Twitter

FOLLOW ME AT: hintonzach

The uses of Twitter in my personal life are relatively limited. As far as I know, none of my close friends are Tweople. All of them are on Facebook; this provides all the connectedness and personal networking I need. My main use of Facebook is to make my friends laugh by posting on their wall and sharing funny links. Because I have Facebook, I have very little use for Twitter. I typically do not read or watch the news (general news, non-sport news that is) but as I progress into adulthood I suppose I should become a more educated contributor of society. By following newsfeeds such as the New York Times, Twitter can provide me with constant updates regarding the general news. I will still get my sports news from Pardon the Interruption (a daily show on ESPN), insidelacrosse.com, and other various sports websites. The sports news I want typically requires reading articles or viewing Fantasy Football stats. But by following the right sports sources on Twitter, I can be tipped off to a story earlier than usual and then go follow up on a website. Until I have a mobile device that supports the internet, the instant updates of Twitter cannot be fully utilized.

Twitter makes much more sense in my professional life than it does in my personal life. The network of educators on Twitter can be very supportive of teachers, from first-years to seasoned veterans. When I begin my career, I know that I will have a ton of questions and need the support of experts in the area. I may not be able to rely on the other PE teacher(s) (he/she could be as young as me or not be there at all). The administration may have no PE experience. If this is the case, then I can turn to Twitter to follow experts in the content area and tweet some questions, looking for ideas, becoming a better teacher. I had never thought of Twitter as a self-betterment tool!

Here are the basics for how to communicate on Twitter. A DM is a Direct Message, a short, private message sent between you and another person on Twitter. Use the @ symbol to reply to a tweet (the short message you post for your followers to see) and always include the Twitter ID following the @. RT stands for Retweet, in the case you want to post something you saw in another tweet to share with your followers.