140 Twitter Tips for Educators is a book for educators written by educators. It has helped thousands of teachers and administrators expand their personal learning networks and reinvigorate their careers. There is no doubt that over the past decade Twitter has helped support educators with sharing resources and reflecting on how they impact student success. Recently, the Evolving Educators came out with three new Twitter tips in response to the collective disappointment that the educational community is having with the way certain individuals are using Twitter in not so appealing ways. 

Twitter Tips for Educators is a book for educators written by educators. It has helped thousands of teachers and administrators expand their personal learning networks and reinvigorate their careers. There is no doubt that over the past decade Twitter has helped support educators with sharing resources and reflecting on how they impact student success. Recently, the Evolving Educators came out with three new Twitter tips in response to the collective disappointment that the educational community is having with the way certain individuals are using Twitter in not so appealing ways. ​

Typically we try to focus on all the positive and unbelievable things that are happening in the world of education. Without Twitter, many of us would not be connected with the great minds and ideas like we are today. From time to time though, we feel it necessary to give people a heads up on things we are hearing about from our friends in the educational community. This summer make sure to share your favorite Twitter tips using the hashtag #140EduTips. Interested in bulk pricing for an online book talk or staff resource? Reach out to us at evolving@evolvingeducators.com. Additionally, we can come out to your school or district and provide staff with Twitter training. There is no better tool than Twitter to tell your story and/or stay current with educational best practices. Get your copy of 140 Twitter Tips today!

​Have you read 140 Twitter for Educators? That's awesome! Please leave a review on Amazon if you have a few minutes. We would greatly appreciate it. 

A new year is upon us and with that comes an opportunity for educators to find new ways to enhance their effectiveness and promote the success of all students. Evolving as an educator should be something that is ongoing, that not only helps yourself grow, but others as well. Make it your mission this year to share the ideas and resources of others in the field of education, more than sharing your own ideas and resources, in order to underscore the importance that the world of education is no longer in isolation. Truly reflect on the ratio of what you put out there related to you as an individual versus others that you work with or that are part of your PLN. 

Truth be told, I really try to share the great work and ideas of others more than my own work. Social media posts, blogs, books, podcasts, events, instructional practices, leadership methods, and other educational items can be shared out both in the physical and virtual worlds. Whether at a faculty meeting or a tweet, great things are going on and other people need know about it. I really believe that every single educator out there has something great to share. Over the past ten years or so it has become easier to share out ideas and resources to the masses through various devices and web applications. I implore you to take it upon yourself this year and commit to sharing the ideas and resources that others have to offer. 

Don't get me wrong, it's still important to share out the wonderful things that you are doing as an educator. In fact, each morning I look forward to reading blogs and social media posts that others put out there. One tip that I like to promote is using a tool like Feedly to keep track of all your favorite online content. Most of what I share out across my social channels comes from Feedly. If I see a post from someone like Eric Sheninger or Monica Burns, I share it out directly from my Feedly feed. Other times I scroll through Facebook groups or Edsurge email insights to stay current with innovations. Once a day I really try to commit to sharing someone else's idea or resource. More often than not, I am able to share someone else's work two or three times a day. It could be on social media, via email, in an observation report, or through an informal conversation. 

One thing I do twice a month is push out a list of five educational resources to my colleagues. When I come across a great blog post, article, or tool I make sure to bookmark and include in the next blast. It's called the Bulldog Bulletin, as our mascot is the Bulldog. Staff enjoy reading it for the most part and will sometimes send me resources they come across to include in the next blast. On the same note, you might want to subscribe to the Evolving 8 which comes out on a monthly basis and contains many great resources.  

Right now take a few moments to reflect on how often or how little you share the work of others. Either way, somewhere around five shares a week is a good starting point. Pay special attention to what is going in your classroom, school, district, or organization and think about how what you experience can help other educators. At the end of the day people don't know what they don't know and it's up to you as a lead learner to let others to stay in the loop of best practices. Sharing brings inspiration to so many and motivates the unmotivated to try something new. It all goes back to helping students and the only way this can be accomplished is continuously sharpening your own saw and the saws of others. 

