My favorite organizational tools for organizing blogs is Feedly.
This resource is unmatched in showing me the latest and greatest from my fellow art teachers. Once you create an account, you tell Feedly which blogs you'd like updates from. Since I am an art teacher, I have a select group of teachers I enjoy learning from. I can easily see the newest, latest posts from these teachers on their blogs in one simple place. In the image below, you can see how the new articles are displayed from the chosen followed blogs.
I find this especially helpful for catching up after a long week. I don't feel as though I need to check each site, but learn from the descriptions which area is most relevant for me.
Let's talk about Twitter.
Twitter has been a tool I've avoided for quite some time. I was afraid of oversharing, over notifications, and over stimulation. With a twitter handle now, I am feeling more in control over my time tweeting, my moments enjoying others tweets, and figuring out how to make the best use of my time. The best way to save time is to make sure you are following only the individuals or companies you actually want to hear from. Extraneous follows simply get in the way of great inspiration!
One of my favorite ways to use Twitter is to receive quotes and images I can quickly scroll through. I truly enjoy only having a few characters aloud. I get lost deep in the depths of Facebook occasionally when I intended to simply read one person's quote. I feel I have much more self control with my time and sharing with Twitter.
It is true I have barely scratched the surface with Twitter's possibilities, yet my brain goes wild with imagination of real-time art critiques, student shows, links to art room needs, and amazing ways to share a connection with my students' families from home. The beauty of Twitter is the instant updates and no need for sending paper newsletters home, but simply keeping families continually informed. I dream of announcing an artist of the month for each grade level by tweeting the results including images of the students' artwork with permission. I hope to work on this during the schoolyear to motivate quality results and grand imaginations in my students.
For help on getting started with Twitter, check out this video on Twitter in Education.
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