos of the birds that have visited, readers can be asked to contribute photos of birds that have visited their backyards by including these in the comments section to the corresponding post. This way the audience is helping to co-construct the content of the blog. Families may be more inspired to engage in home activities that support school activities and curriculum if they have a public forum to share their ideas and relate these back to their children’s education. Just as educators may be more motivated to raise their level of programming knowing that they have an audience, so too will the readers of the blog as they work to create a communal representation of the ideas and understandings contained in the posts.

Communication also occurs between divisional teachers who share ideas and strategies for implementing curriculum. As they visit one another’s blogs, teachers will become inspired by their colleagues and this may act as a catalyst for professional conversation and feedback on activities.

Blogging integrates technology into regular practice.

Children can help blog, integrating technology into everyday moments in the classroom. Many blogging websites have apps for smart devices so children can blog in real time with an adult during an activity. Sharing time can include a review of photos inserted into a blank blog post and children can help co-construct the narrative in a shared writing experience. This also serves as an opportunity for a rich discussion about internet safety and critical consumption of online information directly in the instructional moment.

It is a cost effective and environmentally friendly way to share a lot of information with a wide audience with little to no paper products. Occasionally we will sent out a reminder slip with the blog address and description to families in order to advertise our site and remind them to visit.

Blogging also encourages teachers to become more tech savvy as they learn to manipulate new and exciting forms of technology and mash these together with their blog.

Blogging as Assessment

Blogging can be a form of assessment. Online entries can be reviewed and information used to guide assessment and evaluation for children. Online entries can be printed and personal observations regarding children can be directly written onto pages. These can then be used in a child’s portfolios.

Blog entries can be added to learning centres in the classroom as part of the documentation available. Using a QR code tagged with the web address of all entries related to that particular centre (e.g., all entried tagged drama are then shared in the dramatic arts centre using a QR code) helps bring digital documentation into the classroom and shares the stories of the rich learning that has happened throughout the year at the centre.

Children who are on extended trips away from school or absent can see what was missed and families might be inspired to create similar learning experiences at home. It’s almost impossible to make up a missed day of interactive play at school - there are no take home activities that can replicate the richness of learning together with friends - but the entries help families see exactly what their child missed while absent.

Blogging inspires.

 

Blogging helps educators connect with one another as interesting ideas are shared online and a spirit of learning encourages risk-taking in one’s classroom. Many teachers like to visit one another’s blogs, so your audience may eventually expand beyond the families of your students. It also inspires you to become better, knowing you are opening up your classroom to a global audience.

Blogging gives teachers an empowered voice as they strive to change the world of education and way kindergarten is viewed by outsiders. Many teachers still struggle with didactic pressures from colleagues and administrators who are unaware of best practices in kindergarten. Authoring a blog means that one has regular opportunities to share the rich, integrated, developmentally appropriate learning taking place each day in the classroom.

Blogging inspires kids. From experience I know that children in the classroom are more motivated to participate in an activity if they know I’m going to be blogging about it. They want to see themselves in a public forum and enjoy having an audience.

Blogging also inspires families. Over the years I’ve heard from many families who have begun to visit our class blog as soon as they register their child for school in the winter for the following fall. Many learn what the expectations and activities are for kindergarten and begin to prepare their children for this adventure by engaging in some of the activities at home. Younger siblings benefit as they also get a chance to experience activities, helping ready them for school at an even younger age than their older siblings. Families who are undecided about which school to attend might be swayed by the detailed programming information being shared on a blog.

Teachers are inspired to find new and exciting ways to share content from their classroom and this will help differentiate classroom practices (e.g., videos, word clouds, voice recordings, narratives, photos, artwork). As a blogger I am always interested in new and exciting ways to enrich my content, build readership, and help portray the exciting things happening in the classroom in tangible ways to others. 

 

Blogging helps educators reflect.

Blogging is reflective - a teacher must consider the important elements of an experience when crafting the descriptive narrative that accompanies photos in a blog entry, helping to reflect upon the experience and think about how to extend the learning moving forward.

