This morning I was talking with the amazing David Theriault @davidtedu about signing teachers up for Twitter. He was sharing how the sign up process can be a little cumbersome since the sign up process asks the teachers to follow 10 people. The hiccup of course being that they do not know 10 people.
Create Account
After choosing the username select “Create my account.”
Skip That
If Twitter offers to customize the account there is an option to skip the customization. Today the World Cup is going on so Twitter is asking to customize for the World Cup, if things like this come up just skip it.
Close Out of the Tab
The next screen starts the teacher through the set up process.
THIS CAN BE SKIPPED!
Have the teachers just close out of the tab and go back to twitter.com.
Bio and Picture
If the teachers skip the set up process they will need to set up their bio and upload a picture. Direct the teachers to the settings cog in the upper right hand corner so they can edit their profile.
Some Links
For a list of Tweeps to follow by subject area: Click Here
Be cautioned that if a new account is too aggressive about following people the account may be locked. This is to prevent spammers.
For a document to get teachers started with Twitter: Click Here
Suggestion to follow up with the teachers you introduced to Twitter. Twitter can be a slow burn, try to keep connecting with the teachers on Twitter to help them get the hang of it. Click Here for a template of a spreadsheet that will allow you to more easily follow up.
1) Make a copy of the Google Spreadsheet
2) In column B type the Twitter handles of everyone you trained.
3) Put the hashtag you want to use up in cell G1. Note the # symbol does not work in the formula, it will be automatically added.
4) The next tab is called “things to say.” This tab allows you to write a list of phrases to say. Think of things you might tweet to people from that training day. Try to come up with at least 10 things to say.
5) Back on the Tweet tab there is a blue link that will allow you to tweet to the person in that row.
6) Click on each of the blue links to launch a tweet for each person.
7) Following the training, come back frequently to the spreadsheet. Refreshing the spreadsheet will assign each person a random phrase from the “things to say” tab. Click on the blue link next to each Twitter handle to continue making contact with them.
2 thoughts on “Facilitate Signing Teachers Up Onto Twitter”
Thank you Alice for making life easier for teachers and teacher trainers.
This is a great guide! I’m going to use it to train my biology lab students (I have 640 each semester!)