Recently I was recognized as the 2017 National Assistant Principal of the Year by NASSP. With this distinction came an opportunity to procure educational resources for Black River Middle School. For years, I wanted to find an easy to capture events and share them virtually with school stakeholders. Through my research and past experiences, I knew about the Swivl as a way to record, archive, and share video content. I was always impressed with the way it tracked movement and picked up sound clearly.  So I ultimately decided to purchase a Swivl for our school as way to capture moments, like you see below with a Holocaust survivor, that will live online for a lifetime. 

So how can a Swivl benefit your classroom, school, or district? Here are four easy ways that I can think of right off the top of my head...

1. Capture curricular moments such as a Holocaust speaker or weather assembly and post to your school website. 
2. Capture informational sessions that take place during the day or at night and push out to parents that were unable to attend. 
3. Capture student presentations or learning experiences as a way to reflect, archive, share, and assess. 
4. Capture weekly or monthly video updates for parents and students so that they can stay current with classroom, school, or district happenings. 

As you can see there many ways to make the Swivl work for your educational environment. Start out by locating a school or district that uses a Swivl and ask if you can take it for a test run. Then, at some point purchase a Swivl and try it out at a small event. Eventually, over time it will become a part of your daily routine and help enhance your transparent environment. Make sure to establish a Swivl team consisting of staff and students to help with the integration aspect. Ideally having multiple Swivls accessible for sign-out from your library will be very beneficial. The time is now to extend your role as story teller in chief and purchase a Swivl for all enjoy throughout the school year.

I recently wrote a digital playbook for Think Through Math on building a digital curriculum. You can access it by clicking on the pdf file below. Enjoy!

The 2016-2017 school year is upon us. Deep down inside everyone is ready to get back into the groove and move forward in a positive direction. With a new school year comes an opportunity to try new things that can compliment your existing culture. Some food for thought...

Maintain Faculty Handbook on Google Docs 

Create an Adobe Spark Video Welcome Back Message

Post Faculty Meeting Resources in Google Classroom

Participate in a Hashtag Celebration 

Use Google Forms to Survey Students 
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Post Daily Announcements on YouTube channel 

Push out important reminders to stakeholders utilizing Remind

Play music for students during lunch with Pandora

Brad Currie is the author of the newly released 140 Twitter Tips for Educators. His other books include All Hands on Deck: Tools for Connecting Educators, Parents, and Communities and Personalized PD: Flipping Your Professional Development. He is one of the founding partners of Evolving Educators LLC. Brad is a 2014 ASCD Emerging Leader and Google Certified Trainer. Brad currently serves as a K-8 Supervisor of Instruction and Dean of Students for the Chester School District in Chester, NJ. He speaks and presents nationally about technology integration. Learn more about Brad by following him on Twitter @bradmcurrie or visiting his website at www.bradcurrie.net.

The time is now to rethink the way classrooms, schools, districts, and organizations communicate with stakeholders in the digital world. Differentiation is key if students, parents, and community members are to stay informed and feel proud of daily accomplishments that take place in their educational institutions. I speak to this in my book All Hands on Deck: Tools for Connecting Educators, Parents, and Communities. I truly believe that if you do not tell your story someone else will and it could be wrong. In my upcoming book, 140 Twitter Tips for Educators, the importance of connecting with school stakeholders through tweets is highlighted in great detail and stresses the importance of accessing real time information from a few taps of a person's mobile device.

Here are five ways communicate with stakeholders in the digital world...

Smore: Create weekly or monthly digital newsletters to keep stakeholders informed of school and district happenings.
Canva: Design visuals and engaging documents that can be shared out and downloaded by stakeholders across multiple platforms.
Tumblr: Host a classroom, school, or district blog that highlights all the wonderful educational experiences that place on a daily basis.
Periscope: Create an online television channel that stakeholders can then access in real time to stay current in a more authentic and personal manner. Tip: use Katch to archive Periscope episodes. 
Snapchat: Reach your student population to inform them of upcoming events and celebrate accomplishments.
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It's important that educational institutions meet their stakeholders where they are in the digital world. No better way to do this than by leveraging the power of available web tools and social media. Take a risk and choose a few of the tools mentioned above. It's perfectly fine if it doesn't work out. The important thing is that you begun the process of exploring what is possible. Over time, it will become more clear which tools meet your stakeholders' informational needs.