Twitter for Teachers

Last year, as the Twitter craze started cresting, I was thinking about the use of Twitter for a teacher.  I understand that the use of Twitter is an odd cat...  Do we really care as a people what Ashton Kutcher is doing at each point in time?  And don't even get me started on why Ashton kutcher is such a big deal anyway...

Regardless, for those who have been skeptical about Twitter, think of using it as a mass text message that can be accessed from any computer, or SmartPhone.  So last spring, I started using Twitter to send out homework updates.  The reception was met with a deafening silence.  I only had 6 followers by the end of the year, out of 120 students. 

However, the potential was still there, and starting a new year filled me with a renewed optimism, especially as news organizations, and even the Waterford School District started "tweeting" updates.  I convinced my team that Twitter was easy (necessary for my non-geek teammates) so they bought in, and we put a blurb in the team newsletter.  We also put our Twitter handles in any email that gets sent out to parents.

Everyday now, we post up a note about the homework & agenda for the day.  We have 54 out of 125 followers (not bad).  At the bottom of this blog you can see the kind of information we post to parents.  We run about 2/3 students & 1/3 parents as followers.

The problem is that, while we know who our followers are, we cannot tell how often they check.  I'm sure Twitter data will be forthcoming, but if there are other geeks out there who knkow a quick, easy and (most importantly) free way to do this, please comment below.