#20DayTwitterChallenge

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#20DayTwitterChallenge!

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Twitter offers opportunities to learn from and connect with other educators in ways that are simply not possible through traditional professional development. That said, while it's easy to get started with Twitter, it's not always easy to stick with it. Creating an account and leveraging that account in ways that benefit your students are two completely different things. This challenge is designed to help make Twitter work for you in ways that are both meaningful and fun! In the next 20 days, you’ll not only create an educational Twitter account but, more importantly, you’ll practice ways to use that account for ongoing professional growth that ultimately results in excellent outcomes for kids.

This resource was created by @jenniferlagarde with help and inspiration from @jeannietimken

ClickMe!

Let's get started!

It's day one! Time to create a Twitter account! You can use the resources and tutorials here to help you get started. There are also hundreds of Twitter tutorials on Youtube - a quick search will yield a plethora of results. Congrats! That's day one done! See you tomorrow!

Make your profile ready for prime time! You can use the resources and tutorials here to update your Twitter profile so that it represents you as an educator. Remember, you can change your bio any time! Woo hoo! Two days in the books! See you tomorrow!

Find and Follow: Your mission today is to find at least 10 educators to follow on Twitter. Not sure where to get started? The resources here can help you locate great people to follow Don't forget to follow me: @jenniferlagarde. See you tomorrow!

Connect with someone new! Spend some time exploring the hashtags you found during Day 4 (this will be easier if you tackled Bonus 1!) Then follow at least 3 new people who contributed to those hashtag communities in awesome ways! See you tomorrow!

It's finally time to send your first Tweet! Send a tweet introducing yourself to the hashtag communities you've been following! Include your name, school and what you teach - along with anything else you want to share. Just be sure to use the hashtags that you've been exploring this week! See you tomorrow! Be sure to:

• Tag me: @jenniferlagarde
• Use the #20DayTwitterChallenge when you tweet!

Spread the word: Retweet something that was tweeted by someone you follow. Add your own comment and a hashtag that was not in the original tweet. Be sure to tag me as well! @jenniferlagarde See you tomorrow! Be sure to:

• Tag me: @jenniferlagarde
• Use the #20DayTwitterChallenge when you tweet!

Congrats! You're halfway through the #20DayTwitterChallenge! Now it's time to start adding some media to your tweets. Share a photo or video that conveys an important instructional message or concept. Tag at least 3 other educators in your tweet and don’t forget to include at least one hashtag! See you tomorrow! Be sure to:

• Tag me: @jenniferlagarde
• Use the #20DayTwitterChallenge when you tweet!

Let's spend today applying a new lens to your PLN. Peruse the people and hashtags you are following at this point: do the people in your PLN look just like you? Do they believe the same things you do? Have you inadvertently created your own filter bubble? Then consider the complex and diverse students and teachers you work with. How can you add some new voices to your PLN so that it better represents a broad/inclusive array of experiences and points of view? If you're not sure where to get started, here are some hashtags to explore: #cleartheair #weneeddiversebooks #distrupttexts #educolor #queer_educhat See you tomorrow!

Collect some data! Send a tweet that includes a Twitter poll. Ask your growing PLN about an instructional practice or their opinion on a resource. Just don’t forget to include at least two hashtags! See you tomorrow! Be sure to:

• Tag me: @jenniferlagarde
• Use the #20DayTwitterChallenge when you tweet!

Chat It Up! (Part 2): Use the resources in Day 17 to participate in the same educational Twitter chat that you explored before. You can wait until the next LIVE chat or you can participate asynchronously by retweeting some of the contributions that were especially meaningful to you AND by adding your own answers to the questions that were asked. Remember, the resources from Day 17 will help you! See you tomorrow!

Show your school/library pride! Use everything you’ve learned so far to send at least 3 tweets about why your school is amazing! See you tomorrow! Be sure to:

• Tag me: @jenniferlagarde
• Use the #20DayTwitterChallenge when you tweet!

Let's get out of the echo chamber! Today, spend some time adding other educators to your PLN. In addition to the librarians and authors (because I know you are following some authors!) you are connected with, add a principal, a guidance counselor, a PE teacher or someone else to your network. This is also a good time to consider whether or not you are following people because of their "edu celebrity" status or because they are truly adding value to your learning. If not, now is also a good time to weed your feed! Don't worry, people are not notified when you unfollow them! See you tomorrow!

