Kathryn Osborn '14, a History/Social Studies Teacher Licensure major, co-moderated a national Twitter chat on Dec. 30 that involved educators sharing advice for pre-service teachers as they head into student teaching.
Think Twitter is about celebrity stalking and narcissism? Think again.
Teachers are using Twitter to share teaching ideas and resources, as well as connect and collaborate with other educators from around the country and world. Elon School of Education students are in on the action as well, as they use professional Twitter accounts in several different courses.
Senior Kathryn Obsorn went a step beyond course requirements and volunteered to serve as a guest moderator of a Twitter chat on Dec. 30. Twitter chats are weekly live, one-hour long conservations during which participants interact through use of a common hashtag.
Osborn and Jeff Carpenter, assistant professor of education, co-moderated a joint chat using the #ntchat (New Teacher Chat) and #engsschat (English-Social Studies Chat) hashtags. Osborn created the seven questions that were discussed during the chat, and which generated more than 300 total tweets in response.
“I was able to gain and share the advice of practiced teachers from all across the nation, in all different kinds of classrooms, and with all different levels of experience,” Osborn said.
An archive of the chat can be found here.