Twitter was created as a social media tool, but it has uses outside the social world. Teachers are using twitter in the classroom to improve instruction, connect their students with the world, and keep in touch. In this article, we will list 10 ways that you can use Twitter in the classroom.

1. Keep up with trends

Teachers and administrators talk on twitter. There are tons of education hashtags you can use to explore what’s trending at the moment. Get new ideas and share with other professionals.

2. Communicate with students and parents

Almost everyone is on Twitter now, so it’s the perfect way to stay in touch with students and parents. Tweet about homework, field trips, and share what’s going on in your classroom.

3. Get feedback from students

Ask students to tweet you their questions, comments, and more. Keep a running list of what your students are saying or have questions about. You can address their thoughts in class or on twitter.

4. Show off your classroom

Live tweeting what’s going on is a fun way to keep parents in the loop. It also allows students to look back on what you’ve done during the school year.

5. Get students summarizing

Asking them to summarize what they’ve learned is a great way to see what students remember. It also forces them to think critically about what information was most important. Forcing them to tell their thoughts in only 140 characters is challenging and fun.

6. Connect with other classes

Join your classroom with another via Twitter. Let your students use a classroom twitter handle to tweet back and forth with another class across the country or the world.

7. Make Twitter the homework

Instead of a boring worksheet, have students tweet about assigned readings. Students can tweet a summary of a chapter or respond to a question via twitter. The best part is, they can do this homework from anywhere without pencil and paper.

8. Tweet as a historic figure

Have students create a Twitter account for a person from history. Have them tweet about major events in that person’s life as they think their historic figure would have tweeted. This can also work with fictional characters.

9. Write a Twitter haiku

Haiku writing is a fun poetry exercise for students. Make it more interactive, and a bit more challenging, by having students tweet haikus. Assign various topics for students to write about.

10. Edit tweets

Celebrities aren’t always the best writers, and their tweets are often riddled with grammar and spelling errors. Have students retweet what their favorite celebs say, minus the errors.

There are tons of ways to use Twitter to enhance your teaching. How have you used Twitter in the classroom?