Share the love! Compose a tweet with a recommendation of (at least) three educators that new librarians should follow! If you've got the space, say why they are awesome AND if this tweet happens to occur on a Friday then use the hashtag #followfriday too! See you tomorrow! Be sure to:

• Tag me: @jenniferlagarde
• Use the #20DayTwitterChallenge when you tweet!

Get Giphy with it! Compose a tweet using an animated GIF to share how your day is going, react to something someone shared or express why you chose this work. (Remember, keep it professional!) Don't forget to add some hashtags! See you tomorrow! Be sure to:

• Tag me: @jenniferlagarde
• Use the #20DayTwitterChallenge when you tweet!

The #20DayTwitterChallenge is almost over. Today's task is to go back and review your biographical information. Now that you've spent some time on Twitter, is there anything you need to change in order to make sure that this information truly conveys who you are as an educator? See you tomorrow!

Congrats! You did it!! And now it's reflection time! Send a tweet to @jenniferlagarde telling me what you thought of the 20 day challenge! What did you learn? What was the best part? How will you use Twitter moving forward? See you on Twitter!

Chat It Up! (Part 1): Locate an ACTIVE educational Twitter chat and review the archive of their latest live chat. Use the resources and tutorials here to help you get started! Follow new people, bookmark favorite tweets and consider what your answers to the questions they asked might have been. See you tomorrow!

Add some content: Post a tweet sharing an article, blog post or website that you see as a valuable instructional resource. Tell us why you think it's valuable and why you think we should know about it! And be sure to include at least TWO hashtags in your tweet so that you can use your 240 characters to contribute to the communities you follow! See you tomorrow! Be sure to:

• Tag me: @jenniferlagarde
• Use the #20DayTwitterChallenge when you tweet!

Go mobile: Add a Twitter app to your phone and send your first mobile tweet including a photo of your learning space! Use your 280 characters to tell us a little bit about the place where you make instructional magic and don’t forget to tag me as well! See you tomorrow! Be sure to:

• Tag me: @jenniferlagarde
• Use the #20DayTwitterChallenge when you tweet!

It's time to ❤️the hashtag! #hashtags are a great way to explore content being shared by a lot of people. Spend some exploring the feeds of the people you followed on Day 3. Make a list of the five most helpful hashtags you locate through this exploration. Note: tomorrow's bonus task will provide you with a way to follow hashtags using the tool TweetDeck! See you tomorrow!

A "list" in Twitter is a curated collection of Twitter users who you "go to" for information about specific topics. For example, if you are particularly interested in makerspaces, but find the #makerED hashtag too broad, you could create a list made up ONLY of librarians, who teach the same grade levels as you, and who often tweet about their makerspaces. This is a great way to truly put the P in PERSONAL Learning Network. Today's Bonus task is to make a list filled with some librarians who will serve as your "go to" for information on a specific topic that interests you. See you tomorrow!

A Twitter thread allows you to string multiple tweets together for those moments when you have A LOT to say! For this bonus activity, create your first thread. String together a few tweets to share an important message. Try including some media, too! See you tomorrow Be sure to:

• Tag me: @jenniferlagarde
• Use the #20DayTwitterChallenge when you tweet!

Go live! Twitter offer live feeds that allow you to share what's happening in real time. Today's bonus task is to share a live tour of your library. Show us around! What's the one part of your space that you are most proud of! Also, if you haven't done so already, now is a good time to review your school or library's policy for sharing images of children. It's always a best practice to avoid posting personal information like a child's name, etc., but your district or library may also require that you blur/cover student faces. See you tomorrow!

You're almost finished! Let's explore your time on Twitter (so far) by the numbers! Login to your twitter account, click the "more" option at the bottom of the menu to the right. Then click "analytics." Do any of the numbers there surprise you? There are many ways to measure the success and growth of this journey - do these numbers matter to you? If they do, what steps can you take to affect them? See you tomorrow!

Tweetdeck is a tool that allows you to sort Twitter into columns. This can be especially helpful if you want to follow hashtags instead of just users. After watching this tutorial, create a column in your tweetdeck for each of the great hashtags you curated in Day 4. See you tomorrow!