Discussions

• Your Name and Title: Jessie Arora, Founder TeacherSquare (More about me on my blog- http://edcrunch.org)

School, Library, or Organization Name: TeacherSquare.org

Co-Presenter Name(s): Lisa Dabbs (Educational Administration. B.A. in Child Development Educational Coach Consultant(Former School Principal of 14 years.)Edutopia.org Blogger and Group Administrator of New Teacher Connections Group.http://www.edutopia.org/blog/7360)

Country from Which You Will Present: USA

Language in Which You Will Present: English

Target Audience (such as primary school teachers, high school administrators, students, etc.):

Teachers, tech leaders, library and media directors, professional development coordinators

Short Session Description (one line): Twitter...Blogs...Google+, oh my! Let's start at the beginning. Come learn the basics of tapping into online communities and digital tools to grow your PLN.

Full Session Description (one paragraph minimum):

Many teachers have heard about the amazing conversations happening on Twitter and other social media communities, yet it can be overwhelming to jump into that process. This session is designed to support teachers who are new to social media and provide them with tangible tools and strategies to begin building their PLN online. From tips on optimizing the early Twitter user's experience, understanding hashtags and chats, to thinking about other online communities and how best to access and share expertise. The promise of technology is to increase efficiency and save teachers time, yet often times the implementation and deeper integration can be incredibly time consuming. We have seen many teachers utilize Twitter, blogs, Google+ and other sites to improve this process and TeacherSquare strives to bring more teachers into the online conversation to share expertise and connect with other educators who are learning and growing, just like them.

TeacherSquare has hosted several offline events in the Bay Area to co-create a community of educators who are using technology to improve their teaching practice and want to share those insights with others. We are in the process of piloting a few events with educators in India and are looking forward to growing our offline and online community efforts.

I will also create a LiveBinder or other centralized online resource to share key takeaways with participants and general conference attendees.

Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:

http://TeacherSquare.org (and the TeacherSquare Lounge- coming soon!)