Have you been on Periscope? If not, what are you waiting for?! Periscope is getting to be the must-have app for teachers and teacher-bloggers! Let me tell you a little about my Periscope journey and why you just might be missing out if you haven’t at least watched some scopes!
Last summer was the first time I heard about Periscope. I was in Vegas for the TPT Sellers conference and there was a little talk about it there. Then, I was in Dallas for the Jamberry conference and while I was waiting in line, a girl in front of me was scoping right there. So I decided I had better get on it, and tried to download it. Problem- my 3 year old smart phone was not smart enough for it – ie did not have enough memory. So guess what, after I got home, I got a new phone and downloaded the app. Then… I didn’t do anything! Haha!
But in the fall, I watched my first scope and then after Christmas I realized I needed to turn notifications on so I knew when folks were scoping. So in the past month I bet I have watched about 2 dozen scopes from other teachers. Then in a Facebook group, Jen Jones (Hello Literacy) challenged us to get out there and start scoping ourselves and she even did a scope about it too. So I said, well, vacation is coming up – what can I scope about. I finally broke into the world of scoping with one featuring a tip I have for organizing all that incomplete student work (find that here in this blog post). Tonight I scoped about 5 things you need to do to get ready for the end of the year, because we all know it comes really fast, right? Check it out below!
So here is why you, if you’re a teacher, blogger or both, have to get on Periscope. It is an endless source of great PD! There are so many amazing Teacher scopers and they have tons of ideas! I have watched scopes on how to organize all your paperwork, how to get a math center board set up, how to motivate students, how to creatively assess students and more! And for the blogger and TPTer side of me I watched scopes on how to optimize your TPT hashtags, how to track your product statistics, and more. Listen, we all have sat through PD at our schools that meant well, but was boring and not immediately applicable to us. BUT with Periscope, you can get the PD you want and if you miss the live cast, you can watch the replay a little later. Plus, Scopers like me who use katch to save their broadcasts or save it to their phones and upload to blogs, allow you to watch them any time. How can you go wrong?
So who would I recommend on Periscope? Here are my top five favorite teacher Scopers as of today (more people are joining and scoping all the time so I bet I will have a new list next week!):
I have to put the amazing Barbara Balius first because hers was the first scope I ever watched so it really got the ball rolling for me. And Ashley Schroeder is so positive, and she scopes a lot, she is probably my most watched Scoper (I feel like I am just making up Periscope related words tonight)!
Then we have my fellow redhead Tabitha of FlapJack Educational Resources who has terrific ideas and is really savvy about technology in the classroom AND my friend Sarah who is an up and coming Scoper with the blog Science is for Kids. She has great, fun, and inspiring science activities and I can’t wait to see her scopes. (by the way, don’t worry, I do follow Flap Jack but when I was clicking around I accidentally unfollowed her OOPS).
Then we have the Whimsical Teacher who is SO fun and unique and she scopes a lot! Lots of great ideas for both teachers and teacher bloggers AND Tabitha gets a second shout out for her Smartphone Marketing School account which has amazing tips for entrepreneurs.
And don’t miss the iteachtvnetwork periscope channel! Some amazing teacher bloggers are broadcasting tips and advice multiple times a day here! Don’t miss out!
Finally of course there is me! Stop by and follow me and stay tuned for more fun scopes from me! It’s a really cold night out there for many of us so stay warm y’all! It’s supposed to be -13 here and I have been without hot water all day because the pipes froze. Be careful everyone! And don’t forget to visit everyone else in the link up to see who we love to follow on Periscope and get our thoughts on this trending app!
