I’ve always been uncomfortable with using student images out of school while being thrilled to use them in school. Then came GDPR. I’m in Europe teaching at an American International school in beautiful Vienna, Austria. One exceptionally beautiful morning the law went into effect and the rules for using photos and videos of students has changed. Parents get the legal right to consent and our use is limited. This is important because it confirms how squeamish I get about posting pictures of students and how squeamish I sometimes feel when I see Teacher Twitter pump out images of students just trying to be students.

The large smiles that have a hint of being uncomfortable or seem like they are bing asked to perform for the camera are both enjoyable to see great teachers working with their students and also hard to stomach knowing that students are sometimes asked to perform when they would rather not. Yet, I see this all the time with some Twitter educators that I respect and that I appreciate their content from and I also see it with some of the more popular, attention seeking (edu-pirate) Twitter folks as well.

So, can educators do a great job Tweeting with words alone? Yes, of course. I generally see this with folks who can distill down a student interaction or event to its most important part and who do so with a sense of respect and care for the essence of the student. Sheri blasts out a great example about how to do this well, on the regular. This is what I need to learn from, how I will hope to spread what works well or not at all.