I believe that blogging will ultimately help raise the stakes in the classroom as teachers try to outdo their own last best post and keep the energy going in the classroom. An amazing entry for me only further motivates me to try and outperform in order to have even more exciting and informative entry for families to enjoy.

As blogs are archived teachers can travel backwards in time and review posts from months and even years ago, celebrating their growth and journey as educators. It’s a record of what was done in the classroom and a predictor of future successes. It’s a way of honouring the children and stories of the classroom long after they have moved upwards into a new grade.

Your blog is who you are as an educator. It will make you marketable as an educator and help advertise you to potential administrators when looking for new opportunities (e.g., new school, assignments, leadership opportunities). We all want to have rich, detailed digital online footprints that showcase who we are as educators and show what we are capable of in the classroom and school.

 

#mathininquiry Chat

Here's the storify version of our very first #mathininquiry chat tonight for anyone interested! https://storify.com/McLennan1977/mathininquiry-chat

#mathininquiry Twitter Chat

Join us for the first ever #mathininquiry Twitter chat Wednesday, May 18 8-9 pm EDT! Please join us! Questions can be tweeted to @McLennan1977 or emailed to deannapecaskimclennan@yahoo.ca. 

Invested Children = Robust Math Explorations

Research tells us that when children are empowered by adults who believe in them, a positive mathematical mindset, and robust math tasks (low floor, high ceiling) anything is possible. Reflecting back on the beginning of our week I certainly wouldn't have predicted the rich math learning opportunities and problem-solving that our children delivered. Here is the story of what happened...

I have been doing much professional reading about mathematical mindset (Jo Boaler, www.youcubed.org) and saw the following pattern in one of the books. I was fascinated by the math potential of the question and thought this activity might be something that would be of interest and a challenge for our children.

 

After presenting the question during our morning message, we tweeted our ideas about the pattern and figures. Two classrooms from elsewhere in the province decided to also explore the problem in their classrooms, and tweeted us back their ideas. Using social media to share our mathematical thinking and collaborate with other children grows our ideas and abilities as mathematicians as we learn there are many ways to communicate with others and that when we work collaboratively on a task, the outcome is greater and our understanding richer.

 

We discussed the ideas shared by Ms. Van der Veen and Ms. Ralph's classes and added their ideas to our own understandings of the pattern. This is what we noticed - the pattern grows and we can represent this with a mathematical equation (1, 1+2, 1+2+3, 1+2+3+4, etc.). We noticed that the base was growing by one each time and that the number assigned to the figure (e.g., figure 1) matched the number of blocks in the base and edge (e.g., figure 5 had 5 blocks in the base and 5 on the left edge). 

To help us test this theory we used blocks to build what we noticed. We extended the pattern and built figure 5 and 6.

I asked the children to think about the many other figures that might be created in this pattern. The children wondered what the 100th figure would look like. We decided to set this up as a math exploration for the children today. We provided photos of our previous work, the chart paper reference page, mini wooden blocks, and writing materials.

The children started by building the original figures in the problem. They realized that it was more effective to build the figure flat because building upwards wasn't reliable. The figures would easily tip.

One child immediately went to work on building the 100th figure. She understood the pattern (the 100th figure would have a base and edge each of 100) so she set to work.

This task required great patience and perseverance because the blocks are small and move easily. Putting them back in a straight line and counting and recounting to ensure that there were 100 took great commitment.

Other children became curious and stopped by. "Is the base longer than you?" he asked and we measured to find out.

Once the base was completed the left edge was started. Again, counting out 100 blocks and lining them up in a straight edge was a complicated task and it required great patience and persistence with the task.

She did it! Yeah! This is what the 100th figure's base and edge would look like! Now onto filling it in. Would we have enough blocks?

Another child thought that drawing the figure on a paper would be a better idea because he didn't think we had enough blocks to fill it in. He began, carefully counting out 100 squares to represent the base...

...and learned his paper wasn't big enough. He problem-solved by taping the papers together...

 

...and together and together and together...  Mrs. Tullio stopped by to assist. She was interested in learning about what the children were doing and they were so eager to share their thinking with her. They recognized the significance of this project. 

