Homework #1

Are you all ready for your first homework assignment? You are? Good!

Tonight Gove will be on BBC Question Time. This is a great opportunity to use social media to get across our message. Strike action starts next week and there will undoubtedly be some negative media coverage. Here's a chance for us to take charge and get our voice heard.

The main way we will be doing this is by using Twitter and trying to create a Twitter storm. Don't worry if you don't have a Twitter account and don't want to open one. There are other ways for you to help get the message across and we'll talk about those in a bit. 

If you use Twitter then tonight (Thursday 26th September) we need you to be online when BBC Question Time starts at 2235. The minute the programme starts we need you to start tweeting. All messages should have two hashtags in them: #teacherROAR & #BBCQT

Each tweet should contain a brief message that will start either "I'm striking because..." or "I support teachers because..."e.g.

• I'm striking because I want education policy to be based on evidence and research #teacherROAR #BBCQT
• I'm striking because our children are over-tested and stressed #teacherROAR #BBCQT
• I'm striking because I want our children to have a 21C education, not a Victorian one #teacherROAR #BBCQT
• I'm striking because I want to work with my colleagues not be pitted against them #teacherROAR #BBCQT
• I'm striking because I can't teach until I'm 68 #teacherROAR #BBCQT
• I'm striking because Gove is destroying education #teacherROAR #BBCQT
• I support teachers because I don't want kids told they're in bottom 10% #teacherROAR #BBCQT
• I support teachers because I trust them. I don't trust Gove! #teacherROAR #BBCQT
• I support teachers because they are professionals and Gove should listen to them  #teacherROAR #BBCQT
• I support teacher because they know what's best for kids, not Gove #teacherROAR #BBCQT

You get the general idea right? Make up your own or use the examples above. It's worth preparing a few tweets and saving them as drafts on your phone or computer so you can whack them out one after the other. Retweets don't count. But this is an occasion where it's perfectly acceptable to cut and paste others' tweets without crediting them. It's the number of original tweets that counts towards creating a Twitter storm and getting the #teacherROAR trending.

Please alert others on Twitter who might want to join in.

How can you help if you don't have Twitter?

1. If you have Facebook you can post your messages about why you're striking, or why you support the teachers on the BBC Question Time Facebook page here 
2. Don't have a smartphone? You can still use your mobile to text Question Time. Details on how to are here

And remember this all starts DEAD ON 2235 tonight (26/9) when BBC Question Time starts. And we hammer the message home for an hour until Question Time finishes at 2335.

OK teachers and teachers allies, you have your instructions. Let's make that Teacher ROAR good and loud! Let's make the BBC Question Time venue SHAKE! Until tonight!