Yesterday, I really saw the value in sharing through Twitter. In the morning, my Grade 5’s were working through a fraction problem shared by Jonathan So: an amazing Grade 2 teacher with a passion for math. Jonathan’s helped me a lot with our fractions unit thanks to all of the sharing that he’s done online. He’s also eager to chat math at any time of the day, which assists me when I’m planning as well as problem solving.

In class yesterday, as the students were working through the sub problem (shared here), I was tweeting out the learning. It didn’t take long for Jonathan So and Jonathan Rajalingam (another wonderful educator on Twitter) to jump in with questions and comments. I started posing these questions to my students, and they started replying on Twitter and/or discussing their answers aloud. With more educators contributing to the discussion, the student thinking improved too, as I wasn’t the only one thinking of and asking the questions.

Sometimes it can be difficult to open our classrooms in such a public way. I think that the students though benefit the most from the expertise of many, and Twitter easily allows for connections between classrooms, educators, and administrators. How do you provide this “window” into your classroom? What benefits have you seen for your students? Thanks to my incredible Twitter PLN for always helping me and my class! We’re better because of you!

Aviva