Top 10 Twitter Accounts to Follow This Year: FOR EDUCATORS

Although this list is constantly being updated as I discover new and educationally relevant Twitter accounts, I am very pleased with my current Summer list of favourites. This list is for educators looking for awesome education related Twitter accounts to follow!
THIS LIST IS NOT IN ANY SPECIFIC ORDER!

Enjoy browsing, retweeting, and getting inspired!

TOP TEN TWITTER EDUCATION INFORMATION ACCOUNTS

10. @LibraryLadyJane

WHY:  She is a hilarious librarian that contributes her wit and intellect to the very popular website theonion.com and their grammar infographics as well as maintaining her own twitter account. Check out her twitter for helpful and hilarious tweets!

9. @RochelleTkach 

WHY: Rochelle is a Masters student at Brock University and has dedicated herself to improving online education and technology communication and learning! Fantastic Twitter account. Full of a wide variety of #edtech.

8. @mrsbedor  

WHY: A former teacher at my high school in the Upper Canada District School Board. Creative, energetic, and motivational Twitter page with multiple avenues of education information. Looking for a Twitter account to make you smile? This is the one for you!

7. @LessonToolbox  

WHY: Such a great collection of resources for lesson planning. Twitter account offers suggestions, reminders, tips & tricks, as well as links to more in depth learning and information.

6. @avivaloca   

WHY: She is an Ontario based elementary school educator. One of the most involved and consistent users of Twitter in the classroom I have seen. If you are looking for inspiration for #edtech in the classroom, this blog is for you!

5. @jen_theissen  

WHY: Librarians know best! Jen Theissen is a Librarian at Brock University and specializes in assisting Master and PHD students. Her Twitter is a great collection of tips for researching, writing, educating, and finding information!

4. @crutherford  

WHY: This Twitter account is well maintained by a Brock University Education professor! She posts a wide variety of informational and educational posts. Her blog is also a great read if you are looking for examples of a fantastic blog!

3. @hemremmem  

WHY: Insights from a DSBN Superintendent in 140 characters or less! Fabulous twitter account full of local and globally relevant posts about education, being a student, and succeeding as an education team!












2. @markwcarbone  

WHY: This account was one of the first I ever followed! Check out his contributions to #OSSEMOOC and the wonderful world of sharing information online. Comedic. Informative. Consistent. Always well-done!

1. @Jason_Ribeiro   

WHY: Jason Ribeiro is kind of like a personal research hero of mine. Heavily involved in the Brock University academic community, this grad student has made a name for himself by researching and sharing information about #edchat and online learning.

Thank you for reading! Check out my Twitter account and accounts under my Following tab to see who else I am following on Twitter! 

EDUC 5P42 - Effectively Warming Up

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A method for enhancing the ability to communicate in the classroom that can be easily over looked by teachers is daily warm up activities to begin the class. The benefit of the warm up, besides the fun consistent addition to any lesson plan is the opportunity for classmates to interact together in a non-threatening manner. One of the most useful warm up activities is the ones that involve improvisation. Examples of warm ups that include the method of improvisation are; charades, blob machine and I’m going on a picnic. Including improvisation allows students to feel comfortable bringing up personal impulses and thoughts in a safe, inclusive space. The warm up allows students to openly communicate with each other at the beginning of every class. This is exceptionally helpful to a teacher, for the rest of the class the students will feel more like a community and more likely to continue communicating between themselves.

The book Free Play written by Stephen Nachmanovitch delves into the importance of free play within any social situation, especially school. Nachmanovitch describes how “Improvisation is intuition in action, a way to discover the muse and learn to respond to her call. Even if we work in a very structured, compositional way, we begin by that  always surprising process of free invention in which we have nothing to gain and nothing to lose”(Nachmanovitch 41). This is the key component to improvisation, allowing the students to feel like they are having fun and making their own decisions in such a structured and somewhat hindering environment that high school can be.

When I was in high school I did the best in the classrooms where I felt like my opinion was heard and accepted. The classrooms (not just drama) that allowed a period of time at the beginning (or end) of the class to work on a small task with the class were the places where I felt the strongest in academics. As a future teacher, I want to enable my students the opportunity to feel heard, accepted, and safe in their academic and social endeavors. I will use warm up activities in all of my classrooms not just my drama classrooms.

Over my dramatic and academic journey I have been able to learn different methods in which to communicate with students about important topics. The method of workshopping a scene is an incredibly effective way in which to give your students a venue to speak their mind without feeling scared. The environment that the teacher must create in the classroom/workshop space is the key component to having work shopping work. The teacher must describe the process fully to the class and the class will have to agree on rules for the process. Examples of rules could be; waiting your turn to talk, never say “no” but instead say “yes, but let’s try adding this, or taking away this.” Once these parameters have been communicated the open communication can begin.
Helpful links for warm up activities:
1.  Warm up & Cool Downs Grades 5-11
2.  Improvisation related warm ups 
3.  Games Booklet - 39 Pages