Sunday, April 27, 2014

Twitter Hashtags




Starting a New #Hashtag

Twitter is my virtual staffroom. It helps me keep up with latest trends and ongoing professional discourse. The benefits of this tool as PD inspired me to start the #ontsshg hashtag that would focus a discussion with fellow educators around Social Studies/History & Geography (SSHG). Specifically, the chat was created to have a professional dialogue around the implementation of Ontario’s SSHGcurriculum document September 2014.  Using hashtags on twitter is a way to search for tweets that have a common topic and it’s a great place for people to connect,  share ideas, questions, and resources.



The tools and strategies presented in the SSHG document are for some of us, a shift in teaching and learning.  The focus is on: the inquiry process, concepts of disciplinary thinking and the citizenship education framework.  Using twitter and the #ontsshg hashtag is a vehicle to support the shift in pedagogical thinking with educators. 



#ontsshg meet on Twitter every second Thursday at 9:00pm with a variety of topics related to Social Studies, History & Geography. This has opened up a whole new way of sharing, not just with Ontario teachers but also with teachers from around the world. At times, we’ve even teamed up with other professional discussions that are connected to our topic and created the #inqsshg hashtag. In general, the use of #ontsshg has provided educators with great discussions, ideas and resources related to the document. Topics such as; the inquiry approach (which continues to be a hot topic), historical thinking concepts and citizenship education have generated links to resources, questions and ideas from a variety of people.

Please consider joining #ontsshg for a rich discussion around Social Studies/History and Geography -SSHG on alternate Thursday at 9:00 PM EST.