Twitter Outreach and K-12 Social Studies: a Practical Overview

Jamie Lee Marks, Center for Latin American Studies at Vanderbilt

University
Supplemental Materials
Here I have included a list of suggested starter #hashtags and accounts to
follow. This is just the beginning! There is a wealth of resources available
more tailored to your specific wants and needs. Check out educators
blogging about who to follow in your state, and compling lists of bests
accounts for new teachers, etc., that can give you a good idea of who you
should also follow to be part of the conversation. I have also included the
short user-manual I share with graduate assistants at Vanderbilt CLAS in case
its helpful! Happy Tweeting!
Hashtags to use and follow
#sschat Social Studies chat (Monday nights 7-8pm ET)
#socialstudies General social studies
#history General history stuf
#apush Advanced Placement history
#ushistory United States history
#civics Government and civics teaching
#apgov Advanced Placement government
#historychat History chats
#historyteacher History instruction
#geographyteacher Geography instruction
#edchat (Tuesdays at 12pm and 7pm ET)
#edumatch
#FutureReady (edtech)
#WhatIsSchool (Thursdays at 7ET)
#Learning
#Education
Accounts to Follow, Retweet, and Tag
1. Institutions you collaborate with locally, regionally, and nationally
2. Other departments at your institution
3. Local public school accounts (try to search the district name and
Twitter on Google)
4. Add schools and local educators whenever you find them, but if you
need to streamline your Twitter reading for reposting, create lists of
users by theme in your account
Specific to Social Studies
5. @NCSSNetwork National Council for the Social Studies
6. @facinghistory Facing History and Ourselves

7. @burgessdave Teacher/speaker, author of Teach Like a PIRATE.

8. @TheNewsLP The News Literacy Project
9. @icivics
10.
@amhistorymuseum, the @Smithsonians National Museum of
American
11.
@mseideman #sschat contributer, and history teacher with
many followers
12.
@SmithsonianEdu Resources for teachers and their classrooms
from the Smithsonian Institution.
13.
@Ron_Peck AP US, AP World History Teacher & tech integrator.
Co-Creator of #sschat & EdcampSS.
14.
@TeachingLC Teaching with the Library of Congress.
15.
@MrOttochian who participates in #edmodo and #sschat
16.
@EDSITEment Prize winning free high quality K-12 educational
resource from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Washington, D.C. edsitement.neh.gov
17.
@NatGeoEducation The official Twitter feed for National
Geographic Education.
18.
@NMAAHC Smithsonian National Museum of African American
History & Culture
19.
@NationalHistory
20.
@MHerczog President, National Council for the Social Studies.
21.
@ChoicesProgram As a program of Brown University, we seek to
empower young people with the skills & knowledge to be engaged
citizens, capable of addressing international issues. Providence, RI.
choices.edu
22.
@Histocrats Experienced #Educators & #History Enthusiasts
who share the joys of experiencing history & ways to bring that joy to
your life as well as the classroom. histocrats.blogspot.com
23.
@SHEG_Stanford Stanford History Education Group Charting the
future of teaching the past. Stanford, CA sheg.stanford.edu
Ed Chat Resources
Schedule for Ed chats on Twitter (search your state, regional focus, content
area, etc.)
https://sites.google.com/site/twittereducationchats/education-chat-official- list
Twitter Hashtags for Teachers: http://www.teachthought.com/twitterhashtags-for-teacher/
More Global Hashtags
http://www.edudemic.com/twitter-hashtags-now/

Vanderbilt Center for Latin American Studies Twitter One-Sheet Guide

Twitter management software and pages
I open all three in one Google Chrome Window while Im managing Twitter
1) To manage our individual account: Buferapp (same login as our Twitter
account)
a. Benefits: shortens links, schedules posts strategically, allows you to
load tweets for the future
2) If you want to manage your Twitter account alongside this account, I suggest
Tweetdeck
a. Benefitsyou can post things across selected accounts. These days if
you have a personal account and manage one or more institutional
account, this is essential.
b. What it cant do: shorten links (you need Bufer for that), schedule
posts (bufer).
c. If you are a MALAS student, you should be curating your own Twitter or
LinkedIn account to network/brand. Just a suggestion!
3) Twitter itselfuse this to check whats trending and search someones/an
institutions handle using the search feature before you post about it/him/her.
Its important to tag when possible!
Audiences
Scholarly: to tweet to/about academics/academic work about Latin America
across the disciplines (to cover that aspect of what CLAS does)
Teachers: K-16 teachers, TN and beyond! See Educator Twitter Guide for
more.
Public: events, news stories, and opportunities with CLAS or CLAS partners.
Reach out to Nashville, and prompt people to reach in! I
Strategies
-

Check out any trending items or holiday connections

o Ex: Junsa events in Peru in February that we might not celebrate here,
#TBT is essential, Valentines Day, holidays in Latin American countries
Event (two posts a day a few diferent days, one the day of)- reworded

News items (especially related to culture, social justice) - source of the news
item is important. For example many unofficial outlets reported on data from
Costa Ricas energy board, but they did not link back to the main press
release. Make sure to link the source itself so that we dont end up posting
information that may not be accurate. Use the same sense you would writing
an academic paper.
Be careful with Copyright
Include picture when you can/link when you can
If you retweet something that we could have tweeted (like a NYT link),
retweet and then set a tweet from us in a few hours
o When you retweet, you can either just hit retweet OR type RT @_______
and then the post! That helps us generate content and tag other folks.
Do not be afraid to program too may tweets. Unlike Facebook, more traffic is
generally better. If we say something important to us at 9, also program for
11:30/12, 5pm, 8pm, etc. Especially marketing or big news items. Shoot for
10-12 a day.