Once the base and edge were counted out and drawn, we decided to draw the other outside edge. Because we used chart paper and lined the papers up when taping them together, we didn't feel we needed to draw each individual block inside the figure.

Other friends stopped by to watch the work unfolding and to double and triple check to ensure we had 100 squares in our base and 100 in our edge.

 

He did it! This is what the 100th figure would look like! You can tell just how large this is with him sitting inside. Each paper is an easel sized paper and the total papers taped together is almost the size of our large carpet. Taking our time to think slowly and deeply about this problem, and working together with people both inside and outside our school, helped us to accomplish an incredibly impressive feat for kindergarten children. We couldn't be more prouder and wonder what problem we will solve next!

Honouring Children's Questions

We often spend sunny days exploring our beautiful yard. There is a rock garden on the side of the school that the children love. The rocks are challenging to walk through as you need to balance and climb on parts of the path, and there is interesting landscaping that is awaking from its slumber now that the days are turning warm.

 

In one of the bushes we noticed a peculiar object - it reminded the children of our Painted Lady cocoons we observed last year.

 

 During circle we invited the children to guess what the object might be. They had some excellent connections to past experiences that were shared to support their opinions. We created an idea web to organize our thoughts.

One of the children suggested we tweet our followers the picture to see if any other class or teacher knew what this object was...

  

...and immediately 10 of our followers shared their opinion that it was a preying mantis egg sac! We researched this to confirm and then explored how to keep the sac safe in our room for further exploration. We gently removed a branch from the bush with one sac and placed it in an aquarium for observation. Stay tuned!

 

Why Use Twitter in the Classroom?

As a teacher I've used a classroom blog to communicate the learning happening in my classroom to families and the community. I've followed other educators' blogs to get inspiration for my own practice and learn about new and exciting activities happening in the greater kindergarten world. Blogging has helped me feel connected to a greater cause in early years education.

This year I became active on Twitter - I'm now obsessed! The rich learning, networking, and sharing possibilities make this social media in my opinion essential for today's classroom. Here are the top ten reasons educators need to become active on Twitter:

1. Twitter is an effective communication tool for use with a large audience. With Twitter you can quickly share in 140 characters or less the amazing activities happening in your classroom.

2.  Twitter encourages communication between home and school as parent-followers can favourite tweets, reply to tweets, and retweet information for others. 

2. Educators can link classroom activities to other media including photos, videos, websites, other tweets, etc. in order to present a complex, multifaceted story of what's happening in your practice and embed much technology into practice.

3. Twitter creates a narrative of what has happened in your classroom. When we tell stories through various documentation we honour children's voices and record their lives in the classroom.  Going back through the Twitter feed recreates the story of our time together.

4. Twitter helps like-minded individuals connect in an easy to use format. Networking with other educators helps one feel as part of a community as ideas are shared and supported in a virtual space.

5. Twitter provides a platform where educators can contact and communicate with leaders in the educational world, creating a link between pedagogy and practice. I've been able to engage in conversations with some of the leaders in my field, inspiring me to go deeper with ideas and reach further!

6.  Twitter embeds technology into classroom practice as children co-create tweets together with an educator in a shared writing activity. Learners are empowered as they describe their activities with others and choose other media (photos, videos) to compliment their messages.

7. Twitter inspires me to do the best job I can as an educator because what I am sharing reflects upon my practice and beliefs as an educator. I will be judged by what I tweet. Tweeting gives me an empowered voice to share my experiences, knowledge, and informed opinions with others.

8. Twitter also inspires children to engage fully in the classroom as they want their explorations and accomplishments to be highlighted on the Twitter feed and recognized by others. Tweeting is published work.

9. Tweeting helps me to be a reflective educator as I review the stories behind what I have tweeted, read other perspectives on my work, and think about how what we've done can drive our classroom practice further.

10.  Tweets market educators and help advertise to potential administrators when looking for new opportunities (e.g., new school, assignments, leadership opportunities). Tweeting gives educators an online presence and helps define what our educational 'brand' is.