Helping Educators Take the Mystery out of Twitter
A Boston teacher explains how hashtags helped him find a network of educators on Twitter and how others can start using it.
Twitter hashtags for teachers once made finding colleagues easy. See where educator networks gather now and how to start your own with a few steps.
John Padula, an educational technology specialist in the Brookline Public Schools, wrote this guide in 2015 to show how hashtags help teachers find colleagues on Twitter. A new section below explains how that has changed now that Twitter is X, and how a teacher can build a learning network today.
If I told you there was a global network of passionate educators available to converse with you — on any subject and at any time — would you be interested? What if I told you this amazing worldwide network was also free? Would that peak your interest?
by John Padula
If you think such an environment can’t possibly exist, it can and it does — right on Twitter.
Now, I’m not talking about the “What did Kim Kardashian have for breakfast?” I’m talking about a facet of Twitter that doesn’t get enough exposure in the media. Every day, every minute, thousands of educators are conversing on Twitter. Within those brief 140-character messages, lesson plans are being swapped, strategies are being discussed, issues are being raised, and passionate educators, mainly those in the trenches, are responding with expertise, thoughtfulness, and compassion.
Editor’s note (2026): Twitter, now called X, has since raised the 140-character limit described here.
A Teacher’s Twitter Story
Let me share my Twitter story:
Four years ago, I reached a crossroads in my teaching career. As I finished my fifth year in Boston teaching Social Studies, I was informed that next year I was going to be the only Social Studies teacher in our middle school. Up to this point, I had been solely responsible for seventh and eighth grade Social Studies. Now, I would be taking on grade six as well. In essence, I was going to be the entire middle school Social Studies “department” for the foreseeable future. I felt like I was being marooned on an island without a Friday to keep me company. In past years, I had tried connecting with other teachers in the district, but there was always something that prevented any sustained discussions on lessons, resources, or ideas. Now, with a third curriculum to teach, I was going to be that much more isolated from teachers who might help me plan and strategize.
In the midst of this upheaval, I attended a two-day seminar on educational technology, which included a segment on Twitter. We dutifully signed up for an account during the class and our instructor walked us through some simple activities within Twitter: We read messages, sent our first message (called a ‘Tweet”) and replied to each other — all in all, nothing very spectacular. Then, we were introduced to the concept of a hashtag, and my perspective on Twitter changed forever.
How Hashtags Work
For those that may have heard the word “hashtag” and wondered what all the fuss is about, let me explain. Twitter messages get sent out mainly as broadcasts. If you log into Twitter and just watch your incoming message window, you can see just about any message that gets sent. Twitter realized that this was way too much information to take in (and who would really want to see so much stuff?), so they allow users to label their messages by including a descriptive tag. This tag can be any combination of letters and numbers, but it has to be preceded by a “#” (or hash) symbol. The “#”, together with the tag that follows, is called a “hashtag” by Twitter users.
So, why bother with a hashtag? It’s just a way to label your message so that other users know what it’s about. Consider the following messages that a history teacher might send on Twitter:
“Anyone have a good explanation of the US Constitution’s fifth amendment for a third grader?”
and
“Anyone have a good explanation of the US Constitution’s fifth amendment for a third grader? #Civics”
In both examples, the message is broadcast to the Twitter universe, and it asks the same question. However, the second message includes a “#Civics” hashtag to alert Twitter users that this message pertains to civics.
Filtering Twitter by Hashtag
Hashtags become powerful because users can filter the Twitter messages they see and one type of filter involves hashtags. As a civics teacher, I am always on the lookout for anything interesting related to civics. Rather than read every Twitter message and try to pick out the ones that involve civics, I simply ask Twitter to only show me messages that include the hashtag “#Civics”. I do this by entering “#Civics” in the Twitter search bar. This lets me skip so much of the social media-type messages that are flying around on Twitter and allows me to concentrate on just what interests me.
When I searched on “#Civics” today, here’s just a sampling of what filled my screen in about 5 seconds:
- a link to an article on state-mandated civics tests
- a mention of civics requirements for third graders in Alabama
- an exchange on what a ’filibuster’ is
- a link to a new online civics activity
- mention of a new study guide for the AP US Government exam
Can you imagine what you might find if you searched on “#ELA”, or “#Geometry”, or “#ESL”, or “#AmericanHistory”? Beyond the rich content that would certainly appear, the real magic of Twitter comes from coming into contact with educators who share your interests, who want to share their ideas, and who will often lend an ear to issues you might raise.
From that one technology seminar, I began to devote 20-30 minutes a few evenings a week to exploring Twitter: Searching, reading and, over time, even responding to questions raised by other educators. I found hundreds of Social Studies teachers who were willing to share their knowledge, expertise and common sense with me. Over time, I built up a network of educators that I converse with — some from as far away as Australia. Their insights and ideas continue to make me a better teacher today.
Getting Started With Educational Hashtags
What can you do? If you’re not already on Twitter, consider creating an account today. Think about what topics are most important to you and come up with a few hashtags to explore. (If you want to see a list of about a thousand well-known educational hashtags, visit Jerry Blumengarten’s hashtag page.)
Once you’ve found a few tags that resonate with you, try a few searches and see what appears. You will be amazed at how many of those Tweets — and those educators — are relevant to your teaching world. Reach out to them and get the full impact of Twitter. When you share ideas with other passionate educator, your own drive and enthusiasm will be recharged, and we could all use a lot more of that!
If you get stuck or need help, or would like to let me know what happens with your own adventures in Twitter – feel free to contact me at @PadulaJohn (on Twitter, of course!)
The opinions expressed here are solely those of John Padula.
Twitter hashtags for teachers in 2026: what has changed since John Padula’s 2015 guide
Twitter hashtags for teachers worked, in John Padula’s account above, as a simple filter: add a tag such as #Civics to a question, search the same tag later, and find educators who care about the same subject. That method still makes sense, but the setting around it has changed. Twitter is now called X, and a portion of the educators who built their learning networks there have looked for other places to meet. This section covers what is known about that shift, how the hashtag idea has carried over, and how a teacher can start a professional learning network today.
Where educators have gone
Education Week reporter Lauraine Langreo wrote in December 2024 that some educators were trying Bluesky, an alternative to X, to rebuild professional learning networks they had formed on Twitter. At least 2,700 educators had signed up as of December 17, according to a shared spreadsheet of usernames, and Twitter-style weekly educator chats had begun to reappear there. The same report found that Threads had not caught on with educators’ networks after more than a year, and that Mastodon, like other Twitter alternatives, had not drawn nearly as much attention as Twitter. These are journalists’ observations of a fast-moving group, not a count of all teachers, and the situation may differ in a particular school or subject.
A 2025 survey gives a wider but narrower picture. David Shiffman and Julia Wester asked 813 scientists, science communicators and educators who used both X and Bluesky for work about their experience. In coverage of the study in Integrative and Comparative Biology, about three-quarters said X had become much less useful for networking and science communication. The authors note that the survey reached only people who had switched or used both platforms and was shared mainly through one author’s network, so it cannot speak for K-12 teachers or for everyone who stayed on X.
How the hashtag idea carries over
Educators interviewed by Langreo described two tools that do the work hashtags did. A custom feed is a stream of posts on a topic that anyone can follow; one example the report cites for education is #EduSky, which the article describes as a feed and not as a hashtag. A starter pack is a bundle of accounts a person can follow in one step, such as the one educational technology specialist Eric Curts made for the attendees of a January conference. Weekly chats, the structured conversations that many teachers know from Twitter, have also reappeared. For a teacher in Padula’s position, the lone social studies teacher in a middle school, a starter pack or a topic feed offers the same first step: find the people who already discuss your subject.
Starting a learning network now
- Choose two or three topics before choosing a platform, as Padula suggests, such as a subject, a grade band or a role like instructional coach.
- Ask colleagues and conference organizers where their discussions happen. Langreo’s report notes that educators often post the same content on several platforms to reach more people, so one account rarely captures everything.
- Look for a starter pack or topic feed in your area, follow a handful of accounts, and read for a few weeks before posting. Padula spent 20 to 30 minutes a few evenings a week, and a modest routine like that is easier to keep than daily scrolling.
- Join one chat at its scheduled time, answer a question, and follow two or three people whose replies were useful.
- Keep a way to reach your contacts that does not depend on one platform. Curts, the technology specialist in the Education Week report, keeps an email list for that reason.
- Check your district’s social media policy first, and leave student names, photographs and other identifying details out of public posts unless your district and families have approved them.
Padula’s reason for joining remains the best one: a teacher with no colleagues teaching the same course can find them elsewhere. The platform used for that matters less than the habit of asking questions, answering other teachers’ questions and learning from the replies. For the wider picture of how schools support teacher learning, see edCircuit’s professional development guide. Other edCircuit pieces on the same theme include Using Twitter to Supercharge Your Professional Development and Students Are Waiting on Teachers to Join the EdTech Movement, and the digital citizenship guide covers responsible online conduct for staff and students.
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